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ANDROGEUS was the son of Minos and Pasiphae, the king and queen of Crete. He was killed treacherously when he excelled at the Pan-Athenian Games (Heroides X.99).

Chaucer says that Androgeus was killed because of envy of his philosophical attainments, LGW 1894-1899. S.B. Meech points out that glosses on the Metamorphoses contributed to the medieval tradition that Androgeus's scholastic excellence brought about his death. Chaucer may have used the references in Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Documentum de modo de arte dictandi et versificandi I.2-8, as well. There is a short reference in Machaut, Le jugement dou roy de Navarre, 2702-2712. [Adriane: Minos: Phasipha: Phedra: Theseus]


E. Faral, Les arts poétiques, 265-266; Guillaume de Machaut, Oeuvres, ed. E. Hoepffner, I: 230; S.B. Meech, "Chaucer and the Ovide Moralisé--A Further Study." PMLA 46 (1931): 186-187; Ovid, Her, ed. and trans. G. Showerman, 128-129.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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