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Ronsard and the Gallic Hercules Myth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

Robert E. Hallowell
Robert E. Hallowell*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
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Extract

In his Heracles the Greek sophist Lucian described the curious picture of Hercules which he claimed to have seen in Gaul. In it the god was portrayed as aged, wizened, clad in a lion's skin, holding his club in his right hand and his bow in his left, and drawing his followers joyously after him by delicate chains of gold and amber, which were fastened to their ears and to the god's pierced tongue. Lucian's Gallic mentor explained the symbolism thus: ‘We do not agree with you Greeks in thinking that Hermes is Eloquence. We identify Heracles with it, because he is far more powerful than Hermes… . We consider that the real Heracles was a wise man who achieved everything by eloquence and applied persuasion as his principal force.’

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in the Renaissance , Volume 9 , 1962 , pp. 242 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1962

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References

1 Lucian, Heracles, tr. A. M. Harmon (Loeb Library).

2 Address to Philip, 109.

3 ‘Hercules a prudentioribus mente magis quam corpore fortis inducitur, adeo ut duodecim eius labores referri possint ad aliquid’ (Servius, In Vergilii carmina commentarii, VI, 395).

4 Cornutus, Theologiae Graecae compendium, 31 and 16.

5 De beneficiis, tr. J. W. Basore (Loeb Library), 4, 8, 1.

6 Cf. Marcel Simon, Hercule et le christianisme (Strasbourg, 1955, Publications de la faculte des lettres de 1'université de Strasbourg, Textes d'étude xix), pp. 95-97.

7 Cf. Allegoriae poeticae seu de veritate ac expositione poeticarum fabularum libri quatuor Alberico Londonensi authore nusquam antea itnpressi (Paris, 1520), Capitulum vj, fol. L: ‘Denicque (vt ait Seruius) hercules a prudentioribus mente magis quam corpore fortis indicitur adeo, vt duodecim eius labores ad aliquid referri possint… . Docuit enim athlas herculem astronomiam. Vnde & fingitur hercules sustinuisse coelum, ab athlante susceptem, propter coeli videlicet scientiam traditam, constat enim herculem fuisse philosophum.’ Albricus’ work was translated into French by Jean Baudoin and appeared as a kind of appendix under the title Abregé des images, des dieux, tiré du Philosophe Albricus at the end of Baudoin's edition of Natale Conte's Mythologia. See note 11 below. The reason that the my thographers considered Hercules the revealer of philosophy is based on their interpretation of the god's capture of Cerberus, whose three heads symbolized reason, nature, and morality. In drawing Cerberus from the dark depdis of Hades, Hercules thus revealed to mankind the three principal branches of philosophy. Cf. Valeriano Bolzani, Hieroglyphica, book v, ch. xi.

8 Cf. Champfleury, fol. VI. This fictitious derivation of Paris from Parrhasia had already appeared in the works of Giovanni Battista of Mantua. After Tory we find it repeated by Gilles Corrozet and Claude Champier in Le Catalogue des viles et cités, fleuves etfontaines assises és troys Gaules (s.l., 1537).

9 Cf. Natalis Comes, Mythologiae, siue Explicationum fabularum, libri decern… . Omnia praeter nuperrimam ipsius autoris recognitionem & locupktationcm, opera & labore Geofredi Linocerij Viuariensis recognita: cuius liber vnus recens accessit Mythologiae Musarum (Paris, 1583), p. 687.

10 Cf. Mythologie c'est à Aire, Explication des fables, contenant les généalogies des Dieux, les ceremonies de leurs sacrifices; Lews gestes, aduentures; amours. Etpresque tous les preceptes de La Philosophie naturelle et moralle, p. 709. Although the book did not appear until 1600 (Lyon), the privilège d'imprimer is dated 1597. Montlyard's work was so popular that it was reprinted in 1604, 1607, 1611, and 1612.

11 Cf. Mythologie ou explication des fables. Edition nouvelle illustrée de sommaires sur chasque livre, et de figures en taille douce. Avec une augmentation de plusieurs belles recherches accommodees au suiet par I. Baudoin (Paris, 1627), p. 689.

12 Cf. Bolzani, Valeriano, Hieroglyphica sive de sacris Aegyptiorum Uteris commentarii (Basle, 1567)Google Scholar, liber xxxn, caput xxxix. The first edition dates from 1556.

13 Cf. Caelius Augustinus Curio, Hieroglyphica (Basle, 1556).

14 Cf. Georgius Cedrenus, Annales, sive historiae ab exordio mundi ad Isacium Comnenum usque compendium, tr. G. Xylander (Basle, 1566), pp. 14-15.

