Criseyde, Cassandre, and the 'Thebaid': Women and the Theban Subtext of Chaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde'

Author / Editor
Sanok, Catherine.

Title
Criseyde, Cassandre, and the 'Thebaid': Women and the Theban Subtext of Chaucer's 'Troilus and Criseyde'

Published
Studies in the Age of Chaucer 20 (1998): 41-71.

Description
Explores the allusions to Statius's "Thebaid" in TC and identifies several structural similarities between the poems. Criseyde's reading of the epic and Cassandre's summary of it depict female consciousness of history and awareness of the significance of martial violence. In some ways like both Amphiaraus and Hypsipyle of the "Thebaid," and linked genealogically with "'both' sides of the Theban war," Criseyde reflects the poignancy of historical contingency.

Chaucer Subjects
Troilus and Criseyde.
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations..