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114-454: La Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea ( The Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea ), or simply the Polifemo , is a literary work written by Spanish poet Luis de Góngora y Argote . The poem, though borrowing heavily from prior literary sources of Greek and Roman Antiquity , attempts to go beyond the established versions of the myth by reconfiguring the narrative structure handed down by Ovid . Through

228-600: A Blind Eye: Sexual Competition, Self-Nontraditional, and the Impotence of Pastoral in Góngora’s Fabula de Polifemo y Galatea” affirms that Acis's courtship stratagem engages the sensuality of Galatea and triumphs over the “contemplative love” of Polifemo. Acis expresses his desire through means of luxurious material offerings, hinting at the old pagan practice of the Anathema , as well as unadulterated “erotic passion” that

342-445: A Ceres, y aun mas, su vega llana; Pues si en la una granos de oro llueve, Copos nieva en la otra mil de lana. De cuantos siegan oro, esquilan nieve, O en pipas guardan la exprimida grana, Bien sea religión, bien amor sea, Deidad, aunque sin templo, es Galatea. To Pales are its rugged peaks indebted For what are fields, and more, to Ceres owing; If one is with a rain of gold grains wetted, Wool flakes in scores are on

456-410: A bundle of individual perceptions and privately held associations. Using this understanding, the distinction between Polyphemus and his cave is no longer deemed relevant as an overarching sympathy exists between the two. All of these forms serve an aesthetic purpose of preeminent importance as both capture the melancholic sense of longing and neglect that Góngora attempts to develop and incorporate into

570-454: A clear destination); speluncas ("caves"); surculos (sprouts, scions ). He was also the first to write poems imitating the speech of blacks. Góngora also had a penchant for apparent breaks in syntactical flow, as he overturned the limitations of syntax, making the hyperbaton the most prominent feature of his poetry. He has been called a man of "unquestioned genius and almost limitless culture, an initiator who enriched his language with

684-429: A gambling den; not much of a Christian, / but he's very much a cardsharp , not a cleric, definitely a harpy ). Góngora's nose, the subject of Quevedo's "A una nariz", begins with the lines: Érase un hombre a una nariz pegado, / érase una nariz superlativa, / érase una alquitara medio viva, / érase un peje espada muy barbado (English: Once there was a man stuck to a nose, / it was a nose more marvellous than weird, / it

798-483: A la escena. Si en los polos hallamos los límites de la escala cromática —el blanco y el negro—, en el interior, el cuadro explota con manchas de color vividas, oximóricas, que a través de sus significados simbólicos construyen imágenes, personajes, paisajes, sentimientos y emociones. Being a work written during the Baroque Epoch, an epoch which favored the profuse use of contrasts in painting more so than any of

912-416: A manual of self-help for executives and has obtained a recent publishing success.) He also wrote a rhetoric of Baroque literature, that starts from the texts to redefine the figures of speech of the time, because they did not relate to the classical models. It is a treaty on the concept, which he defines as "an act of the understanding which expresses the correspondence that is found between the objects". That

1026-415: A mis quejas Purpúreos troncos de corales ciento, O al disonante numero de almejas —marino, si agradable no, instrumento— Coros tejiendo estés escuchas un día Mi voz, por dulce, cuando no por mía. Deaf daughter of the sea, your ears resistant Are to my dirges like to winds this boulder: Either, they’re blocked, when slumber makes you distant By coral trunks that in the sea waves molder. Or,

1140-402: A particular display of culteranismo, can be thought of as a poetic device that abandons the precision of ordinary language for the sake of artistic expression. Within the poem, parallelism, proportionality, dissonance and intricate array of puns involving both similitude and antithesis also give the poem greater complexity than that of its classical predecessors. The elaborate summoning of

1254-462: A picture of a man jovial, sociable, and talkative, who loved card-playing and bullfights . His bishop accused him of rarely attending choir , and of praying less than fervently when he did go. Góngora's passion for card-playing ultimately contributed to his ruin. Frequent allusions and metaphors associated with card-playing in Góngora's poetry reveal that cards formed part of his daily life. He

