The story with which Troilus is most famously associated comes not from the Graeco-Roman era but the medieval one. The biggest influence on this story was the Latin translations of Dictys and Dares. Until the Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries CE, the art of reading ancient Greek was largely lost in the Western world. Consequently the most important sources of Greek mythology—such as Homer’s epics—were not available to medieval authors, who had to rely on existing Latin versions of the story of the Trojan War. Although scholars argue that the literary value of the works by Dictys and Dares is limited, it is thought that they constituted an important source of information and inspiration for the medieval romances involving Troilus.
English poet Geoffrey Chaucer’s (c. 1342-1400) Troilus and Criseyde begins with the narrator sketching the background. Calchas, a Trojan priest, foresees that Troy will fall and therefore defects to the Greek camp, leaving his daughter Criseyde behind in the city. Troilus, a handsome and valiant Trojan prince, falls in love with Criseyde but has no idea how to pursue her. Meanwhile Criseyde, as a young widow, is concerned to maintain her chaste reputation. With the help of Criseyde’s uncle Pandarus, who is a good friend of Troilus and more than happy to act as a go-between, Troilus manages to visit Criseyde and win her heart. Their happiness, however, is short-lived: the Trojans lose a battle, and one of their elders, Antenor, is captured. In the Greek camp, Calchas reminds the Greeks that Troy will soon fall and asks them to ensure that his daughter will be reunited with him. The Greeks agree to trade Antenor for Criseyde. In the city, the news
Above: This fresco (c. 550—c. 520 BCE) depicts Troilus on horseback. The fresco comes from the Tomb of the Bulls in Tarquinia, Italy.
Comes as a devastating blow to the lovers, who are forced to remain silent about their affair: to reveal it would destroy Criseyde’s reputation. The exchange takes place and the pair separate, but only after Criseyde has promised that she will return within 10 days. Soon, however, Criseyde’s love for Troilus proves untrue. She accepts the advances of her Greek escort, Diomedes, and betrays Troilus for fear of being left without a protector. Not long afterward, Troilus is killed in battle. Chaucer, however, refuses to put all the
Blame on Criseyde, whom he considers equally with Troilus to be a victim of love and fortune: “I cannot find it in my heart to chide this hapless woman more than the story will; her name, alas, is punished far and wide, and that should be sufficient for the ill she did; I would excuse her for it still.”
Different Versions of Troilus and Criseyde
Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde was one of several versions of the story in the medieval period and later. Chaucer's lengthy poem, composed around 1385, was an adaptation of the work by Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), Il filostrato (The Love Struck). In turn, Boccaccio's poem was influenced by the 12th-century French poem Roman de Troie by Benoit de Sainte-Maure. This poem, which contains the earliest known version of the Troilus and Criseyde story, was a reworking of Homer's Iliad based on the works attributed to Dares the Phrygian and Dictys of Crete; it was also heavily influenced by the medieval society in which Benoit de Sainte-Maure lived.
In the late 15th century, at the end of the medieval period, Scottish poet Robert Henryson (c. 1425-c. 1508) took up the theme of the two lovers in The Testament of Cresseid, which forms a continuation of Chaucer's story. In Henryson's poem, after Cresseid (Criseyde) betrays Troilus, she is punished by the gods with leprosy. When Troilus finally meets her again he fails to recognize her in her diseased state. Shakespeare (1564-1616) also wrote a version of the story, Troilus and Cressida. While some scholars have compared this play unfavorably to his other works, others argue that it should be regarded as a clever alternative to, rather than a flawed example of, a classical tragedy.
Left: A 19th-century engraving depicting Cressida from Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida. The medieval character Cressida, or Criseyde, was based on the classical figure of Chryseis, who was captured by the Greeks. The revenge of her father, Chryses, had severe repercussions for the Greeks.
The love story of Troilus and Criseyde was a medieval invention. While the accounts by Chaucer and other writers (see box) were presented as an ancient tale, with characters’ names taken from the legend ofTroy, the passions of those characters and their interrelationships were very different from the Greek versions. For example, Criseyde can be identified as Chryseis, the daughter of the Trojan priest Chryses, but in the medieval story her father was a much more famous priest named Calchas. The fact that Calchas was actually a Greek priest seems not to have bothered the medieval audience—if they were even aware of such discrepancies. The Trojan War served merely as a setting for a typical medieval story in which everything revolved around the courtly love of the main characters. Although the Trojan heroes were valiant in battle, they put their romantic interests ahead of their exploits on the battlefield, and love became the main focus of the story.
Feyo Schuddeboom
Bibliography
Apohodorus, and Robin Hard, trans. The Library of Greek Mythology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Chaucer, and Nevill Coghill, trans. Troilus and Criseyde. London: Penguin, 1971.
Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. New York: Grand Central, 2011. Homer, and Robert Fagles, trans. The Iliad. New York: Penguin, 2009.
See also: Achilles: Hector; Hecuba; Priam.
World History
