Portraits de femmes chez Guido delle Colonne

Abstract

Guido delle Colonne, the author of “Historia destructionis Troiae”, writes in Latin prose the Roman de Troie in the late thirteenth century, and presents several portraits of women taking part or not in the ancient epic. We intend to study these female figures through different points of view : the aesthetic perspective of the presence of these women which gives an aspect perhaps more lyrical to a text often dry ; the narrative issue, too, of the function of women who play a role in the action and influence its course ; and finally the author’s personal judgements, insinuated or directly expressed through the personality or behaviour of his heroines. His conscious misogyny reflects the mentality of his time and is inherited from antiquity and the early Fathers.

Keywords

• Trojan War
• women
• beauty
• love
• power
• misogyny