Ovid and the Gawain Poet

Ovid and the Gawain Poet. I'm reading these two heavy-weights together. Both are, Hugo de Masci. Both are “Bright minded, and expert servants of the craft.” I don't believe Hugo de Masci is a name of the Gawain author. Rather, I think it is, if communicated, a feat of the author being humble, and showing the skill he wields with the pen. As with Ovid, there is mastery of the Greek Mythos. Both crafting stories which are sublime, coherent and easily understood.

There are some artefacts which I draw from Ovid. His obsession with unhealthy romance, illicit sex... and then The Gawain Poet playing with the boundaries of fidelity. It's like both poets are straining against one another. Both are communing with one another. In a cycle of time, where neither ethos was likely to meet the other---it's possible The Gawain Poet read Ovid. But, rather, the response of Chivalry to the romanticism of Ovid's adultery. 

It's important to know that Ovid had been exiled, likely for his stance on adultery. It is also further likely that The Gawain Poet was pushing the boundaries of adultery. Seeing where the line was crossed. Or really, striving for the line. Seeing what boundary would be crossed that would prove fatal.

Ovid's obsession with flirtation and sex is found in his romanticized version of the gods in Roman Religion. It's unclear whether the Romans believed in the gods, but it seems like Ovid is clearly showing the blatant affairs of the gods to poke fun at Augustus's mandate that adultery be illegal. If the gods committed adultery, what reason ought Ovid not?

Then, of course, there is the Chivalry code in Gawain. It plays with adultery---as some of the best poets do---pushing to where the crime is fatal. Is it a kiss? Two kisses? Three kisses? Dishonoring the lord of the house by taking the sash his wife had given, and then not presenting it to him in order to avoid death? Is it in the close and instant chemistry between the lord's wife,---who's more beautiful than Guinevere,---with Gawain? Their conversations, their obvious fatal attraction, the desire they have to be close to the king while in company? What's even more revelatory is that the King is not jealous of this instant attraction between Gawain and his wife. There is a sort of revelation that the whole thing might be contrived by the king---yet, we can rightly say that there is a bond between Gawain and the King's Wife that is chemical, visceral... And Gawain steals six kisses. But, he tells of the kisses to his lord. Obviously the kiss is more important than the sash of immortality.

Ovid, of course, the opposite holds true. gods make frivolous love to maidens, sisters become unhealthily obsessed with their brothers, nymphs almost get raped. It becomes clear that the attitude toward sex reflects that of the Grecian religion. Which is flailing in front of Augustus. Showing him, no proving him that it is counter the will of the idols of Rome. Yet, somehow it prevails that adultery is wrong while Ovid has forgotten this. And there is a conscious reading of Metamorphoses, the almost dreamlike waking up when the crime is about to be committed. Then the dream narration of the poem moves toward the magical Deus Ex Machina of the Nymph being turned into a knoll. Or, in the other case, of the universal law being yielded to, and a brother utterly rejects his sister's love. Ovid is not aware of this---rather, I think he'd almost prefer it if the passions were acted out. Pan chasing Sirynx has that feel of a child chasing his girlhood friend on the playground. The thrill of the chase, and the naughty deed that never happens. 

It's unclear to me what these two opposed systems portray. It's obvious that adultery is celebrated in today's society---I understand it now. It's obvious that the code of Chivalry is dead. Yet, which system would produce the better customs? More inversely, which world was more disdainful of adultery? It seemed like The Gawain Poet pushed the boundaries of the norm---though not readily accepted at his time. And then Ovid was banished. Do the poets always entertain naughty themes? Murder, sex, rape, theft... And why do they? They obviously do for the reason that those naughty things are in us, and we need them purged from us through art.

And what's even more important, is today's society getting offended by stories. Even in Ovid's time, the king tolerated tales of adultery committed by the gods. Ovid wrote of rape. The Gawain Poet wrote on a boundary which would offend many's customs. Yet, today it prevails that adultery is celebrated. Even noble. Why? It doesn't produce happiness. As we've seen. And the story is not tolerated, while the act of adultery is accepted. Pushed into the subconscious, the story is meant to act upon the desire, without really doing so. Yet, when the story is wrong, and the act is right, what can be said? If the story offends the audience because it portrays something taboo, then will not the taboo become active rather than passive? As, the story is a dream. First it brings one to the naughty deed, then it pacifies the naughty dream like it had never happened. Waking up the reader from the dream and the desire. Both satisfying it, and cutting the guilty conscience to allow them to realize “It was only a story.” 

Rightly, that's what the story is meant to do. It's meant to cut us. Even Bible Stories play this role, as I can see no other meaning for the story of the Levite who cuts his concubine into pieces, after she is raped. Though this is a true story, there is something built in us that feeds on the macabre. There is something in us that wants to see entire civilizations destroyed to the last child, and then to wake up from it so we can better appreciate peace. There is a fascination with war and not peace in the human mind. We are readily aware of peace. But, we do not know war. We do not know crime. So, the artist---possibly having committed certain crimes or gone to war---puts on a moral display for us, to wake us up from the moment of the deed. And thereby, appeasing our curiosity while at the same time telling a moral tale on why not to do it.

Stories are integral for that reason. When they're done right. As, stories can often be the most damaging thing on the psyche if they delve into concepts of bathos. Bathos being graphic sex, gratuitous murder or the elevation of the passions. Or kitsch, which is the indulgence of lustful or aggravating themes. Such things as Pan and Sirynx, if Sirynx did not turn into a knoll. Or Narcissus and Echo, where Echo becomes the true villain. Such things are contrary to the Logos and Nature. 

So I have just revealed the mystery of a story.

Gawain Poet, The. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Translator Brian Stone. Penguin Classics, 1974. Text.
Ovid. Metamorphoses. Translator David Raeburn. Penguin Classics, 2004. Text.