«When the white hart breaks his cover». Il disvelamento del motivo archetipico della caccia al cervo

This paper aims to evaluate the meanings and the functions of the archetype of the stag hunt, as well as how it originated and what literary declinations it shows in fully-developed cultures. The examined cases include origin myths, hagiographies, works by Chrétien de Troyes, Marie de France and Angelo Poliziano. A key aspect lies in the question, inspired by the theories of Eleazar Meletinskij, about the precedency of the archetype compared to its archetypical motif: what was born before, the archetype of the stag or the stag as a quarry to hunt? Through the analysis of the considered texts, this article concludes that the meanings connected to the stag originated in a hunt-related pattern, and therefore, in this case, the motif came before thearchetype itself.