The Fourth Temple of 'The Knight's Tale': Athenian Clemency and Chaucer's Theseus
- Author / Editor
- Anderson, David.
The Fourth Temple of 'The Knight's Tale': Athenian Clemency and Chaucer's Theseus
- Published
- John V. Fleming and Thomas J. Heffernan, eds. Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Proceedings, No. 2, 1986. (Knoxville, Tenn.: New Chaucer Society, 1987), pp. 113-25.
- Description
- Anderson examines Chaucer's use of Statius's "Thebaid," specifically the description of the temple of the goddess Clemence, within medieval traditions that saw her temple as a "type of foreshadowing of the Church," associated with the "Unknown God." Medieval commentators found "Statius's description of Athenian clemency and the temple dedicated to it so congenial as to identify it not with idolatry but with the true faith." Chaucer's opening scene in KnT reflects Statius's description of the temple.
- Alternative Title
- Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Proceedings, No. 2 (1986)
- Chaucer Subjects
- Knight and His Tale.