Trojan Sodomy and the Politics of Marriage in the Roman d'Enéas

Abstract

In the twelfth-century poem Le roman d'Enéas, the future mother-in-law of Enéas accuses him, and all Trojans, of being both abductors of women and "sodomites." This paper reads the contradictory meanings of "sodomy" in the context of two twelfth-century developments: the transformation of aristocratic marriage, as documented by Georges Duby, and the erosion of aristocratic power. The paper argues that the poem's repudiation of Trojan "sodomy" through the triumph of heterosexual love supports the weakening of horizontal ties between men and envisions a shift to dynastic power, legitimated by unbroken links between father and son.