15 For a list of authors who were skeptical of the mythical origin of the French monarchy, see Laumonier, Oeuvres complètes de Ronsard, XVI, 7-8, n. 5, and Jacques Poujol, ‘Etymologies légendaires des mots “France” et “Gaule” pendant la Renaissance’, P.M.L.A. LXXII (1957), 914. To their lists I add the Traicté de l'estat et origine des anciens François (Troyes, 1582) by Nicolas Vignier, who in his dedicatory Epistre, pp. II-III, refutes in no uncertain terms the Trojan origin of the French: ‘Toutefois que c'est sans doubte, qu'vne telle Origine à esté excogitée à plaisir, par quelques vns de nos Iongleurs & composeurs de Roman du temps passé, où par autres qui pensoient beaucoup faire pour l'honneur de nostre Nation. Et neantmoins, il n'y à pas eu faulte d'Escriuains de ce temps, qui se sont esbatus à embellir & farder ceste inuention de beaucoup de bons tesmoignages & authoritez des Anciens, mal appliquees & mal entendues. Et autres de la maintenir & authoriser par vn grand nombre de faux tiltres & chartes, comme ie monstre par ce petit Traicté …'

16 Cf. Les Genealogies, effigies & epitaphes des roys de France, recentement reueues & corrigees, par l'autheur tnesmes (Poitiers, 1545), feuille 3.

17 The Library of History of Diodorus Siculus was widely read in France. Seyssel's translation was published by command of François 1 at the beginning of his reign.

18 Cf. Le Recueil de l'antique preexcellence de Gaule & des Gauloys (Poitiers, 1546), p. VII.

19 Cf. Traitté des tneurs etfaeons des anciens Gauloys, traduit du latin par Michel de Castelnau (Paris, 1581), pp. 53 and 79. The original Latin edition dates from 1558.

20 Cf. Histoire de Vestat et republique des druides, eubages, saronides, bardes, vacies, anciens François, gouuerneurs des pais de la Gaule, depuis le deluge vniuersel, iusques à la venuë de Iesus-Christ en ce monde (Paris, 1585), book II, p. 35.

21 Cf. Recueil des antiquitez Gauloises et Francoises (Paris, 1579), pp. 4-5.

22 Cf. Erasmus, Adagia, s.v. ‘Herculei labores’.

23 Edgar Wind attributes the design of this woodcut to Ambrosius Holbein. See ‘ “Hercules” and “Orpheus“: Two Mock-Heroic Designs by Dürer’, Journal of the Warburg Institute II (1938-1939), 209. Alma Frey-Sallmann, however, attributes it to Hans Frank. See Aus dent Nachleben antiker Göttergestalten—Die antiken Gottheiten in der Bildbeschreibung des Mittelalters und der italienischen Friihrenaissance (Leipzig, 1931), p. 15; p. 141, n. 7.

24 The first edition of Cartari's work (Le Imagini con la spositione de i dei de gliantichi, Venice, 1556) contained only descriptions of the gods. It was not until 1580 that he supplemented his pen portraits with woodcuts. It is interesting to note that Cartari rendered Lucian's description of Hercules’ chains as ‘catene di oro, e di argento sottilissime', a precedent for which he must have found in the Odyssey (iv, 73). Cartari's French translator, Antoine du Verdier, faithfully followed the Italian text and, flaunting the authority of Erasmus and Budé, described the god with gold and silver chains. Cf. Les Images des dieux des anciens, contenans les idoles, coustumes, ceremonies & autres choses appartenans a la religion despayens (Lyon, 1581), p. 405.

25 Cf. Edgar Wind, op. cit., pp. 209-210.

26 Cf. Abbé André Valladier, Labyrinthe royal de l'Hercule Gaulois triomphant (Avignon, 1601), pp. 1, 115, 127.

27 Cf. Edgar Wind, p. 216.

28 Cf. Edgar Wind, p. 218. It seems to me that Wind errs slightly in declaring that the Gallic Hercules ‘had trusted that he could chain his opponents to his tongue, but the Germanic Hercules threatened that he would hang them on his nose'. Lucian emphasized that the Gauls could easily break the delicate chains and that they voluntarily followed the god. Holbein's Hercules Germanicus implied rather the freedom of humanism as contrasted with the tyranny of Lutheranism. The Hercules Germanicus was not always a satirical figure, however. At the beginning of the century Maximilian I was frequently called the Hercules Germanicus and was so depicted in prints. Pierre du Colombier is of the opinion that Hercules Germanicus antedates Hercules Gallicus and that the latter was created as a matter of national pride to oppose the German emblem. He concedes, however, that the symbolism of the two figures is different. See ‘Les Triomphes en images de l'empereur Maximilien Ie r ‘ in Fetes et Ceremonies au temps de Charles Quint (Paris,1960), p. 112, n. 33. The Spanish also claimed Hercules as their own, and he was a familiar figure on triumphal arches erected for royal entrances. The House of Navarre claimed direct descent from Hercules through Hispalus, son of the god. See C. A. Marsden, ‘Entrées et fetes espagnoles au XVIe siècle', ibid., p. 407, n. 77.

29 Cf. Robert E. Hallowell, ‘Jean Le Blond's Defense of the French Language (1549)', R.R. LI (1960), 86-92.

30 As a symbol of his own eloquence, Pasquier had a medal made in 1605 of himself in the guise of the Gallic Hercules. Cf. Estienne Pasquier, Choix de lettres sur la littérature, la langue et la traduction publiées et annoteespar D. Thickett (Geneve, 1956), p. 86, n. 5.

