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Dec. 25th, 2009 10:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
polutropeBecause I am a giant nerd and therefore must read anything that has four (at least!) operas based on it, I finished all of Orlando furioso. For one thing, as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dolique said the other day, classics are more ridiculous than people think. St. John the Baptist guides Astolfo to the moon to get Orlando's lost wits (because the moon is where things that are lost on earth go, you see)! There's a hippogriff! Melissa the Enchantress (Merlin's sister!) interferes in Bradamante and Ruggiero's love life all the time! Speaking of Merlin, he tells Bradamante all about her illustrious future progeny, including the Estes, Ariosto's patrons - while she's trapped in a pit! Why? I have no idea!
But anyway, there are two things that stand out: The Trojan theme and Ariosto's relation to women. On the first: Since before Vergil, people have been claiming Trojan ancestry (the Norse did it, in fact, and identify Odysseus with Loki, which is fascinating). There are plenty of reasons for this, in the Renaissance especially: Greece was conquered and failing, Rome did it, Hector is probably the most noble character in Homer. This also leads Renaissance authors to vilify Greek heroes, which, predictably enough, Ariosto does* - but he also consigns Aeneas to a low place in Hell for abandoning Dido.
Which brings us to women. Two of the about twenty (I am not even joking) main characters are warrior women. No one really says anything about this - it's just sort of taken for granted. For the most part, women at least try to get out of their problems on their own; if Orlando, or Astolfo, or Rinaldo, or Gradasso (I told you there were lots of characters) aids them, it's because they are the preux chevaliers and knights errant: it's what they do. There's very little sense that women as a class are helpless. He also acknowledges female sexuality and tells a humorous canto-long anecdote about a wife, caught in infidelity, who tests her husband and finds that he too is unfaithful. His views seem to be fairly similar to Dan Savage's, actually: to cheat is human, essentially. Women do it; men do it more, he claims. All in all, it's rather advanced for the 15th century.
Also, it was really fun! if you ever have a lot of time on your hands, I recommend it.
--
*Although mainly in the passage about the power of poets and thus the importance of having a good one, like me, because you don't want to be forgotten, do you now, Signore d'Este?
dolique said the other day, classics are more ridiculous than people think. St. John the Baptist guides Astolfo to the moon to get Orlando's lost wits (because the moon is where things that are lost on earth go, you see)! There's a hippogriff! Melissa the Enchantress (Merlin's sister!) interferes in Bradamante and Ruggiero's love life all the time! Speaking of Merlin, he tells Bradamante all about her illustrious future progeny, including the Estes, Ariosto's patrons - while she's trapped in a pit! Why? I have no idea!But anyway, there are two things that stand out: The Trojan theme and Ariosto's relation to women. On the first: Since before Vergil, people have been claiming Trojan ancestry (the Norse did it, in fact, and identify Odysseus with Loki, which is fascinating). There are plenty of reasons for this, in the Renaissance especially: Greece was conquered and failing, Rome did it, Hector is probably the most noble character in Homer. This also leads Renaissance authors to vilify Greek heroes, which, predictably enough, Ariosto does* - but he also consigns Aeneas to a low place in Hell for abandoning Dido.
Which brings us to women. Two of the about twenty (I am not even joking) main characters are warrior women. No one really says anything about this - it's just sort of taken for granted. For the most part, women at least try to get out of their problems on their own; if Orlando, or Astolfo, or Rinaldo, or Gradasso (I told you there were lots of characters) aids them, it's because they are the preux chevaliers and knights errant: it's what they do. There's very little sense that women as a class are helpless. He also acknowledges female sexuality and tells a humorous canto-long anecdote about a wife, caught in infidelity, who tests her husband and finds that he too is unfaithful. His views seem to be fairly similar to Dan Savage's, actually: to cheat is human, essentially. Women do it; men do it more, he claims. All in all, it's rather advanced for the 15th century.
Also, it was really fun! if you ever have a lot of time on your hands, I recommend it.
--
*Although mainly in the passage about the power of poets and thus the importance of having a good one, like me, because you don't want to be forgotten, do you now, Signore d'Este?