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1368-584: A poet. He also argued that the apparent simplicity of some of Góngora's early poems is often deceptive. Rafael Alberti added his own Soledad tercera ( Paráfrasis incompleta ). In 1961, Alberti declared, "I am a visual poet, like all of the poets from Andalusia , from Góngora to García Lorca." García Lorca presented a lecture called "La imagen poética en don Luís de Góngora" at the Ateneo in Seville in 1927. In this lecture, García Lorca paid Jean Epstein

1482-524: A popular scene that has endured as a classic production for future theater. The philosophical dramas of Calderón de la Barca , of which Life Is a Dream is an outstanding example, represent a zenith in Spanish dramatic production and is part of a period of splendor that receives the generic name of the Spanish Golden Age . The Baroque is characterized by the following features: In view of

1596-462: A rigorous aesthetic framework of poetic regulations derived from the ancients in order to establish a more coherent dialogue with the audience or reader. Critics such as Juan Martínez de Jáuregui y Aguilar and Francisco de Quevedo , for reasons related to their obscure lyricism, saw culternanist poets as highly affected, superficial and purposefully obscure with the intention of masking poetic mediocrity with highly ornate phraseology. Regardless of

1710-439: A shady cover for a cool, inviting settee with ivy twines serving as green shutters, climbing around trunks and embracing rocks.” (English Prose Translation by Miroslav John Hanak) Contrary to Acis, Polyphemus represents failed self-cultivation, convention as opposed to nature, and the fruitless application of the virtues of neo-platonic thought, which stressed upward progression, refinement, beauty and universal harmony Unlike

1824-404: A successful comedy. Juan de la Cueva , in the second half of the 16th century, introduced two elements of great importance for the boom of this artistic production: popular ethics, that gave origin to the comedies of national historical character, and the freedom to compose plays considering popular taste. Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina took these characteristics to their furthest extent. At

1938-703: A theme centered on the concern for the passage of time and the loss of confidence in the Neoplatonic ideals of the Renaissance . Likewise, the variety and diversity in the subjects dealt with, the attention to detail and the desire to attract a wide audience, of which the rise of the Lope de Vega comedies are an example. From the dominant sensual concern in the 16th century, there was an emphasis on moral values and didactics, where two currents converge: Neostoicism and Neoepicureism. El Criticón from Baltasar Gracián

2052-467: A year after Cervantes died, The works of Persiles and Sigismunda appeared. It draws on the Byzantine and Greek novelists such as Heliodorus (3rd century CE) and his The Ethiopian Story of Theagenes and Chariclea . It relates, in four books, how Periandro and Auristela travel from northern territories of Norway or Finland to Rome to receive Christian marriage. As is typical of this subgenre, throughout

2166-535: Is a humorous defense of his theater. He shows scorn about the rigid interpretation that the theorists of the Renaissance—mostly Italian—had done of the Aristotelian ideas on the theatre, and he proposes as values, naturalness as opposed to artifice, variety as opposed to unity, and considering popular taste. Among his prolific dramatic production, some works can be singled out: Peribáñez and

2280-664: Is a point of arrival in the baroque reflection on man and the world, the awareness of disappointment, a vital pessimism and a general crisis of values. The genres are mixed, Luis de Góngora wrote lyrical poetry of the Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea that makes virtue of difficulty, with romances and burlesque satirical works, of wide popular diffusion and the two currents are hybridized in the Fábula de Príamo y Tisbe; Quevedo wrote metaphysical and moral poems, while writing about vulgar and popular matters. The Spanish Baroque theater configures

2394-475: Is a treatise in conformity with Spanish anti- Machiavellism , proposing a politics free of intrigue and unconnected with bad influences. Towards 1636 Quevedo concluded his last great satirical prose: The hour of everybody and the Fortune with prudence , unpublished until 1650. In it, Jupiter requests Fortune to give for one hour what each individual truly deserves. This makes plain the falsity of appearances, and

