Case of Palamedes: Forged Letters and Paradoxes of Social Imagination in the Old French “Roman of Troy” (XII Century)

The author analyzes the description of Palamedes’ death in the final part of the Old French “Roman de Troie” (c. 1165) by Benoît de Sainte-Maure. Focus on the specifics of Benoît’s work with the late ancient accounts of the so called Dares the Phrygian and Dictys of Crete and also with the “Commentary” of Servius the Grammarian on Virgil’s “Aeneid” allows to outline a number of original features in the social imagination of the medieval poet. Benoît de Sainte-Maure’s text is traditionally classified as one of the earliest examples of the medieval chivalric novel. Special attention is paid to the topic of correlation between the military and intellectual components in the images of ancient heroes.