Od śmierci wojownika do śmierci rycerza : średniowieczny autor czyta Tebaidę

The anachronism, omnipresent in mediaeval adaptations of antique texts, is of not merely esthetical, but also ideological order, and conditioned by the adoption of the Christian perspective. The article focuses on changes in the vision of death between Statius’ Thebaid and 12th century Romance of Thebes. In his adaptation, the mediaeval author eliminates nearly totally the motif of suicide well represented in the Thebaid, but important changes concern also the motif of heroes’ death in the battlefield. While subsisting in both texts, it is deeply Christianized in the mediaeval romance, with the stress on the necessity of compassion and of forgiving the offences.