1. The Doormat-Pedestal Strategy
>>>R. Howard Bloch, Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love (U of Chicago Press, 1991).
2. Heloise's story: from "doormat" to "pedestal"
1. The saints of medieval hagiographic romance as victims
2. Secular mythology: the founding hero as scapegoat
For a fault that Laius, the king of Thebes, committed against Pelops's child, Laius was cursed as follows: he would beget a son, and his son would murder him. So, when Oedipus was born, Laius nailed the child's feet into wooden shackles (hence his name, Oedipus, "Swollen-Foot") and abandonned him. The child is found and raised by Polybus in the city of Corinth, where Oedipus becomes a prominent citizen. Discovering that he is a foster child, Oedipus decides to consult the oracle of Delphi. On his way, he meets Laius, who attempts to run over him with his chariot. Oedipus responds by attacking and killing Laius. Thus the curse according to which Oedipus will murder his father is now realized. After Laius's death, Creon becomes king of Thebes. On a nearby mountain lives the Sphinx. Creon offers the kingdom and the hand of Laius's widow, Queen Iocasta, to whoever will solve the riddle of the Sphinx. Which Oedipus proceeds to do. After unwittingly killing his father Laius, Oedipus thus unwittingly marries his own mother. From then on, a plague falls upon Thebes. Oedipus's incestuous marriage is revealed to be the cause of the plague. Discovering that Oedipus is her son, Iocasta kills herself. Oedipus blinds himself and departs into exile, and Thebes is finally freed from the plague.
>>>René Girard, The Scapegoat (1982; English 1986).
3. Hagiographic mythology: the saint as scapegoat
The Passion-like character of hagiographic romance.
>>>R. I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society. Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-1250 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1987).