Cligés. English

Cligès is a poem by the medieval French poet Chrétien de Troyes, dating from around 1176.  Cligès is the second of five Arthurian Romances; Erec and Enide, Cligès,  Yvain,  Lancelot and Perceval. It tells the story of the knight Cligès and his love for his uncle's wife, Fenice. Because of the story's de-romanticized depiction of adultery, it has been called a criticism or parody of the Tristan and Isolde romances.  Cligès scholar Lucie Polak not only verifies theTristan and Isolde reworking found in the text, but also suggests that Cligès may be modeled after Ovid's character Narcissus.  Cligès opening lines give some of the only extant information on the creator's biography and earlier work.