g Emily as abstract paragon of classical femininity) which asserts Theseus's dominance. This classical femininity, by which I mean that Chaucer deploys the traditional Romance formulae with regards to his heroine, can be referred back to Chaucer's translation of the Roman de La Rose, where the heroine is described as hair yellow, eyes grey, complexion white tried- Emily is even less defined by base' physicality: in the heroes eyes both, her status as goddess and object finds its bearing in the lack of actual description. In elaborating upon what is meant by the classical mode as exhibited by the Knights Tale its classicality' consists primarily upon its being set in a classical milieu, and being based upon Boccacios' Romance Teseia, thus not only an example of a pervasive theme characterises the Knights Tale, but also a set of implied conventions of judgement found in the continuity between the Classical model and its revival in Medieval Literature. We have only to look to, say, Shakespeare appropriating its (quite certainly Classical) characters, but also elements of its internal symmetry and eventual reconciliation to the Greek Comedic conventions, culminating all in union and reconciliation, as in plays such as The Winters Tale' and The Two Noble Kinsmen'. Such elements are not particular to the Canterbury Tales, but useful in terms of recognising how The Knights Tale especially is, in its structure and integral framework with regards to marriage particularly as a transcendent symbol of renewal, very much part of the classical tradition of literature.
Theseus's conquest over the Amazons, the representatives of emancipated sexuality, and his unification with their Queen Hippolyta (Ypolita), is to assimilate, to contain female sexuality symbolically, by the devices of male supremacy in the art of chivalrous war, and then transform it by the formalised ceremony of marriage.
