DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.56731#0080
34-35- THE REVIVAL OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY
34. MYTHOLOGY: THE REVIVAL OF PAGAN GODS AND HEROES IN LITERATURE
1. Detail from a genealogical Roll of the Kings of England from Brutus to Edward I. End of the
thirteenth century. Executed for St. Mary’s, York. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. Rolls 3.
From the twelfth century onwards stories of the deeds of the Greek and Trojan heroes were
widely known in England mainly through the work of French epic poets. The history of Troy
even became connected with the genealogy of the Kings of England.
The scene represents the rape of Helen, the temple of Diana and Appollo from which Helen
was taken, and the Greek fleet sailing to Troy.
2, 3 and 4. Illustrations from Lydgate’s Fall of Princes.
Lydgate’s copious production must have done much to promote the taste for classical subjects
in England. Chaucer was his model for language and metre, and also for some of his subject
matter; his ultimate source, however, was Boccaccio, and what he learned from both his models
was not so much the gentle art of story-telling as that of using a classical story as a peg on which to
hang moral instruction. In De Casibus Virorum lllustrium, of which Lydgate’s Fall of Princes is a
translation, Boccaccio shows himself a powerful preacher with strong convictions on the vanity of
wordly splendour, the responsibilities of the rich, and the duties of the clergy. Some of this fervour
had evaporated before the book reached Lydgate, who translated it, not from the original, but from
a French version; like the Frenchman he did not rise above the level of rather trite moralizing.
The illustrations of Lydgate’s manuscripts match his text. There is a touch of humour in the
Orpheus picture (see 4), and some of the illustrations to the Fall of Princes are clever in their choice
of the most dramatic moments of the stories (see 2), but otherwise hardly anything remains of the
true pathos of the old myths.
A few pages have survived, of the only Lydgate manuscript which was illustrated by a genuine
artist (see f). It was written in the middle of the fifteenth century when Alberti, Donatello, and
Ghiberti were at work in the Florence of the Medici and when English scholars began to take
an interest in Italian humanism. The painting, however, shows no humanist influence, though
the choice of a good painter and of a classical subject heralds the coming of the Renaissance to
England.
2. Full page illustration from Lydgate’s Fall of Princes. About 1450. Oxford, Bodleian Library
MS. Bodl. 263, fol. yr.
Second row middle: Athamas braining the child Learchus.
Second row right: Erysichthon devouring his own limbs.
Third row middle: Althea lighting the firebrand which will end her son’s life.
Third row right: Hercules on the pyre.
Bottom row left: Narcissus who scorns the love of the nymph Echo, but falls in love with
the reflection of his own face in the water.
The classical scenes are mingled with biblical ones, Adam and Eve, the Tower of Babel,
Noah’s Ark, Samson in the Temple, etc.
5. Saturn. From Lydgate’s Fall of Princes. About 1450. British Museum MS. Sloane 2452, fol. 3V.
Saturn is seen devouring one of his children, whilst on the right three others are standing naked.
The picture illustrates a number of scenes from Lydgate’s Book V. The artist was more interested
in the decorative quality of his painting than in telling the stories pointedly and clearly.
4. Orpheus. From Lydgate’s Fall of Princes. About 1450. British Museum MS. Harley 1766,
fol. 76V.
Orpheus was killed by the women because he despised their company after the loss of Eurydice.
5. Perseus. From an English translation of Christine de Pisan’s Epitre d’Othea. 1450-60. Cam-
bridge, St. John’s College MS. 208, fol. gr.
In the literature of the Middle Ages Perseus appears in two different roles: as a constellation
in the sky, and as a hero rescuing Andromeda from the Sea Monster. As a constellation he was
represented in English manuscripts from the tenth century onwards (see 30), and the pictures of
him followed the classical tradition. As a hero, however, he did not occur in English painting
before the Renaissance. Ovid who tells the Perseus story was of course as much read in mediaeval
England as in the other European countries, though not illustrated here as on the Continent.
The text to which this illustration belongs was written by a woman scholar of Italian descent.
She lived at the French Court as a representative of the new learned literary movement, which
had started in Italy with Boccaccio. This movement soon reached England, and the French
manuscript from which the English translation was made is still in the Bodleian Library in Oxford
(MS. Laud. misc. 570). The illustrations, too, are based on French and not on classical models.
