Frankish element enters so little into the texture of the story that even the heroine, who ought to have a Latin name, is called Chrysantza, and described as purple born. It has been ingeniously suggested that Belthandros and Rhodophilus are transformations of the names Bertrand and Rudolf, but the poet, as if to show that he is not drawing upon Western literature, intimates expressly that the names are Greek—and so they are.[1] At the same time, Greek though the poem is, it has an unmistakable kinship with the French romans d'aventure.
Another poem of chivalry, Lybistros and Rhodamne, has a very similar motif. The general gist of the argument may be stated in a sentence. It was revealed to Lybistros in a dream that he is destined to wed Rhodamne, whose fate is revealed in like manner to her; he discovers and wins her; then they are separated by magical means, and in the end he finds her again. This is the groundwork; but the construction is intricate and the poem in every way more elaborate than the tale of Belthandros. The first thing to be noticed is that the poet is expressly sympathetic with the world of Latin chivalry. The hero is conceived as a Latin prince, and wears Latin costume. The heroine, daughter of an Indian king, admires Frank customs. The name of the hero's rival, a king of Egypt, is Berderichos, that is, Bertrich; and the claim of the two suitors for Rhodamne's hand is decided by a tournament.
The love-making of Lybistros and Rhodamne by correspondence forms a substantial part of the story. The lover has to attach his letters to arrows and shoot them into the garden of the princess. Some of the letters are
- ↑ If the poem was written in Rhodes (a possible supposition) the choice of the name Rhodophilus for the imaginary Basileus would be explained.