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2508-496: Is arguably his finest artistic achievement along with the Soledades . The Polifemo , in sum, realizes the final stage of Góngora ’s sophisticated poetic style, which slowly developed over the course of his career. In addition to the Soledades and other later works, the Polifemo demonstrates the fullest extent of Góngora’s highly accentuated, erudite and impressionistic poetic style known as culteranismo . As made evident in

2622-477: Is foreboding, that which is surly, that which is grotesque; at the same time, there is the presence of the precious flower and the purest of silver, that which is immaculate, the crystalline, that which is sweet, immortal and beautiful. What we have, in sum, are the respective domains of Polyphemus and Galatea." This radical technique, which in Spain was dubbed tenebrismo, also applies on the allegorical level in form of

2736-423: Is inclusive rather than exclusive", one scholar has written, "willing to create and incorporate the new, literally in the form of neologisms ." Góngora had a penchant for highly Latinate and Greek neologisms, which his opponents mocked. Quevedo lampooned his rival by writing a sonnet , "Aguja de navegar cultos," which listed words from Góngora's lexicon : "He would like to be a culto poet in just one day, / must

2850-469: Is not transcendent and thus, anti-intellectual . In these stanzas, Galatea's inaccessible character as an ideal (see Platonic idealism ) is made tangible: “Following the initial shock, Galatea becomes somewhat friendlier and less inaccessible. She coaxes the lucky young man to his feet; sweet and smiling, she is now ready to give, not peace to sleep, but indeed allowing a truce to rest, i.e., not excluding it, but postponing it for later. A hollow rock forms

2964-417: Is one of disillusionment, based on the decay of Spanish society. The world is seen as a hostile space full of deceit and illusion triumphing over virtue and truth, where Man is a self-interested and malicious being. Many of his books are manuals of behavior that allow the reader to succeed gracefully in spite of the maliciousness of his fellow men. For this, he must be prudent and wise, have knowledge of life and

3078-435: Is released from his tower, where he returns, chained, believing he has dreamed his experience of freedom. When a riot rescues him again, his will overcomes the predictions: he overcomes his violent nature, marries Rosaura to Astolfo, and accepts the hand of Estrella. El alcalde de Zalamea may have been first staged in 1636 or 37. It was printed in 1651. First translated into English as The Garrotte Better Given , from 1683 on

3192-435: Is to say, a concept is every association between ideas or objects. To their classification and dissection Gracián dedicated his Art of talent, treatise on the witticism (1642), extended and reviewed in the later Witticism and art of talent (1648). The style of Gracián is dense and polysemous. It is constructed of brief sentences, abundant plays on words, and the ingenious association of concepts. Gracián's attitude to life

3306-558: The Soledades and the Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea ( Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea ) (1612), the two landmark works of the highly refined style called "culteranismo" or "Gongorismo". Miguel de Cervantes , in his Viaje del Parnaso , catalogued the good and bad poets of his time. He considered Góngora to be one of the good ones. Velázquez painted his portrait. Numerous documents, lawsuits and satires by his rival Quevedo paint

3420-500: The Celestina , is based on a popular cantar : Don Alonso dies at the hands of Don Rodrigo, jealous at losing Doña Ines. The Best Mayor, The King is about the dignity of the farmer: Don Tello, haughty nobleman, abuses Elvira, engaged to the farmer Sancho. Alfonso VII allows her to recover her reputation, making her marry Don Tello, and then executes Don Tello, to make the—now noble—widow marry Sancho. The other great dramatist of

3534-467: The Generation of '27 . Culteranismo has always retained a highly arcane and esoteric quality throughout the centuries which would eventually inform the mystical nostalgia definitive to the poetry of other 20th century modernist poets. Along with conceptismo , culteranismo largely defined Spanish Baroque Poetry . Culteranismo , as a 17th-century artistic movement, sought to elevate pure ingenio over

