The Tale of Tereus (CA, V, 5551-6048)
- Author/Editor
- Lepley, Douglas L
- Title
- The Tale of Tereus (CA, V, 5551-6048)
- Published
- Lepley, Douglas L. "The Tale of Tereus (CA, V, 5551-6048)." In John Gower's Literary Transformations in the Confessio Amantis: Original Articles and Translations. Ed. Beidler, Peter G. Washington, D. C.: University Press of America, 1982, pp. 63-69. ISBN 081925962
- Review
- Lepley summarizes Ovid's tale of Tereus and Philomela ("Metamorphoses" 6.424-674) and identifies ways that Gower alters Ovid's version in his own account in CA 5.5551-6047. Gower heightens Tereus's villainy, presents Philomela as guiltless, and blunts Procne's cruelty. He reduces Ovid's "detailed dramatizations of inhuman passions and wanton revenge," offering a moral exemplum of the just punishment for rape rather than tale of horror. [MA]
- Date
- 1982
- Gower Subjects
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
- Confessio Amantis