of sacred and secular exegetical traditions. The sources of the poem, aside from the
Metamorphoses, are the Bible, biblical commentary, Ovidian commentary of the 12th and
13th centuries (e.g., the allegorical commentary by Arnulf of Orléans, the Integumenta
Ovidii by jean de Garlande, and many anonymous glosses), Ovid’s other works
(Heroides, Fastes), the tradition of mythography from late antiquity and the earlier
Middle Ages (Servius, Fulgentius, Hyginus, Vatican mythographers), as well as medieval
Homeric lore (Ilias Latina, De excidio Trojae historia). The Ovide moralisé also
incorporates French material: for the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe, the poet inserts a
version in Norman French, which he acknowledges as the work of another; and for the
tale of Philomela, he uses a version that he attributes to a “Chrestiiens li Gois,” whom
some scholars identify as Chrétien de Troyes.
There are many reasons for the popularity of this poem among medieval readers, not
the least of which was the vernacular access that it gave to a tradition of classical
learning. Later vernacular poets, among them Guillaume de Machaut, Eustache
Deschamps, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and Christine de Pizan, derived
mythographic information from this French poem. At least three French prose
abridgments were made during the 15th century, including one printed by Colard
Mansion of Bruges in 1484; another of these prose versions was translated into English
prose by William Caxton in 1480. The Ovide moralisé also found a learned audience. The
Benedictine monk Pierre Bersuire used it for the second redaction (1342) of his Latin
prose Ovidius moralizatus (originally Book 15 of his Reductium morale\ an important
mythographic reference into the early 16th century. By any account, the Ovide moralisé
is the most extensive and influential medieval French treatment of Ovid.
The poem’s method of commentary is a mixture of learned exegetical tradition and
popular didacticism. The Ovide moralisé is most indebted to learned tradition in its
allegorical approach to pagan myth: since late antiquity, Neoplatonist exegetes had
interpreted mythical or fabulous narratives as allegorical “covers” for moral or
philosophical truths. The Ovide moralisé combines such moral readings with theological
interpretations of Ovid’s text, discovering signs and symbols of Christian history and
spirituality in Ovid’s text. The poet never implies that Ovid himself was a Christian.
Rather, he exploits the Pauline doctrine that “all that is written is for our instruction.” He
suggests that it is God who puts divine meaning in all writing, that Ovid told the stories,
and that a good and inspired exegete like himself can discover the moral and spiritual
profit that these stories contain. Thus, for example, the story of Phaeton (Metamorphoses
2.1–328) is treated as follows. First is the narrative itself, with some amplification of
details; then a historical explanation of the Phaeton myth interpreted as the memory of a
summer heat that devastated Ethiopia; then a euhemeristic explanation of Phaeton
himself as an astronomer whose writings were destroyed and who threw himself off a
high mountain. The fall of Phaeton is then compared with that of Lucifer, so that the
Phaeton myth is read as moral advice against the dangers of pride in great undertakings.
But the interpretation shifts to a theological theme. The palace of the sun is the throne of
glory, where the holy Trinity sits. The sun is Christ; the chariot represents Christian
doctrine; the horses are the Evangelists; the driver is the pope, who must not aspire to that
office through ambition. Phaeton is also read as the Antichrist, who tries to corrupt
humanity but is foiled by God.
The Encyclopedia 1297