From Knossos to Knight's Tale: The Changing Face of Chaucer's Theseus

Author / Editor
Storm, Melvin.

Title
From Knossos to Knight's Tale: The Changing Face of Chaucer's Theseus

Published
Jane Chance, ed. The Mythographic Art: Classical Fable and the Rise of the Vernacular in Early France and England (Gainesville, University of Florida Press, 1990), pp. 215-31.

Description
Examines the role of tone and narratorial voice in Chaucer's manipulations and distortions of the myth of Theseus in HF, Anel, LGW, and KnT. Theseus is vilified in HF and LGW as a betrayer of women; in KnT, he exemplifies mature "martialism untempered by venereal passion." The Knight as narrator "shows us the final and most positive face of Theseus."

Alternative Title
The Mythographic Art: Classical Fable and the Rise of the Vernacular in Early France and England.

Chaucer Subjects
Background and General Criticism.
House of Fame.
Legend of Good Women.
Anelida and Arcite.
Knight and His Tale.