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La présente thèse se propose de jeter un éclairage nouveau sur le mythe d’Hercule dans les textes du Moyen Âge, en examinant ses sources et son évolution. Un intérêt particulier est porté à des matériaux textuels peu étudiés de provenance française, du xiie au xve siècle. Les textes abordés comprennent, d’un côté, des commentaires latins aux auteurs classiques, aux Métamorphoses d’Ovide en particulier, et des traités de mythographie qui leur sont apparentés, et de l’autre, les compilations historiographiques en langue française, dont la tradition recoupe, à son tour, celles des œuvres historico-romanesques. En partant de textes appartenant à ces ensembles distincts, il est possible de prendre en compte une large gamme de matériaux herculéens, intégrés dans divers contextes interprétatifs, d’étudier l’évolution de différents épisodes de la vie du héros à l’intérieur et à travers des traditions textuelles et d’identifier les points d’intersection entre ces dernières. Les sources et la transmission manuscrite de l’Ovide moralisé, constituent un troisième point de focalisation. Cette adaptation française du xive siècle des Métamorphoses d’Ovide, située à la croisée de différentes traditions, complète en effet le récit ovidien avec des matériaux provenant d’une diversité de sources. Notre étude de la vita herculéenne dans l’Ovide moralisé cherche à éclairer les sources possibles de certains épisodes qui innovent par rapport aux Métamorphoses, et veut fournir de nouveaux aperçus sur la tradition manuscrite complexe de l’œuvre. L’étude est accompagnée d’une édition critique provisoire de la vie d’Hercule comprise au livre IX de l’Ovide moralisé (vers 1-1036). This thesis aims to shed new light on the myth of Hercules in medieval texts, by studying its sources and evolution. A particular focus is on little-studied, partially unedited textual material from 12th to 15th century France. Texts examined include, on the one hand, Latin commentaries on the Classics – on the Metamorphoses in particular – and related mythographic treatises, and, on the other, vernacular historiographical compilations, which evolved in close relation to works of historical romance. On the basis of texts belonging to these distinct traditions, it is possible to consider a large array of Hercules-related materials integrated within different interpretative contexts, to study the evolution of various episodes of the hero’s life within and across textual traditions and to identify intersections between them. A third focus is on the sources and manuscript tradition of the Ovide moralisé, a 14th century French adaptation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, situated at the crossroads of different traditions, which completes the Ovidian narrative with material from a variety of sources. The study of Hercules’ life in the Ovide moralisé attempts to elucidate possible sources of specific episodes that innovate with regard to the Metamorphoses, and to offer new insights into the complex manuscript tradition of the work. This study is accompanied by a provisional critical edition of the life of Hercules in book IX of the Ovide moralisé (lines 1-1036).

The anonymous French Ovide moralisé is the first full translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, covering nearly 72,000 lines of octosyllabic verse. Its author incorporated earlier renderings of the tragic love stories of Philomela and Pyrame et Thisbé, adapted the remaining myths recounted in Ovid’s poem, and inserted additional ones for a readership no longer familiar with classical mythology. The medieval French author, however, not only translated and compiled myths, but also attempted to explain them based on the Christian four senses of Scripture. Ovid, so goes the message transmitted in the medieval adaptation, was not so much writing about Antique mythology as he was attempting to convey a Christian meaning concealed beneath the individual myths. To unveil this hidden meaning, the medieval author added exegetical interpretations to his translation—i.e., the moralisations that give the text its name and turn it into what is presumably the longest verse text in medieval French literature. Its date of composition is unknown, but it must have existed in 1328, since a manuscript of the work is mentioned in an inventory of items owned by Clemence of Hungary established the same year. Today, the text is most commonly dated between 1315 and 1325. It is thus relatively late regarding what has famously been called the aetas ovidiana of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which also witnessed the first adaptations of the “Matter of Rome” into vernacular languages. The literary current that explains the emergence of the Ovide moralisé is the allegorical tradition, which took off toward the end of the thirteenth century with the Roman de la Rose and gradually touched a broad array of texts. Notwithstanding its length, the Ovide moralisé enjoyed a considerable career, as some twenty preserved manuscripts and two independent prose renderings show. Its considerable literary fortune during the Middle Ages stands in sharp contrast to the relative indifference of modern critics toward the work until relatively recently. Despite the existence of a reliable edition, it was not until the late twentieth century that the Ovide moralisé began to attract scholarly interest. Much remains to be said about its manuscript tradition and manifold sources. Moreover, the Latin and vernacular glosses in some witnesses offer a field of research modern critics have only just begun to explore. Around 2007 an international consortium of scholars—Ovide en Français (OEF)—formed in order to explore different aspects of the text and to prepare a new critical edition of the Ovide moralisé. The present bibliography relies heavily on the work accomplished by this team and aims to offer an overview of the relevant areas of ongoing research, as well as outline some of the crucial and as yet unanswered questions surrounding the work.