Witches and Nature Control in the Palaiologan Romances and Beyond

Goldwyn, Adam J.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-69203-6_4

Adam J. Goldwyn³

Part of the book series: The New Middle Ages ((TNMA))

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Abstract

This chapter examines the marginalization and violence inflicted on the nature-controlling witches who appear in The War of Troy, Livistros and Rodamni, and Kallimachos and Chrysorroi. Through their magical interaction with nature, these witches possess a power that lies outside patriarchal control, thus requiring their execution as a way to restore social order. The differing treatment of Medea in the Greek War of Troy, its source, Benoît de Sainte-Maure’s Roman de Troie, and analogs such as Guido delle Colonne’s Historia Destructionis Troiae and John Lydgate’s Troy Book reveals how gendered and environmental ideologies are socially constructed through translation, while a diachronic investigation of the reception of Medea by contemporary feminist, postcolonial, and indigenous writers valorizes Medea’s resistance to patriarchy.

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Notes

1.
For an earlier examination of witches, witchcraft, and female sexuality in the works of the twelfth-century Cypriot monk Neophytos the Recluse, see Galatariotou, “Holy Women and Witches.” Though the overarching contours of patriarchal control over women’s power and their sexual agency (particularly with regards to the association of witchcraft/black magic with sexual promiscuity and holiness with virginity) have many similarities, the differences between theological writing such as Neophytos’ and the more secular romance tradition also suggest the limits of such a comparison.
2.
In Livistros and Rodamni, the magician seems at first to be a male merchant (L&R s1393; Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 147), though it is revealed later that he was actually just following the orders of the witch (L&R e2848; Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 154). The type of astrologer/magician described in the romances goes unmentioned in the major work on the subject, Magdalino and Mavroudi, Occult Sciences, which focuses mostly on more learned practitioners of the occult. See also Greenfield, “A Contribution,” 125.
3.
By contrast, see Digenis Akritis , where Digenis’ father the Emir , though an Arab , is depicted as white, thus marking his suitability (1.32). For the intersection of race, religion, and marriage in Byzantine and Western medieval romances, see also Goldwyn, “Interfaith Marriage.”
4.
L&R s1612; Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 152. Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, is a translation drawn from the four manuscripts published in Lambert, Le roman de Libistros; thus, I have followed him in putting the letter before the line number to refer to the manuscript in citations. Though the myriad textual problems with the manuscripts of the romances are beyond the scope of the current investigation, a few words on my choice of editions might also be included. A new edition of Kallimachos has been published in Romanzi cavallereschi bizantini: Callimaco e Crisorroe, Beltandro e Crisanza, Storia di Achille, Florio e Plaziaflore, Storia di Apollonio di Tiro, Favola consolatoria sulla Cattiva e la Buona Sorte, a cura di Carolina Cupane. Classici Greci: Autori della tarda antichità e dell’ età bizantina (Torino: Classici UTET, 1995). Two scholarly editions of Livistros have also been published: Ἀφήγησις Λιβίστρου καὶ Ροδάμνης. Κριτική ἔκδοση τῆς διασκευῆς α´, μὲ εἰσαγωγή, παραρτήματα καὶ εὑρετήριο λέξεων, ed. P.A. Agapitos, Βυζαντινή και Νεοελληνική Βιβλιοθήκη 9 (Athens: Cultural Foundation of the National Bank [MIET], 2006) and Livistros and Rodamni. The Vatican Version. Critical Edition with Introduction, Commentary and Index-Glossary, ed. T. Lendari, Athens: Βυζαντινή και Νεοελληνική Βιβλιοθήκη10, 2007. Though Beaton argues that “these will not fully supersede” the Lambert edition (Beaton, From Byzantium to Modern Greece , Chap. 13, n.3), a more detailed treatment of the variant manuscript tradition comparing MS V with MS S (part of the ‘A’ tradition published by Agapitos) might allow for an interesting analysis of the variation in these scenes in different versions of the same poem. Because, however, Lambert’s and Pichard’s editions offer good readings of the passages in question, and to make for easier comparison with the English translation in Betts (who also used Lambert and Pichard), I have opted to use these editions here. For Velthandros and Chrysandza, I follow Betts in using Kriaras, Βυζαντινὰ ἱπποτικὰ μυθιστορήματα, 1955.
