Teseida

Teseida (full title: Teseida delle Nozze d’Emilia, or The Theseid, Concerning the Nuptials of Emily) is a long epic poem written by Giovanni Boccaccio c.1340–41. Running to almost 10,000 lines divided into twelve books, its notional subject is the career and rule of the ancient Greek hero Theseus (Teseo), although the majority of the epic tells the story of the rivalry of Palemone and Arcita for the love of Emilia. It is the main source of "The Knight's Tale" in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and therefore is the original source of The Two Noble Kinsmen, a collaboration by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. The exact sources of Boccaccio's knowledge about the ancient Greek world are unknown, but is likely that he gained the knowledge through his close friendship with Paolo de Perugia, a medieval collector of ancient myths and tales.

Jeanne de la Font gained fame in the sixteenth century by writing a French verse adaption of Teseida.

Book I: Teseo (Theseus) launches an expedition into Scythia, the land of the Amazons. There his expedition is victorious against the warrior women and marries their queen, Ipolita (Hippolyta).

Book II: Returning home to Athens with Ipolita, he encounters on the road a group of women from Thebes. They are the widows of nobles and heroes defeated by the new ruler there, Creon, who has refused to let the bodies of the vanquished be buried. At their entreaty, Teseo reroutes his army to Thebes (sending Ipolita on to Athens under guard) and there does battle against Creon. Teseo is victorious again. In the aftermath, Teseo's soldiers find two cousins nearly dead on the battlefield. They are Palemone and Arcita, who belong to the Theban royal family. So Teseo orders them taken with him to Athens to be imprisoned for life.

Book III: From out of the window of their shared prison cell, both men spy Ipolita’s younger sister, Emilia, and are instantly smitten. But neither has any hope of pursuing the object of his ardor. However, at the intercession of Peritoo, a friend of Teseo, Arcita is released from prison under the condition that he will leave Athens and never return.

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