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3648-519: The Poetics of Aristotle and debated in the literary circles of posterity would never cease to divide artists throughout the modern era. Culteranismo, which was particularly fond of playful obscurity, has consequently incurred the disdain of several critics for its liberal artistic outlooks, which critics lampooned as frivolous and pedantic. The primacy of ingenio contradicted the claims of more traditional critics who sought to tame instinct by imposing

3762-484: The Polifemo , Góngora doesn’t seem content to merely imitate Ovid. The two poets had different aspirations that are clear to distinguish. In writing the Metamorphoses, Ovid sought to compose a narrative of mythic time united by the theme of constant transformation. Ovid's intention is, thus, cosmological in nature. Given his drastically opposing style and clear deviation from the ancient poet's narrative structure,

3876-474: The Soledades and the Polifemo , the two landmarks of culteranismo . Góngora alternates popular poetry with a more cultured one. That way he tries to emulate the style of Ancient Romans and Greeks poets using moreover their mythology. The usage of words that come directly from Latin and its complex syntax make him a difficult author to understand. Quevedo's poetry first appeared in an anthology by Pedro de Espinosa, Flowers of Illustrious Poets (1605). Quevedo

3990-430: The nymph Galatea , who rejects him. In the poem's end, Acis , enamored with Galatea, is turned into a river. Góngora's Fábula de Píramo y Tisbe ( Fable of Pyramus and Thisbe ) (1618) is a complex poem that mocks gossiping and avaricious women. Góngora also wrote sonnets concerning various subjects of an amatory, satirical, moral, philosophical, religious, controversial, laudatory, and funereal nature. As well as

4104-540: The 17th century was Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600–1681). His most famous work is Life is a dream (1635), a philosophical drama in which Segismundo, son of the king of Poland, is chained in a tower because of the fateful predictions of the royal astrologers that he will kill his father. Meanwhile, Rosaura proclaims in the Court that her honor has been violated by Duke Astolfo. Duke Astolfo courts Estrella in order to become king. The aggressiveness of Segismundo explodes when he

4218-430: The 2018 video game Detroit: Become Human . This inclusion likely serves as a symbolic reference to the game's exploration of themes such as identity, the human condition, and the blurred lines between appearance and reality—concepts that Góngora's poetry often delved into. Spanish Baroque literature The fundamental characteristics of Spanish Baroque literature are the progressive complexity in formal resources and

4332-529: The Baroque style sought to dissolve the divisions between the ‘intended figure’ and ‘unintended background’ or apeirion “in favor of a vision characterized by ‘a mysterious interflow of form and light and colour.’”. In Góngora's description of the scenery and the characters of the Polifemo, the descriptions themselves become the focus and take on an existence of their own. No longer are properties subordinate to

4446-475: The Catholic (1640) or The Discreet one (1646). In them he creates a full series that exemplifies the exemplary, prudent and sagacious man, and the qualities and virtues that must adorn him. The Manual oracle and art of prudence is a set of three hundred aphorisms composed to help the reader prevail in the complex world-in-crisis of the 17th century. (An English version of this dense treatise has been sold as

4560-599: The Commander of Ocaña (1604–12) is a tragicomedy set in 1406 in Toledo: Peribáñez understands that the Commander of Ocaña has overwhelmed him with honors to harass his woman. After killing him he wins the royal pardon. Around 1614 Lope composed one of his better tragicomedies: Fuenteovejuna . Following the Chronicle of the three orders (Toledo, 1572) of Francisco de Rades  [ es ] , it shows

4674-516: The Cyclops' mundane possessions, Góngora often incorporates anecdotes that detract from the overall narration as in St. 50-53 regarding the shipwrecked Genoese merchants. The thematic aloofness of Góngora's verse contrasts sharply with his purely conceptista contemporaries who valued a verbal economy of correspondences and a less convoluted interplay between words (signs) and their meaning (signifiers) as

