ABSTRACT
The God of Love had demanded counter-narratives, a retelling of the stories that traditionally condemned women. In creating the double legend of Hypsipyle and Medea, Geoffrey Chaucer is able to follow the fortunes of Jason as he wreaks havoc in the lives of several women, moving through the ancient world like a small but deadly poison. Topping any medieval list of ‘good’ women would have been Lucrece, the Roman matron raped by Tarquin, who killed herself rather than bring ‘dishonour’ upon her husband. The god declares that there are a hundred stories about good women for every single story about a bad one. In the course of The Legend of Good Women’s Prologue, this clever, beautiful, daisy woman is identified. For the god, however, the reality of death, in the sense of what it means for the women, is immaterial: what matters is the symbolic value of their deaths, their devotion to love, and to the God of Love’s laws.
