Classical topomythopoiesis. Survival of the pagan gods during the Christian Middle Ages

Abstract

The gardens of the Renaissance are well known for being populated by the gods and settings of Classical mythology — an iconographic tradition that originated in the cult sanctuaries of Ancient Greece and transplanted to Hellenistic and Roman gardens; a tradition of place-making that I term Classical topomythopoiesis. But, what happened in-between? Gardens from the Middle Ages are not often associated with the pagan myths, but rather with Christian symbolism. This article provides a survey of the survival of Medieval Classical topomythopoiesis. It discusses various ways in which Christians received the gods, and how the language of mythology continued to shape the beholder’s share in viewing landscapes. It traces the origins of the garden of love to show how it opened the gate for the gods of love to become baptised within later Medieval garden culture. The article then provides a novel reading of the Narcissus-fountain episode in the Roman de la Rose as a hypothetical exemplar of how the myths in gardens were evoked through a process of interpretation that echoes Medieval biblical exegesis. The article concludes by arguing that Boccaccio’s liberation of the mythical garden as an imagined, sensual setting signals a shift towards a Neoplatonic approach to topomythopoiesis.