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4788-473: The Cyclops’s invocation of Galatea which retains both a presumptuous and wistful tone. Some shared characteristics of classical origin are: Theocritus's version ends in the young Cyclop's self-reprimands. Furthermore, The tone is purely innocent and humorous, while hope for another love remains. Though other imitations and related works exist, the primary inspiration for Góngora was undoubtedly Ovid who portrayed

4902-541: The Italian Dolce Stil Novo poets, such as Petrarch , who revolutionized the poetry of the 14th and 15th centuries. Contrary to the tranquil and idealized settings typical of the pastoral genre, Góngora maintains a fluctuating Background–Foreground dynamic throughout the Polifemo , which makes itself apparent at the very beginning of the poem. Given his fondness for convoluted and self-fashioned metaphors in addition to his profuse use of hiperbatón ,

5016-544: The Judgment narrates the resurrection of the dead, who must answer for the manner of their life. It is a social satire against professions or trades: jurists, doctors, butchers... In 1619 he wrote the Politics of God, government of Christ and tyranny of Satan , a political treatise which expounds a doctrine of good government, or 'mirror of princes', for a righteous king, who should have Jesus Christ for model of conduct. It

5130-552: The Latin and the Spanish poem, the youthful Acis is crushed and killed by Polyphemus's striking boulder. Only after violent death is the boy is subsequently transformed into a river. Though the mythological characters themselves can be traced to various pre- Hellenistic sources, such as book 9 of the Odyssey , the comprehensive artistic representation of the fabled lovers’ tryst, the rejection and consequent dejection of Polyphemus and

5244-487: The Sharper called Don Pablos, example of wanderers and mirror of rogues . Quevedo also wrote satirical, political and moral prose works where a stoic morality predominates, where subjects like the criticism of archetypes of the society of the Baroque, the constant presence of death in the life of man, and Christian fervor whereupon the politics has to conduct itself. The first of his Dreams dates from 1605: The Dream of

5358-598: The Sicilian Muse Thalia celebrates antiquity and the pastoral genre. Furthermore, this introduction involving a Grecian muse emphasizes ingenio itself over that of a more rudimentary imitation delineated by regulations and set expectations. Imitatio (the reverential imitation of the art of the ancients) was prevalent in Renaissance poetry as seen in the verse of the highly influential Spanish poet Garcilaso de la Vega who in turn borrowed heavily from

5472-648: The Spanish language should not be underestimated, as he picked up what were in his time obscure or little-used words and used them in his poetry again and again, thereby reviving or popularizing them. Many of these words are quite common today, such as adolescente , asunto , brillante , construir , eclipse , emular , erigir , fragmento , frustrar , joven , meta , and porción . Góngora's poems are usually grouped into two blocks, corresponding more or less to two successive poetic stages. His Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea ( Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea ) and his Soledades (1613) are his best-known compositions and

5586-455: The Spanish poet attempts to reexamine this popular myth, which grants him wide parameters for the display of his sophisticated wit as well as a peculiar aesthetic sensibility that are not nearly as developed in the Roman's poem. There are several notable differences in terms of content that distinguish the Polifemo from its predecessor. As Melinda Eve Lehrer states in her work Classical Myth and

5700-610: The abuses by the Commander Fernán Gómez de Guzmán of the neighbors of Fuenteovejuna and of Laurencia, newly married with Frondoso. The murder of the Commander by the town and pardon by the Catholic Monarchs in the light of the evidence finishes off the action. A popular revolt triggered by abuse of power is presented, but only concerning a particular injustice, and submission to the king is emphasized. The Knight of Olmedo (about 1620-25), tragedy rooted in

5814-452: The characters and symbols that are depicted: life-death, Cupid-Thanatos, grace-perdition, all of which reemerges in the theatre of Calderón where they assume an intelligible form, they bring harmony to the scene with games of light and shadow that pass from scene to verse y from verse to scene. If at the poles we find the limits of the chromatic scale -white and black-, in the interior, the painting explodes with specks of vivid color, dissolve to

