Variorum Vitae: Theseus and the Arts of Mythography in Medieval and Early Modern Europe.
- Author / Editor
- Smith-Laing, Tim.
Variorum Vitae: Theseus and the Arts of Mythography in Medieval and Early Modern Europe.
- Published
- Ph.D. Dissertation. Oxford University, 2014. Dissertation Abstracts International C74.06. Fully accessible via https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:0f4305c6-3c62-4f89-a3b2-d8204893fdfb (accessed March 13, 2026).
- Physical Description
- xvi, 338 pp.
- Description
- Focuses on the "complex textual contingency" of the figure of Theseus in the "history of mythographical discourse," exploring "the fragmentary, fluid and polymorphous nature of mythology" in a wide variety of medieval and early modern texts--English, Italian, and French--and their classical intertexts. Includes comparison of Chaucer's tale of Theseus and Ariadne in LGW and Gower's in "Confessio Amantis" in light of Ovid's "Heroides," "Ovide Moralisé," and other versions. Also assesses Chaucer's role as one of several influences on Lydgate's presentation of Theseus in "Fall of Princes" and Shakespeare's in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
- Chaucer Subjects
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Chaucer's Influence and Later Allusion
Legend of Good Women
Knight and His Tale