Les mentions ­d’auteurs antiques dans les chansons de geste françaises

This contribution examines the explicit references to eight Greco-Latin classical authors throughout the medieval epic corpus: Aristotle, Cato, Cesar, Homer, Ovid, Plato, Seneca, and Virgil. The chansons de geste have transmitted diverse memories of these authors which are linked to real or legendary biographical elements more than the written production for which they were known. The analysis reveals the ambivalence surrounding several of these learned figures of the pagan world.