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5928-463: The charges levied against his style, Góngora would remain one of the most influential poets of the Spanish Baroque and would influence in turn the styles of even his most malicious critics. The sophisticated metaphors displayed in the Polifemo would later inspire French symbolists such as Paul Verlaine as well as modern Spanish poets such as Federico García Lorca and fellow members of

6042-482: The chief artistic concern for culteranists , a group of like-minded poets who furthermore celebrated and, at the same time, critiqued the Western Humanist and Hermeneutic traditions of this epoch. The figures of the Polifemo themselves are often depersonalized by their metaphoric descriptions, by anecdote and by the portrayal of their circumstance or immediate environment in which they are blended. In

6156-1060: The commonality of aesthetic interests existing between visual and poetic artists was often quite remarkable during the Baroque epoch: Dentro de la época barroca que privilegia en todas las artes los contrastes a partir de la técnica del claroscuro en pintura, este poema ya desde el título Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea pone de relieve el tema del contraste cromático, el choque entre lo obscuro y lo resplandeciente; un poema escrito, pues, según la técnica del claroscuro. Así Dámaso Alonso escribe: «De un lado lo lóbrego, lo monstruoso, lo de mal augurio, lo áspero, lo jayanesco; de otro, lilio y plata, lo albo, lo cristalino, lo dulce, la belleza mortal. Tema de Polifemo; tema de Galatea». Esta radical técnica pictórica, que en España toma el nombre de tenebrismo, traduce también significados alegóricos, antropológicos y simbólicos: vida-muerte, Eros-Thánatos, gracia-perdición, que llegarán hasta el teatro de Calderón donde semantizarán el verso, matizarán la escena con juegos de luces y sombras que de la escena pasarán al verso y del verso

6270-461: The compliment of comparing the film director with Góngora as an authority on images. The philosopher Baruch Spinoza proposed in his Ethics (1677) that a man can die before his body stops moving. As an example he mentioned "a Spanish poet who suffered an illness; though he recovered, he was left so oblivious to his past life that he did not believe the tales and tragedies he had written were his own". The historian Carl Gebhardt wrote that "this

6384-484: The context of Baroque aesthetics , depersonalization in this sense is not the complete abandonment or deterioration of the individual as a distinguishable entity, but emphasizes instead the justification of those characters as forms themselves. The objective individual exists as both a series of phenomena as well as an aspect of the overall representation. Conversely, it is the subject who is the ultimate arbiter of artistic experience though they also limited to merely reflect

6498-748: The creation of the Polifemo. The Polifemo is unprecedented for Góngora in terms of its length, its florid style, and its ingenio (artistic ingenuity or innovation). Regarding its literary form, the poem develops in a manner that is distinctively unmindful of the mediating artistic clarity outlined in Aristotle ’s Poetics Contemporary critics such as Luis Carrillo y Sotomayor would come to see these Aristotelian precepts as artistically stifling. In his Libro de la Erudición Poética , Carillo formally denounces both clarity and straightforwardness, particularly when such artistic ideals placed parameters on poetic expression in an effort to make "oneself intelligible to

6612-478: The crisis of the Baroque, Spanish writers reacted in several ways: The narrative of the 17th century opens with the figure of Miguel de Cervantes, who returned to Spain in 1580 after ten years absence. His first printed work was The Galatea (1585). It is a pastoral novel (see Spanish Renaissance literature ) in six books of verse and prose, according to the model of the Diana of Montemayor ; although it breaks with

6726-472: The dissonant clash of clams persistent —An ocean music, yes, and none is bolder— Lures you to dancing; some day, you’ll discover My beauty in my voice, not in the lover. It is within the Song of the Cyclops where Polyphemus arises from his obscurity. His perpetual pain and incessant longing drive his lyrics. It is through his situation that his art emerges. As stated by Cancelliere in her investigation of

