Pagan idols and Christian anxieties in medieval Troy narratives

This chapter examines the treatment of pagan cult statues as idols in mediaeval Troy narratives. It focuses on the language used to convey the idea of idolatry, ranging from relatively neutral presentations to the explicit rejection of idols and their veneration. The literary emphasis on the wealth lavished on pagan gods and their images, on the physical worship of the images through prostration and sacrifice, and on the demonic forces inhabiting the ‘empty’ images is often mirrored in manuscript illuminations which depict the images as ‘ugly’ figures made of gold and animated by pagan worship. This chapter draws on both visual and literary evidence to highlight the ways in which mediaeval Troy narratives reflect a Christian struggle to appropriate the Greco-Roman past and its narratives, while simultaneously using them to distinguish ancient pagan ritual from contemporary Christian practices and ideals. It argues that mediaeval Troy narratives serve as vehicles for Christian reflections on the concept of idolatry and on Christianity’s complicated relationship with it, as well as vehicles for the perpetuation of religious prejudice by linking paganism and Islam with devil-worship through the charge of idolatry.