“The Message of Offey to Hector,” (“The Message of Offey, the Goddess of Prudence, Hector of Troyan at the age of fifteen”) is an essay by Christina of Pisa , created around 1400. The allegorical poem is a message from the goddess of wisdom and prudence to the Trojan hero Hector .
| Message of Offey to Hector | |
|---|---|
| Epitre d'Othea a Hector | |
 | |
| Genre | allegorical didactic poem |
| Author | Christina Pisa |
Description
The poem consists of 100 chapters - stories from Greek or Roman mythology, taken mainly from Ovid 's Metamorphoses. Each begins with four lines characterizing the story; then comes the glossa , which indicates what lesson a good knight should learn from this story. Glossa ends with a quote from the Greek philosopher. At the end, an allegory is explained, which should teach the lesson, ending with quotes from the Church Fathers and the Scriptures.
This work was one of Christina's most popular works and has been preserved in more than 40 manuscripts of the 15th century. Around 1499, it was first printed (published by Philippe Pigouchet) under the title Les Cent Histoires de Troye. Over the next 35 years, it was published three more times. In England, it was translated three times (1440, the end of the 15th century, the 1530s).
Characters
- Offeya (presents a letter to Hector); Goddess Prudence, Wisdom and Knowledge; Hercules and two lions; Minos - a judge in the kingdom of the dead; Perseus (kills the dragon);
- Astrological: Jupiter , Venus , Saturn , Apollo , Phoebe , Mars , Mercury , Minerva and Pallas - planets endowing with their gifts;
- Penthesilea , Narcissus , Tisiphon and Atamant , Aglavra , Ulysses , Laton , Bacchus , Pygmalion , Diana , Ceres , Isis , Midas , Cadmus , Io , Pyrrhus , Kassandra , Neptune , Atropos , Bellerophon , Achilles and Memnon , Jason , Pyramus and Fisba Asclepius , Paris , Busiris , Hero and Leander , Priam , Aurora , Pacifica , Adrast , Cupid , Coronida , Juno , Amphiarai , Gorgon Medusa , Tomiris and Cyrus , Medea , Polyphemus and Galatea , Peleus and Thetis , Semele , Arachne , Adonis , Orpheus , Acteon , Atalanta , Fortuna , Helen of Troy , Cephalus , Morpheus , Alcyone , Troilus , Calchas , Briseis , Hector and Patroclus , Echo , Yes on , Andromache , Ning (king Babylon) , Ajax , Antenor , Circeya , Ino , Tiburtina sibyl Emperor August.
Manuscripts
A number of illuminated manuscripts of this book have survived. They are curious about the interpretation of ancient mythological plots in the realities of the Middle Ages. Hoizinga speaks of them like this (Autumn of the Middle Ages):
“... when the iconographic canons of church art leave the artist to himself, he is completely helpless. (...) In attempts to capture the art of the 15th century inspired by the imagination, and not seen can reach ridiculous. Large painting was protected from this by a firmly established circle of subjects, but the book miniature could not shy away from capturing the countless mythological and allegorical fantasies that literature offered. A vivid example is given by the illustrations for Epitre d'Othea a Hector , one of Christina Pisa's bizarre mythological fantasies. Images are as helpless as you can imagine. The Greek gods are endowed with huge wings over ermine robes or burgundy court suits; the overall composition is extremely unfortunate: Minos , Saturn devouring his children, Midas distributing awards - all this looks rather silly. But as soon as the miniaturist is able to divert his soul, portraying in the background a shepherd with sheep or a high hill with a wheel and a gallows, he does this with his usual skill. Such is the limit of the pictorial possibilities of these artists. In the realm of free imagination, they are ultimately almost as awkward as poets ” [1] .