Placido Tramite. La légende d'Eustache, empreinte fossile d'un mythe carolingien

摘要

Placido Tramite. The Legend of Saint Eustace. A Fossil Trace of a Carolingian Myth? Even when its text is handed down unchanged by a long succession of clerics, a hagiographie legend is subject to changing interpretations at particular moments in history. Thus, the legend of Eustace, known in the West through a variety of 10th century texts, was introduced as early as the 9th century at the Frankish court, where it served as a founding myth, a justification of a global vision of society. One can in fact observe a triple ideological and textual convergence : 1) The text presents analogies with the legendary Life of Dionysius, composed after the arrival of the famous Corpus Dionysiacum at the court Louis the Pious in 827 : 2) The three periods of Eustace's life accurately reflect the three orders of the tripartite society as it was conceived in the 9th century ; 3) The poem of Ermold the Black in honor of Louis the Pious (827)— in particular the episode of the hunt offered by Louis to Harold for his conversion — is a rearrangement of elements corresponding to those in the text of the legend. The later composition highlights the role of the monarch at the summit of an ideal hierarchy that was both feudal and tripartite. The ideological context of the 9th century provided a setting for a legend that later took on other meanings.