Abstract
This essay focuses upon the textual and intertextual functions of mythological citations in Middle High German love lyrics by examining some quotations concerning the myth of Paris and Helena. Starting with Heinrich von Morungen's song MF XVIII, which conceives the vrouwe as a new Venus/Helena, it is analyzed, how the text develops the idea of a translatio amoris. Walther von der Vogelweide and Der Tannhuuser reflect this idea in quotations of Helena and Diana and of the Judgement of Paris respectively, both in a very specific and ironic way. The two citations of the Destruction of Troy in the Leichs of Der wilde Alexander and Konrad von Wurzburg represent illuminating revisions of the meaning of the traditional plot. The first relates the mourning tune of the minnesinger to Paris' tragic death. The second presents an allegoric struggle between Amor and Venus against Mars and Discordia. The song ends in a dance as the utopian expression of a world of Venus and so emphasizes the eminent social function of minnesang and minnesinger. Summing up mythological citations refer to a continuous tradition of medieval interpretation of classical mythology. This "intertext" is actualized by the texts. As ambiguous figures the citations open the structure of textual sense and provoke poetological reflection.
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