Icaro-Perceval: tra étymologie e mythologie

(Icaro-Perceval) Unaware of their own name (Perceval of the Conte du Graal) and of the myth that precedes them (the “volatile” Icarus of Le vol d’Icare), the two young protagonists, in similar ways, abide by the motto “Know thyself”. Tabulae rasae, they both set out from an absolute unawareness of self and of the world (of the names of the world), to solve riddles and charades that make reference to their identity. Perceval has his name revealed to him through divination, thus discovering his lineage and his destiny as a knight. The twentieth-century Icarus, obsessed with aerodynamics, effects yet another fatal fall from the sky. In both cases, it is clear that having recourse to the nice type (the ingenuous or naïf type) is also a narrative expedient by the respective authors (Chrétien de Troyes and Raymond Queneau) to avoid the omniscience of myth and fate and to enable us to play blind-man’s-buff with the character. Common experiences are therefore resolved into a chain of enjoyable qui pro quo. Even though, as always, everything was already laid down in the name.