Myth and the Construction of Meaning in the Soledades and the Polifemo

This essay examines the role of mythological allusions in the Soledades and the Polifemo, and in particular those with which both poems open. While many critics have identified the sources of the myths Góngora uses, less attention has been given to their importance as markers of meaning. I aim to show how these allusions exercise a broader function than is commonly understood, especially in preparing the way for what is to come; how insufficient attention has been paid to the biblical reference to Jonah; and how the apparently discrete allusions belong to larger patterns of mythological discourse the presence of which can be detected at later points in the poems. I shall look at the ways in which they establish the themes of shipwreck and deliverance in the Soledades and consistently associate both Galatea and Acis with death in the Polifemo. I conclude that in each case the poems offer a more complex vision of love than some have thought

Art · Epistemology · Function (biology · Literature · Meaning (existential · Mythology · Poetry · Early Modern Spanish Literature · Philosophy