34. MYTHOLOGY: THE REVIVAL OF PAGAN GODS AND HEROES IN LITERATURE
1. Detail from a genealogical Roll of the Kings of England from Brutus to Edward I. End of the
thirteenth century. Executed for St. Mary’s, York. Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. Rolls 3.
From the twelfth century onwards stories of the deeds of the Greek and Trojan heroes were
widely known in England mainly through the work of French epic poets. The history of Troy
even became connected with the genealogy of the Kings of England.
The scene represents the rape of Helen, the temple of Diana and Appollo from which Helen
was taken, and the Greek fleet sailing to Troy.
2, 3 and 4. Illustrations from Lydgate’s Fall of Princes.
Lydgate’s copious production must have done much to promote the taste for classical subjects
in England. Chaucer was his model for language and metre, and also for some of his subject
matter; his ultimate source, however, was Boccaccio, and what he learned from both his models
was not so much the gentle art of story-telling as that of using a classical story as a peg on which to
hang moral instruction. In De Casibus Virorum lllustrium, of which Lydgate’s Fall of Princes is a
translation, Boccaccio shows himself a powerful preacher with strong convictions on the vanity of
wordly splendour, the responsibilities of the rich, and the duties of the clergy. Some of this fervour
had evaporated before the book reached Lydgate, who translated it, not from the original, but from
a French version; like the Frenchman he did not rise above the level of rather trite moralizing.
The illustrations of Lydgate’s manuscripts match his text. There is a touch of humour in the
Orpheus picture (see 4), and some of the illustrations to the Fall of Princes are clever in their choice
of the most dramatic moments of the stories (see 2), but otherwise hardly anything remains of the
true pathos of the old myths.
A few pages have survived, of the only Lydgate manuscript which was illustrated by a genuine
artist (see f). It was written in the middle of the fifteenth century when Alberti, Donatello, and
Ghiberti were at work in the Florence of the Medici and when English scholars began to take
an interest in Italian humanism. The painting, however, shows no humanist influence, though
the choice of a good painter and of a classical subject heralds the coming of the Renaissance to
England.
2. Full page illustration from Lydgate’s Fall of Princes. About 1450. Oxford, Bodleian Library
MS. Bodl. 263, fol. yr.
Second row middle: Athamas braining the child Learchus.
Second row right: Erysichthon devouring his own limbs.
Third row middle: Althea lighting the firebrand which will end her son’s life.
Third row right: Hercules on the pyre.
Bottom row left: Narcissus who scorns the love of the nymph Echo, but falls in love with
the reflection of his own face in the water.
The classical scenes are mingled with biblical ones, Adam and Eve, the Tower of Babel,
Noah’s Ark, Samson in the Temple, etc.
5. Saturn. From Lydgate’s Fall of Princes. About 1450. British Museum MS. Sloane 2452, fol. 3V.
Saturn is seen devouring one of his children, whilst on the right three others are standing naked.
The picture illustrates a number of scenes from Lydgate’s Book V. The artist was more interested
in the decorative quality of his painting than in telling the stories pointedly and clearly.
4. Orpheus. From Lydgate’s Fall of Princes. About 1450. British Museum MS. Harley 1766,
fol. 76V.
Orpheus was killed by the women because he despised their company after the loss of Eurydice.
5. Perseus. From an English translation of Christine de Pisan’s Epitre d’Othea. 1450-60. Cam-
bridge, St. John’s College MS. 208, fol. gr.
In the literature of the Middle Ages Perseus appears in two different roles: as a constellation
in the sky, and as a hero rescuing Andromeda from the Sea Monster. As a constellation he was
represented in English manuscripts from the tenth century onwards (see 30), and the pictures of
him followed the classical tradition. As a hero, however, he did not occur in English painting
before the Renaissance. Ovid who tells the Perseus story was of course as much read in mediaeval
England as in the other European countries, though not illustrated here as on the Continent.
The text to which this illustration belongs was written by a woman scholar of Italian descent.
She lived at the French Court as a representative of the new learned literary movement, which
had started in Italy with Boccaccio. This movement soon reached England, and the French
manuscript from which the English translation was made is still in the Bodleian Library in Oxford
(MS. Laud. misc. 570). The illustrations, too, are based on French and not on classical models.