31 Oeuvres complètes de Ronsard, ed. P. Laumonier, in, 195 (edition published by Lemerre).

32 ‘Ode à Jean D'Orat', Oeuvres complètes, 1, 128 (critical edition of P. Laumonier published by the Société des textes francais modernes).

33 ‘Hymne du Treschrestien Roy de France Henri n. de ce nom’, Oeuvres complètes, VIII, 28, critical edition of P. Laumonier. It is interesting to note that the ‘Vers heroiques’ which precede the hymn to Henri n and which serve as a preface to the entire volume of the hymns of 1555 were dedicated to Odet de Chatillon, whom Rabelais had already called a ‘second Hercules Gaulloys’ in his preface to the Quart livre and who was later portrayed as Hercules in the fresco paintings at the Chateau de Tanlay. Cf. F. Ed. Schneegans, ‘A Propos d'une note sur une fresque mythologique du XVIe siecle’, B.H.R. II, 441-444.

34 See V. L. Saulnier, ‘Sebillet, Du Bellay, Ronsard—L'Entrée de Henri II à Paris et la révolution poétique de 1550', Les Fêtes de la Renaissance (Paris,1960), pp. 31-58.

35 As the king approached the arch, Germain Boursier welcomed the monarch in these terms: ‘Sire, deux Hercules ont esté, l'un de Libye, qui par force plusieurs monstres combatit, et de vaillance le los emporta; l'aultre des Gaulles, qui de belle éloquence, prudence et justice, fut qui premier les Celtes par les champs espandus ez villes enferma, et ensemble vivre et batailler enseigna. Mais ces deux pour un tiers parfaict en vous se sont assemblez; et ce que Libye et Gaulles ont eu et n'ont point eu, la France en vous a recouvert …’ Cf. Félibien, Histoire de la ville de Paris, v, 364 ff. Text cited by Henri Chamard in his critical edition of du Bellay's Defence et illustration de la langue francoyse (Paris, 1904), p. 341, n. 2.

36 See Antoinette Huon, ‘Le Thème du Prince dans les entrées parisiennes au XVIe siècle’, Les Fêtes de la Renaissance, p. 26. The statue of François 1 in the guise of the Gallic Hercules at Rouen was almost identical to that featured at the royal entrance of Henri II into Paris: ‘En sa main droicte tenoit en lieu de massue une lance, entortillée d'ung serpent recouvert d'ung rameau de laurier, signifiant que prudence en guerre est occasion de victoire… . De sa bouche partoient quatre chesnettes, deux d'or et deux d'argent, qui s'alloient attacher aux oreilles des personnages dessus nommez [Noblesse, Eglise, Conseil, Labeur]. Mais elles estoient si tres laches que chacun les povoit juger ne servir de contraincte, ains qu'ilz estoient voluntairement tirez par l'eloquence du nouvel Hercules [Francois 1“] lequel a faict fleurir en ce Royaume les langues hebra'ique, grecque, latine, italienne, espaignolle et germaine, mesmement la francoise qui par avant estoit assez champestre.’ (Le grand Hercule Gallique, qui combat contre deux, composé en vers françois, à la louange du Tres-chrestien roi François I, s.l.n.d., text cited by A. Huon.)

37 Mellin de Saint-Gelais (Blanchemain II, 150-151). Saint-Gelais claimed that the fashion of wearing a gold chain or ring in the ear affected by Francois 1 and his courtiers was inspired by the Gallic Hercules myth:

Ne tenez point, Estrangers, à merveille

Qu'en ceste Cour chacun maintenant porte

Bague ou anneau en l'une ou l'autre oreille;

Car de vieil faict vient la nouvelle sorte.

Voyant jadis Hercules nostre forte

Et ample Gaule invincible par main,

La sceut gaigner par son langage humain,

Dont il acquit le bruit d'avoir mené

Ce peuple grand par l'oreille enchesné.

Mais au grand Roy [Francois 1] devons plus de louanges …

Bouchet in his Triomphes de Francois Ier (1549) flatters the king by reminding him that he is descended both from Hercules and the Trojans. Text cited by Jacques Poujol, op. cit., p. 912.

38 Étienne Jodelle (Marty-Laveaux, II, 164). Catherine de’ Medici and Henri II, appar ently flattered by the identification of the royal family with Hercules, named their youngest son Francois-Hercule. Jodelle addressed a sonnet to him, developing the obvious compliment suggested by his name: ‘Sois done premierement nostre HERCVLE Gaulois’ (Marty-Laveaux, n, 294).

39 IX, 44, critical edition of P. Laumonier.

40 X, 393, critical edition of P. Laumonier.

41 Cf. Abbé Valladier, op. cit., p. 3.

42 Cf. Edgar Wind, op. cit., p. 210, n. 5. As further evidence of the vogue of the Gallic Hercules in the seventeenth century Wind mentions a statue of the god by Puget, now in the Louvre, which was commissioned by Fouquet.

43 Cf. du Bartas, La Premiere sepmaine, 1. 307.

44 See Jacques Poujol, op. cit., p. 914, n. 56.