ABSTRACT
In late-seventeenth-century France, political erotica emerged as a means of dislodging myths of heroism promoted by Louis XIV. 1 Found in a number of manuscript sources and in a few published works, political erotica attacked the King and anyone associated with the royal body, including courtiers, the King's doctors, military leaders, and favored artists of all kinds. By using subjects related to sex, these works challenged and undermined the language of heroism advocated by Louis XIV. 2 Two specific genres of political erotica were literary and musical parodies, hereafter referred to as erotic parodies. Government-sanctioned works of art were were often erotic parodic objects because they served as the very tools of propaganda that promoted images of the King as hero. It is not surprising that after 1673, authors found Jean-Baptiste Lully's tragédies en musique as suitable works to parody. The operas not only reflected the King's vision of heroism as an extension of his own person, they were also extremely popular and well-known to audiences whose social worlds never intersected directly with that of King and court. 3
