LA LÉGENDE DE TROIE AU MOYEN ÂGE I : La Légende D’Une Origine Troyenne, Ses Implications Politiques Et Ses Étapes

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LA LÉGENDE DE TROIE AU MOYEN ÂGE I : La Légende D’Une Origine Troyenne, Ses Implications Politiques Et Ses Étapes L’article suivant sera un des chapitres d’une œuvre plus détaillée qui parlera de la réception de l’Antiquité dans la littérature française du Moyen Âge. Joachim Leeker (TU Dresden) LA LÉGENDE DE TROIE AU MOYEN ÂGE I : La légende d’une origine troyenne, ses implications politiques et ses étapes Malgré les découvertes de Schliemann et de ses disciples, encore aujourd’hui, tout ce qui a rapport à la légende de Troie est toujours classé comme faisant partie de la mythologie grecque. Aux yeux du Moyen Âge, par contre, la chute de Troie n’était pas seulement un événement historique bien daté,1 mais encore un événement décisif qui regarde la totalité de l’histoire européenne : Car aux yeux du Moyen Âge, la ville de Troie avait été une espèce de berceau mythique de beaucoup de peuples européens. Donc, le sujet connaît 3 aspects : I) La légende d’une origine troyenne, ses implications politiques et ses étapes; II) La chute de Troie comme sujet littéraire ; et III) Le voyage d’Énée comme sujet littéraire. Le but de cette partie de l’étude est de tracer l’origine, le développement et la fin de la légende de l’origine troyenne des Francs, donc ses étapes et ses implications politiques. Commençons par une définition : « légende d’une origine troyenne » signifie ici un rapport fictif, sur la base duquel un peuple – plus tard il peut s’agir aussi d’une ville – s’entendait comme descendant des anciens Troyens ; et descendre des Troyens signifiait au Moyen Âge posséder le titre de noblesse le plus respecté. Pour mieux comprendre ce respect, il faut se rendre compte d’une idée qui était assez répandue à l’époque : la vénération de la Rome antique. L’origine de cette vénération se trouve dans l’Antiquité même. Déjà à l’époque d’Auguste, la ville de Rome était considérée comme une capitale éternelle équivalant même à l’Empire.2 Après la fin de l’Empire Romain Occidental (476), la vénération de Rome continue à exister, mais dorénavant, elle regarde surtout la ville comme siège papal.3 Vers le tournant du millénaire, un des empereurs allemands – Otton III – installe son siège à Rome et, ce faisant, confère un nouveau prestige politique à la ville éternelle.4 Au cours des XIe et XIIe siècles, on observe une véritable « poésie des ruines » qui interprète les débris de la Rome antique comme une preuve de sa grandeur passée, l’exemple le plus connu étant Hildebert de 1 Selon Eusèbe/Jérôme, le rapt d’Hélène fut en 827 d’Abraham (= 437 av. Rome ou 1190 av. J.C. : « Alexander Helenam rapuit et Troianum bellum decennale surrexit causa mali, quod trium mulierum de pulchritudine certantium praemium fuit una earum Helenam pastori iudici pollicente ») et la prise de Troie en 835 d’Abraham (= 429 av. Rome ou 1182 av. J.C. : « Troia Capta ») (Hieronymi Chronicon, éd. par Rudolf Helm, Berlin 21956, p. 60b (Werke, 7). Orose (Histoires contre les païens, éd. par Marie-Pierre Arnaud-Lindet, 3 vols., Paris 1990/1, tome I, p. 67 / chap. I 17,1) assigne l’enlèvement d’Hélène et le début de la guerre de Troie à l’an 430 avant la fondation de Rome, donc à l’an 1183 avant J.C., et sa chute à l’an 1173 (« At vero ante Vrbem conditam CCCCXXX anno raptus Helenae, coniuratio Graecorum et concursus mille navium, dehinc decennis obsidio ac postremo famosum Troiae excidium praedicatur »). 2 Fameux sont les mots que Jupiter prononce dans l’Énéide : « Romulus […] Mauortia condet / moenia Romanosque suo de nimine dicet. / His ego nec metas rerum nec tempora pono : / imperium sine fine dedi. » (Virgile, Énéide, éd. par Henri Goelzer et André Bellessort, 2 vols, Paris 1967, vol I, p.16 / vers I 276-79). Plus clair encore est le texte d’Ovide qui met sur le même plan la ville de Rome et le monde entier : « gentibus est aliis tellus data limite certo : / Romanae spatium est Urbis et orbis idem » (Publius Ovidius Naso, Fasti, éd. par Wolfgang Gerlach et Niklas Holzberg, Darmstadt 1995, p. 86 / Fasti II 683/4). 3 Percy Ernst Schramm, Kaiser, Rom und Renovatio. Studien und Texte zur Geschichte des römischen Erneuerungsgedankens vom Ende des Karolingischen Reiches bis zum Investiturstreit, 2 vols., Leipzig 1929, tome I, p.28-43; Fedor Schneider, Rom und Romgedanke im Mittelalter. Die geistigen Grundlagen der Renaissance, Köln 1959, p. 6-68. 4 Le palais d’Otto III fut sur l’Aventin (Schneider, Rom und Romgedanke im Mittelalter, p.62). 