5.
K&C 1066; Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 58.
6.
K&C 2578; Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 87.
7.
By contrast, the Emir in Digenis Akritis is described in the poem’s opening lines as: “οὐ μέλας ὡς Αἰθίοπε, ἀλλὰ ξανθός” (“not black like the Ethiopians, but fair and handsome” [DA.1.32]). The Emir turns out to be a good man, therefore he cannot have dark skin; the witches, however, turn out to be—at least according to the narrative logic of these texts—evil, and therefore must also be dark.
8.
L&R s1633.
9.
Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 152.
10.
L&R s1732.
11.
Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 154.
12.
L&R s1760.
13.
Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 155.
14.
L&R s1765; Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 155.
15.
L&R s2761.
16.
Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 175.
17.
K&C 1110; Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 58.
18.
Κ&C 1170.
19.
Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 60.
20.
K&C 2580.
21.
Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 87.
22.
Κ&C 2588.
23.
Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 87.
24.
L&R s.2767; Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 175.
25.
K&C 2585.
26.
Betts, Three Medieval Greek Romances, 87. Τhe irony of this diction is further enhanced when, five lines later, Kallimachos is “τὰ σίδηρα λυτρώσας,” which Betts translates as “freed […] from his chains,” a very different meaning than when applied to the witch, who is freed from life through immolation with the same verb.
27.
Jeffreys, “From Hercules to Erkoulios,” forthcoming.
28.
The new date is proposed in Jeffreys, “From Hercules to Erkoulios,” forthcoming, which also contains a discussion of the shift towards this earlier date from Jeffreys’ earlier suggestion of 1350 or, more generally, “the fourteenth century.”
29.
The Greek War of Troy is omitted from her analysis, an omission excusable in light of the fact that the first proper edition of the work came out the same year as her book.
30.
Morse, Medieval Medea, xv. Similar readings concerned with gender can be found throughout.
31.
WoT 273–278.
32.
Translation my own.
33.
Roman de Troie , 1216–1229.
34.
Translation my own.
35.
Jeffreys and Papathomopoulou, Ho Polemos, 13.
36.
See Morse, Medieval Medea, 188–191 for a reading of Guido’s Medea.
37.
Guido, Historia (1936), 15.
38.
Guido, Historia (1974), 14.
39.
Guido, Historia (1936), 16.
40.
Guido, Historia (1974), 14.
41.
Guido, Historia (1936), 17.
42.
Guido, Historia (1974), 15.
43.
Greenfield, “A Contribution,” 118.
44.
Zwei Ostmitteldeutsche Bearbeitungen Lateinischer Prosadenkmäler, 73. Translated by Baukje Van Den Berg.
45.
Norris, La Coronica Troyana, 57. Translated by Carlos Hawley.
46.
For Lydgate’s treatment of Medea, see Morse, Medieval Medea, 195–198.
47.
Lydgate , Troy Book , I 1601; I 1607–1608. All translations of Lydgate are my own.
48.
Lydgate , Troy Book , I 1625; I 1628–1629.
49.
Lydgate , Troy Book , I 1644–1645; I 1646; I 1648–1650.
50.
Lydgate , Troy Book , I 1653; I 1655–1657.
51.
Lydgate , Troy Book , I 1664.
52.
Lydgate , Troy Book , I 1667–1668.
53.
Lydgate , Troy Book, I 1675.
54.
Lydgate , Troy Book , I 1688–1800, including such notes as “But of Medee, þouȝ þis clerke Ouide, | Tencrese hir name vp-on euery syde, | List in his fables swyche þinges telle, | […] | Yit God forbade we schulde ȝif credence | To swyche feynyng, or do so hiȝe offence” (I 1707–1709; I 1711–1712).
55.
Lydgate , Troy Book , I 1760–1764.
56.
WoT 283–289.
57.
Guido, Historia (1936), 17.
58.
Guido, Historia (1974), 15.
59.
Guido, Historia (1936), 17.
60.
Guido, Historia (1974), 15.
61.
Guido, Historia (1936), 18; Guido, Historia (1974), 16.
62.
Guido, Historia (1936), 18; Guido, Historia (1974), 16.
63.
Guido, Historia (1936), 18; Guido, Historia (1974), 17.
64.
Lydgate , Troy Book , 1823–2096.
65.
Lydgate , Troy Book , 2091–2092.
66.
Lydgate , Troy Book , I.2097, and again, with a different formulation at I.2116.
67.
2119–2122.
68.
73–74.
69.
Guido, Historia (1936), 24; Guido, Historia (1974), 22.
70.
Guido, Historia (1936), 18; Guido, Historia (1974), 23.
71.
Guido, Historia (1936), 24; Guido, Historia (1974), 23.
72.
Guido, Historia (1936), 24; Guido, Historia (1974), 23.
73.
Benoît, Roman De Troie , 1635–1638.
74.
718–724. A very close translation of Benoît:

