Reading through a modern Italian version of Orlando furioso right now.

In Canto 20, the female warrior Marfisa meets a knight errant, Zerbino, who challenges her and loses. The deal she makes is that he must, if he loses, pledge to take care of an old woman Marfisa was accompanying.  

In Canto 21, Zerbino, stuck with the old woman, is met by another knight, Ermonide, who wants to kill the old woman. Zerbino is bound to protect her and in the challenge, mortally wounds Ermonide, who with his dying minutes, tells the story of the woman and why he wanted to kill her.

Her name is Gabrina and she was married at one time to a Serbian lord, Argeo, who loved her dearly. She, however, was not so faithful. She fell in lust with Ermonide’s brother, Filandro who had traveled to Serbia and was serving Argeo. Filando would not do such a thing, and decided to leave so as not to be a problem between Argeo and Gabrina. Being unable to convince Filandro to fulfill her amorous delights, Gabrina told Argeo that Filandro had raped her and fled. Argeo chases down Filandro, unaware of what he had been accused of, and was taken prisoner.

Gabrina still tries to induce Filandro to fulfill her wishes, but he refuses, even with the threat of being held in prison, to cheat on his friend.  

Gabrina then concocts a plan. She goes to Filandro in prison and tells him a new guy, Morando, has appeared who is making amorous advances towards her, which she doesn’t want. She begs Filandro, knowing him to be an upstanding man, to save her from this disgrace, by killing Morando when he comes to force himself upon her. Filandro reluctantly agrees, if only to protect his friend Argeo.

When Morando comes in that night, everything is dark….Filandro kills him. Gabrina then turns on the light to show that Filandro had actually killed his friend Argeo! There was no other guy named Morando.

Now Gabrina threatens to turn Filandro in and smear his name as a murderer, unless he now fulfill her wishes and make love to her. He resists at first but finally submits. After this, Gabrina hates Filandro with the same passion she desired him beforehand, so she hires a medic to poison him. She tricks the medic too and both he and Filandro die. She is found out and imprisoned, but escapes.

For this reason, the knight Ermonide, had wanted to bring her to justice, but Zerbino, bound by his word to protect her, defeated Ermonide, the righteous one, to defend Gabrina, the culpable one.

Orlando furioso is filled with these types of stories. At first sight, they can seem like stock morality tales with the prototypical adventurers of the day- knights and damsels.  

But it’s in the morality part of the story that the real meat lays. There are all kinds of lessons here:

Challenges, for the sake of maintaining personal honor, that end up defending the wrong cause.

Oaths made that tie one to the wrong cause as well.

Regrets over those hastily made oaths, and the repercussions that follow.

Faithful behavior contrasted with fickle behavior.

The deceitful nature of lust, or other passions/addictions

Examples of how deceitful and persuasive the arguments of the flesh can be

Warnings of what can happen when one aligns oneself with a wrong cause

These stories aren’t literally true, but the stories are lessons through metaphors for things we literally face. If we read them correctly, with some understanding of what they really are, then we can see beyond the surface to the deeper messages that continue to resonate because they concern human nature.