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| Roman de Troie | |
|---|---|
| Name | Roman de Troie |
| Author | Benoît de Sainte-Maure (attributed) |
| Country | Angevin Empire |
| Language | Old French |
| Subject | Trojan War, Aeneid, Homer |
| Genre | Romance, epic, chanson de geste |
| Pub date | 12th century |
Roman de Troie
The Roman de Troie is a 12th-century Old French narrative poem that retells the Trojan War saga through a medieval romance lens. Attributed to the Norman poet Benoît de Sainte-Maure, it integrates traditions from Homer, Virgil, Dares Phrygius, Dictys Cretensis, and the Epic cycle, and it influenced later writers such as Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chrétien de Troyes, Boccaccio, and Dante Alighieri. Its composition and transmission intersect with courts and cultures including Anjou, Normandy, Aquitaine, Plantagenet, and Capetian milieus.
The poem survives in multiple medieval manuscripts copied across France, England, Italy, and the Low Countries, reflecting patronage by aristocratic houses like Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II of England, Marie de France, Louis VII of France, and the House of Anjou. Manuscript witnesses include illustrated codices linked to scriptoria in Chartres, Tours, Bayeux, Rouen, Amiens, Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge. The poem circulated alongside vernacular works such as Brut, Chanson de Roland, Cycle de la Vengeance, Roman de Brut, and texts in collections associated with monastic scriptoria and urban workshops influenced by Richard the Lionheart and Eleanor of Aquitaine patronage networks.
Medieval ascriptions credit Benoît de Sainte-Maure, a poet connected to the Angevin court and possibly to Mont-Saint-Michel or Sainte-Maure. Internal clues and intertextual links to Chrétien de Troyes, Wace, and Marie de France place composition in the 1160s–1180s during the reigns of Louis VII and Henry II. Historical references resonate with events such as the Second Crusade, the politics of the Plantagenet Empire, and contemporary interest in classical revival among courtly patrons like Thomas Becket's milieu.
The poem recounts the fall of Troy from the arrival of Paris and Helen through episodes including the judgment of Paris, the duel of Meneleus and Paris, the exploits of Hector, the anger of Achilles, the embassy of Ulysses, and the stratagem of the Wooden Horse. It adapts episodes from the Iliad, the Aeneid, and the Epic Cycle, reworking characters such as Priam, Hecuba, Andromache, Patroclus, Ajax, Diomedes, Nestor, Agamemnon, and Cassandra. The narrative emphasizes amorous intrigue, familial conflict, and courtly values reflected in scenes with Helen of Troy, Paris, Oenone, and Trojan and Achaean courts, culminating in Troy’s destruction and the dispersal embodied later in traditions linked to Aeneas and the founding myths of Rome.
Benoît draws on exegetical and pseudo-historical authorities such as Dares Phrygius, Dictys Cretensis, and Latin summaries of Homer mediated through clerical and lay readerships. The poem also shows affinities with Virgil’s Aeneid, the Homeric Hymns, and the Epic Cycle, while incorporating medieval chronicle material exemplified by Geoffrey of Monmouth and vernacular retellings like Wace’s Roman de Brut. Courtly and clerical knowledge transmitted via monastic libraries, scholastic circles, and itinerant jongleurs shaped the selective adaptation of classical plots and character motivations.
Stylistically, the poem blends epic narration, courtly diction, and moral exempla using octosyllabic couplets common in Old French narrative practice alongside formulaic motifs from the chanson de geste and romance. Themes include love and honor as exemplified by courtly love figures, destiny and providence linked to classical fate narratives, the tension between heroic martial virtues and courtly refinement, and the mediation of pagan antiquity within a Christian cultural framework comparable to treatments by Dante Alighieri, Boccaccio, and Guido delle Colonne. The work negotiates gender roles through portrayals of Helen, Cassandra, and Hecuba, and explores political legitimacy resonant with dynastic concerns of Plantagenet and Capetian rulers.
The Roman de Troie shaped medieval and early modern receptions of Trojan material across vernacular and Latin literatures, influencing writers like Geoffrey Chaucer, Jean de Meun, Christine de Pizan, Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante Alighieri, Robert de Boron, and Guido delle Colonne. Its motifs transmitted via translations and adaptations into Middle English, Italian, Castilian, Catalan, and Occitan contributed to genealogical myths employed by dynasties such as the Plantagenets, Capetians, Aragonese, and Angevins. Scholars in the Renaissance, including Petrarch and Coluccio Salutati, engaged with medieval Trojan narratives as part of humanist recoveries of classical antiquity.
Modern scholarship has produced critical editions, translations, and studies by philologists and medievalists working at institutions like École des Chartes, Sorbonne University, Université de Paris, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Harvard University, University of Chicago, and Institute for Advanced Study. Editions draw on major manuscripts preserved in archives such as the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the British Library, the Vatican Library, and regional repositories in Rouen, Amiens, Chartres, and Poitiers. Key modern editors and commentators include figures associated with textual criticism, paleography, codicology, and comparative literature appreciative of links to Homer, Virgil, Dares Phrygius, and medieval chroniclers.
Category:Medieval literature Category:Old French literature Category:Trojan War in literature