1 © LEEKER Lavardin (1056-1134) et ses deux poèmes fameux intitulés De Roma.5 À la même époque, un certain nombre de guides « touristiques » destinés aux pèlerins comme les Mirabilia urbis Romae de Benoît de Saint-Pierre (1142) n’hésitent pas à décrire aussi les monuments de la Rome antique et à présenter au lecteur les légendes qui y sont liées.6 Tout cela mène à une revalorisation de la Rome païenne. C’est également à partir du XIIe siècle que cette nouvelle vénération de la Rome païenne se fait remarquer dans la littérature française. Dans le cas le plus simple, les légendes locales des Mirabilia sont mentionnées dans des textes tels que celui de Jean d’Outremeuse.7 Puis, il y a aussi des adaptations : Des princes gaulois de l’époque de Jules César inventés par un texte médiéval portent des noms romains. Ainsi, dans le Liber de antiquitate urbis Tornacensis de 1141, nous trouvons un prince de Tournai qui s’appelle Mallius ou Manlius Publius Rethor.8 D’autres princes gaulois fictifs de la même époque, comme le prince Sedros de Tongres, sont fiers d’être nommés sénateurs de Rome.9 Plusieurs villes – telles que Reims, Tongres et Tournai – prétendent avoir jadis porté le nom de « Altera Roma » ou « Secunda Roma » comme titre d’honneur.10 Et il y a même des villes – notamment Tournai et Bavay – qui, dans 5 « Par tibi, Roma, nihil cum sis prope tota ruina. / Quam magni fueris integra, fracta doces. / […] / Urbs felix, si vel dominis urbs illa careret, / vel dominis esset turpe carere fide » (Hilbert de Lavardin, De Roma, dans : Roma Aeterna. Lateinische und griechische Romdichtung von der Antike bis in die Gegenwart, éd. par Bernhard Kytzler, Darmstadt 1984, p. 344-48). Dans un 2e poème, également intitulé De Roma, Hildebert fait dire à la ville de Rome qu’elle préfère sa pauvreté actuelle à ses richesses de jadis, parce que maintenant, en tant que ville chrétienne, « maior sum pauper divite, stante iacens. / Plus aquilis vexilla crucis, plus Cesare Petrus, / plus cunctis ducibus vulgus inerme dedit. / […] / corpora stans, animas fracta iacensque rego » (ib. p. 348-52). 6 Mirabilia urbis Romae, dans : Heinrich Jordan, Topographie der Stadt Rom im Altertum, tome II, Berlin 1871, p. 605-43; sur ce type de textes, voir aussi Schneider, Rom und Romgedanke im Mittelalter, p.163-78, et Schramm, Kaiser, Rom und Renovatio, tome I, p.193-206 et tome II, p. 36-56. 7 Il suffit de citer deux exemples, le feu éternel de l’Albeston et l’Agulia, la soi-disant urne funéraire sous la forme d’un globe qui, contenant les cendres de Jules César, se serait trouvée sur la pointe de l’obélisque du Vatican. De l’Albeston nous parle la Graphia aureae urbis Romae, une version des Mirabilia écrite après 1154 : « Sancta Sabina in Albiston fuit mutatorium Cesaris. Ibi fuit candelabrum factum de lapide albeston, qui semel accensus et sub divo positus nunquam aliqua ratione extinguebatur » (Graphia aureae urbis Romae, dans : Antoine Frédéric Ozanam, Documents inédits pour servir à l’histoire littéraire de l’Italie depuis le VIIIe siècle jusqu’au XIIIe, avec des recherches sur le Moyen Age italien, Paris 1850, p. 155-83, ib. p. 167). Dans le Myreur des histors de Jean d’Outremeuse (1390-99), qui, aux pages 58-85, contient une longue description des merveilles de Rome, on lit : « Item, asseis pres est Sainte-Babilonie in Albeston, où fut Mutatorium Cesaire ; et là fut fait li candelabre de Albeston, une piere prechieux qui est de teile manere ou nature que, quant ilh est une seul fois esprise et desous les dieux mise, jamais nul art ilh n’estinderat » (Jean d’Outremeuse, Ly Myreur des histors, chronique de Jean des Preis dit d’Outremeuse, publ. par Adolphe Borgnet, Bruxelles 1864, tome I, p. 66). – Quant à l’Agulia, les Mirabilia urbis Romae disent : « illa pars ecclesie S. Petri Vaticanum vocatur. […] iuxta quod est memoria Cesaris, id est agulia, ubi splendide cinis eius in suo sarcophago requiescit. […] cuius memoria inferius ornata fuit tabulis ereis et deauratis, litteris latinis decenter depicta. superius vero ad malum, ubi requiescit, et pretiosis lapidibus decoratur, ubi scriptum est: ‹ Caesar tantus eras quantus et orbis, / sed nunc in modico clauderis antro› » (p. 625). Parmi les textes français qui en parlent, citons Simon de Hesdin (XIVe siècle), traducteur de Valère Maxime (Troyes, Bibl. Mun. 261, fol. 195b) : « En ceste partie parle Valerius de la honneste vergongne de Iule Cesar que il appelle Gayus. Et a la verite ainsi ot il a nom et ainsi est il nomme a Rome en la haute pierre c’on appelle l’aguille Saint Pierre, ou sont les cendres de son corps. » 8 Liber de antiquitate urbis Tornacensis ex revelatione Heinrici, éd. par G. Waitz, ds : Monumenta Germaniae Historica, série Scriptores (folio), tome XIV, Hannover 1883, p. 352-57, ib. p. 355 (voir aussi : http://www.dmgh.de/de/fs1/object/goToPage/bsb00000891.html?pageNo=355&sortIndex=010%3A050%3A001 4%3A010%3A00%3A00). 9 Voir Jean d’Outremeuse, Ly Myreur des histors, tome I, p. 247, 264/5 et 273/4.
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