The Legend of Thebes

FAIN: FT-10846-70

Paul M. Clogan
University of North Texas (Denton, TX 76203-5017)

Study of transmission and transformation of the ancient legend of Oedipus and the Seven Against Thebes from classical myth to medieval romance. Fellow to examine the text and illustrations of the French poetic Roman de Thebes and its prose adaptation in the Histoire Ancienne Jusqu'a Cesar. The Roman de Thebes was the chief channel of transmission of the classic story of Oedipus in the Middle Ages and exerted a major influence on later transformations of the legend in the writings of Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Lydgate. Study of Roman de Thebes is part of a larger study of legends of Thebes in Medieval literature which, when completed, will be the first book-length study of the subject since 1881.