Puis la laissa, si fist grant honte.

El l’aveit guardé de morir:

Ja puis ne la deüst guerpir.

Trop l’engeigna, ço peise mei; Laidement li menti sa fei.

Trestuit li deu s’en corrocierent,

Qui mout asprement l’en vengierent.

N’en dirai plus, ne nel vueil faire. (2034–2044)

Lydgate, by contrast, notes that:

Of hir Guydo writ no more wordis mo,

Ne maketh of hir non other mencioun,

By-cause, I trow in myn opinioun,

Þat hir sorwes, ende and euerydel,

Rehersed ben ful openly and wel

[…]

Medea hir both sonys slowe,

For þei we like her fader of visage.

(Lydgate, Troy Book, I 3696–3700, I 3706–3707)

Despite this, however, Lydgate says that because of his falsity in abandoning Medea, “I can hym not excuse” (I 3709).
75.
For a synthetic overview of such claims across Europe, see Goldwyn, “Trojan Pasts, Medieval Presents.”
76.
Guido, Historia (1936), 11; Guido, Historia (1974), 9.
77.
Guido, Hitoria (1974), 10. The parallel passage in the German can be found at 71.
78.
Schwyzer, Shakespeare and the Remains of Richard III, 107.
79.
Lydgate , Troy Book , I 95–98.
80.
Lydgate , Troy Book , I 103–104.
81.
Lydgate , Troy Book , I 76–83; I 87.
82.
Indeed, Caroline Dinshaw, writing about a different Troy story, Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, suggests that “a—perhaps the—major problematic in Chaucer’s narratives [is] the problem of truth in love. That problematic is very often focused on woman’s truth—her honesty, her fidelity—or her significant lack of it. Men, of course, can be true, and their truth or lack of truth is problematized in Chaucer, but unlike a man’s fidelity, a woman’s truth in love […] constitutes her function within the structure of patriarchal society” (Dinshaw, Chaucer’s Sexual Poetics, 7). The same focus on Jason’s and Medea’s truthfulness seems to apply here: he has the choice of truth or lies, but she, despite having been entirely truthful, nevertheless becomes the subject of male authors’ unease and vituperation.
83.
Sen , “Medea,” 94.
84.
WoT 738–741. See also 724, above.
85.
WoT 3714–3715.
86.
Loher , Manhattan Medea .
87.
Enoch , Black Medea , 65.
88.
Enoch , Black Medea , 65.
89.
Enoch, Black Medea , 66.
90.
Enoch, Black Medea , 64.
91.
Enoch, Black Medea , 72.
92.
Enoch, Black Medea , 74.
93.
Enoch, Black Medea , 78.
94.
Albrecht, “Solastalgia ,” 44.
95.
Albrecht, “Solastalgia ,” 45.
96.
Moraga , Hungry Woman , ix.
97.
Moraga , Hungry Woman , 6.
98.
Moraga , Hungry Woman , 6.
99.
In this, Medea becomes the literary alter-ego of the author herself: “C’est à la croisée des identités culturelles et sexuelles que se situe l’auteure comme Chicana lesbienne. C’est l à où elle situe sa Médée mexicaine” (Carrière, Médée protéiforme, 98).
100.
