See Also: Troilus and Cressida(encyclopedia)
Troilus and Cressida(dictionary)
Troilus(medicine)
Cressida(dictionary)

Troilus and Cressida (sh)




Lovers in medieval romance, based on characters from Greek mythology.

In the Iliad, Troilus, son of Priam and Hecuba, is dead before the Trojan War starts. In non-Homeric legends he was said to have been killed during the war by Achilles. He was first turned into a romantic figure in the Middle Ages, when he was portrayed as an innocent young lover betrayed by the faithless Cressida, who abandoned him for the Greek warrior Diomedes. The first version of the story was written by the 12th-century trouvere Beno?t de Sainte-Maure in the poem "Roman de Troie." More famous versions include Giovanni Boccaccio's "Il Filostrato," Geoffrey Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde," and William Shakespeare's drama Troilus and Cressida.