Classical Monsters in Medieval Literature and Art

Abstract This chapter first outlines what were the main sources and the channels of transmission of monster lore from classical antiquity in the Middle Ages. Afterwards, it illustrates how medieval texts defined the monstrous and what the occurrences of classical monsters in medieval visual and written culture were. Finally, it isolates four main attitudes that medieval culture adopted in handling classical monsters: (1) packaging the monster as a metaphor of human-animal duplicity; (2) reinventing the monster to make sense of different traditions competing with classical material; (3) using the monster as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unorthodox behaviour; and (4) imagining the monster as the exotic counterpart of European humans. These overlapping four attitudes are not exhaustive of all the aspects of medieval teratology but are intended to provide a glimpse of the tapestry that constituted medieval configurations of classical monsters.