Moraga , Hungry Woman , 6. Aztlán holds a special significance for Moraga as the locus of Chicano/a national identity. See, for instance, Alicia Arrizón’s analysis in Arrizón, 2000, esp. 45–48. Arrizón connects Moraga’s setting of The Hungry Woman in Aztlán with a larger project of creating space within Chicano/a culture for lesbians: “Moraga’s radical perspective envisions Aztlán as a space where the male-centered, nationalistic specter of the mythical Chicano homeland is idealistically transformed into the land of the Chicana-mestiza. This transformation ‘genders’ the territory as a female brown body, one that will become a place for all raza, heterosexuals and queers. In proposing queer Aztlán , Moraga extends ideas that are present through all of her work, expanding the definition of familia in a manner that provides a sense of location for Chicana lesbians” (45).
101.
Moraga , Hungry Woman , 6.
102.
Moraga , Hungry Woman , 22.
103.
Moraga , Hungry Woman , 23.
104.
Moraga , Hungry Woman , 32.
105.
Enoch, Black Medea , 78.
106.
Moraga , Hungry Woman , 69.
107.
Moraga , Hungry Woman , 68.
108.
Moraga , A Xicana Codex, 41.
109.
Moraga , A Xicana Codex, 41.
110.
Moraga , Hungry Woman , 72.
111.
Moraga , Hungry Woman , 71.
112.
Arrizón, “Mythical Performaticity,” 46.
113.
Moraga , Loving in the War Years , 145. The passage receives further analysis in Carrière, Medée protéiforme, 91.
114.
Critics, too, have long recognized this critique as being at the heart of both The Hungry Woman and Moraga’s broader corpus. According to María Teresa Marrero, “Rather than losing her son to the symbolic Chicano patriarchal Order, Medea takes drastic action—symbolically killing two parts of herself: that of mother and of lesbian lover. The play suggests, however, that her Mexicana/Chicana self is indelible and therefore not subject to erasures. The Hungry Woman : A Mexican Medea enacts the problematic juncture of lesbian motherhood (of a son), lesbian desire, and cultural exile imposed by an overriding machista order” (“Out of the Fringe,” 143). Similarly, Arrizón notes, even as “Medea embodies the power and resistance of the native woman who feels a profound connection with her ‘lost’ territory” within the independent and racially homogenous Aztlán , her non-heteronormativity represents an unacceptable transgression of the sexual mores in Chicano/a national identity: “As a lesbian, Medea laments the dangers of homophobia in the chicano community bound by the hegemonic limits of patriarchal and heterosexist reproductions” (Arrizón, “Mythical Performativity,” 48).
115.
Jasón offers to take Medea back to Aztlán under the condition that she “give up the dyke” (33) and later, when Jasón says she can return as his “ward,” she rejects him by acknowledging the experience of women under patriarchy: “I am not your Juárez whore, Señor. A woman is nothing in Aztlán without a husband” (68).
116.
Mayorga, “Homecoming,” 155.

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Goldwyn, A.J. (2018). Witches and Nature Control in the Palaiologan Romances and Beyond. In: Byzantine Ecocriticism. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69203-6_4

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