Amazonas del mar y sátiros acuáticos

The work of Luis de Góngora (1561–1627) arguably represents the peak of early Baroque poetic mythography, but even if myth is a recurring element in Gongorine poetry its appearance varies greatly. From the youthful poetry to the major works of the first decades of the 17th century and beyond we find important nuances and a recurring revaluation and redefinition of myth. Thus, starting off by the both moral and sensual interpretation characteristic of Renaissance literature in the early sonnets, passing through Ovidian aetiology in the Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea and the philosophical meditation on myth in the Soledades, the poet reaches the satirical-burlesque with a moral flavour in the Fábula de Píramo y Tisbe. However, underlying all these different phases we find a persistent ambiguity rooted in the ambiguous post-classical reception of Greco-Roman mythology.

On the background of a brief survey of the ambiguous concept of classical mythology permeating Góngora’s work from beginning to end, the present article particularly explores the meditative phase of the Soledades, arguing its importance for our understanding of the Baroque period as well as for the origin of what may be termed the tradition of ’mythological literature’.