Abstract:This essay demonstrates how two middle English Oedipus narratives—the South English Legendary’s “Life of Judas” and the opening section of John Lydgate’s Siege of Thebes—invoke the “ages of man” topos differently in order to dramatize why an individual deviates from normative development. The “Life of Judas” alludes to the topos to speculate about character psychology and pathological development and thus crafts a medieval “popular” psychology. In the Siege of Thebes, the “ages of man” system exemplifies an idealized counterpoint to Edippus’s pathological development and explains why his existence is at odds with the Theban polis. The essay ends by considering evidence that Sigmund Freud may have known these medieval Oedipus narratives and situates these stories as distant preludes to the Freudian Oedipus complex.

中文翻译：

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两种中古英语俄狄浦斯叙事中的人类时代

摘要：本文论证了如何用两种中间的英语俄狄浦斯叙事-南英格兰传奇人物的《犹大的生活》和约翰·利德盖特的《底贝斯的围攻》的开篇-以不同的方式调用“人的年龄”，以戏剧化地说明一个人为何背离规范发展。“犹大的生活”暗示着推测性格心理学和病理发展的主题，从而形成了中世纪的“大众化”心理学。在《底比斯围困》中，“人类时代”系统是对Edippus病态发展的理想对立，并解释了为什么他的存在与Theban都市不符。文章的结尾考虑了西格蒙德·弗洛伊德（Sigmund Freud）可能已经知道这些中世纪俄狄浦斯叙事的证据，并将这些故事作为弗洛伊德俄狄浦斯情结的遥远前奏。