Book Six of The Faerie Queene deals with the complexities of courtesy in a socially changing world. Calidore, the protagonist of Book Six, sets out to defeat the Blatant Beast, the chief enemy of courtesy, but abandons his quest midway through the book in order to live the shepherds’ life. Despite the ethical ambiguity associated with Calidore’s abandoning his quest, this pastoral setting should enable him to deepen his understanding of the nature and practice of courtesy. However, Calidore is unable to grow, and the poet essentially gives up on his own poetic quest.

Book Six of The Faerie Queene deals with the complexities of courtesy in a socially changing world. Calidore, the protagonist of Book Six, sets out to defeat the Blatant Beast, the chief enemy of courtesy, but abandons his quest midway through the book in order to live the shepherds’ life. Despite the ethical ambiguity associated with Calidore’s abandoning his quest, this pastoral setting should enable him to deepen his understanding of the nature and practice of courtesy. However, Calidore is unable to grow, and the poet essentially gives up on his own poetic quest.

Cette étude développe l’analyse de stratégies d’appropriation et d’administration religieuse du territoire dans le sixième livre de l’Énéide selon une perspective géoreligieuse. Avec le nom de géoreligion, nous définissons un paradigme interprétatif qui étudie l’impact des éléments religieux de façon simultanée sur le paysage interne au récit (a), sur le contexte extratextuel (b) ainsi que sur le terrain de la compétition poétique (c). D’abord nous examinons comment les éléments religieux influencent l’organisation du territoire italique et celui de l’au-delà (a). Dans ce cadre, nous avons réalisé que les éléments religieux ont la fonction d’actualiser l’espace épique : il est alors légitime de se demander dans quelle mesure ils influencent la perception que le lecteur a du contexte extratextuel (b). Enfin, cette double re-territorialisation religieuse, qui investit le paysage épique de même que l’horizon d’attente du lecteur/auditeur, implique systématiquement une réélaboration du bagage de la tradition littéraire antérieure (c). En conclusion, notre travail propose de lire une série d’éléments religieux choisis du sixième livre de l’Énéide (les rites funéraires, le complexe sanctorial de Cumes, les discours d’Anchise et de la Sibylle) comme des points nodaux qui structurent le territoire épique (a), qui influencent la perception du lecteur/auditeur (b) et qui constituent l’occasion concrète pour la réélaboration virgilienne de traditions littéraires hétérogènes (c). / This dissertation looks at the strategies of religious appropriation and organisation of the fictional territory in Book Six of the Aeneid from a geo-religious perspective. I use the term ‘georeligion’ to refer to an interpretive paradigm that studies the impact of religious elements on the fictional territory of epic (a), on the extratextual context (b) and on the field of poetic competition (c). First, I examine how religious elements inform the Book’s Italic and catabatic landscapes. In this context I conclude that the religious elements serve to contemporize the fictional landscape and, as a consequence, influence the reader/listener’s horizon of expectation. I then attempt to identify the poetic and meta-poetic strategies that underlie such acts of religious ‘re-territorialisation’. In conclusion, I suggest reading certain religious elements from Book Six (the funerary rites, the sacral site of Cumae and the speeches of Anchises and the Sibyl) as nodal points that (a) give structure to the epic territory, (b) influence the perception ofthe reader/listener, and (c) act as a platform for the reworking of the earlier literary tradition.