6840-461: The end of the 16th century Lope de Vega created the new comedy: to a theme of romantic character is added another theme, historical or legendary, of moriscos , of captives, or religious. It concludes with a happy ending. Constructed on three days, the redondilla or the décima is used in the dialogues, the romance in the narrations, the sonnet in the monologues and the tercet in serious situations. The new art to make comedies , written in 1609,

6954-411: The esoteric cavern of Plato , of those ancient rites and of those long forgotten mysteries . In the versions of both Góngora and Ovid, the ending of the poem is one of violence and transformation. In both tales, after the Cyclops laments, the two lovers are eventually discovered, thus provoking the anger of Polyphemus who strikes the fleeing Acis with a boulder that he rips from the landscape. In both

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7068-414: The following jargon learn: / Fulgores, arrogar, joven, presiente / candor, construye, métrica, armonía... " Quevedo actually mocked Góngora's style in several sonnets, including "Sulquivagante, pretensor de Estolo." This anti-Gongorist sonnet mocks the supposed unintelligibility of culteranismo and its widespread use of flowery neologisms, including sulquivagante (he who plies the seas; to travel without

7182-419: The half-educated." Though culteranismo maintained this elitist and aristocratic quality well after Carillo's death, this seemingly haughty comment on the part of Góngora's pupil was actually a jibe at Góngora's fiercest critics whose periodic vitriol sought to discredit the artist and his work. This fundamental debate between artistic clarity, intelligibility, lyricism, novelty and free expression first outlined in

7296-429: The hidden truth under the veils of the hypocrisy. Operating by antithesis Quevedo shows doctors who are in fact executioners, the rich as poor but thieving, and a whole gallery of social types, offices and states is presented, all implacably satirized. Marcus Brutus (1644) arises from glosses or commentaries to the biography that Plutarch wrote on this Latin statesman in his Parallel lives . The most important work of

7410-577: The honour long. He maintained a long feud with Francisco de Quevedo , who wanted to match his influence in talent and wit. Both poets composed many bitter, satirical pieces attacking one another, with Quevedo criticizing Góngora's penchant for flattery, his large nose, and his passion for gambling. Quevedo even accused his enemy of sodomy , which was a capital crime in 17th century Spain. In his "Contra el mismo (Góngora)", Quevedo writes of Góngora: No altar, garito sí; poco cristiano, / mucho tahúr, no clérigo, sí arpía. (English: There's no altar, but there's

7524-417: The ideal of imitatio (Latin term for artistic imitation), a tendency that dominated Renaissance poetry (see ad fontes ). The ambiguity of culternanists would continue to incur criticism from more conservative Spanish poets and thinkers for centuries. The Polifemo is composed of 63 stanzas, each of which are composed of 8 lines in total. In its entirety, the Polifemo comprises 504 lines. Throughout

7638-497: The incorporation of highly innovative poetic techniques, Góngora effectively advances the background story of Acis and Galatea ’s infatuation as well as the jealousy of the Cyclops Polyphemus . The Polifemo was completed in manuscript form in 1613 and was subsequently published in 1627 after Góngora’s death (see 1627 in poetry ). The work is traditionally regarded as one of Góngora’s most lofty poetic endeavors and

7752-536: The inspiration whom the whole island of Sicily admires and adores. He goes on to deify her in the minds and rituals of the Sicilian locals. Her femininity remains the unparalleled source of inspiration for all of the inhabitants of the island as well as 'the good' ( summum bonum ), the ultimate pursuit and the sole object of desire. The sanctification of feminine beauty and grace eventually leads to an emerging cult of Galatea. A Pales su viciosa cumbre debe Lo que

7866-419: The intervals dances were executed or entremeses represented. The stage was a simple platform and the decoration a curtain. The changes of scene were announced by one of the actors. The poet wrote the comedy, paid by the director, to whom he yielded all the rights on the work, represented or printed, to modify the text. The works lasted three or four days in the billboard, or (with exceptions) fifteen days for

7980-612: The lyrics for the song "Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book" on their 1990 album Aion . In the second of the five parts of Roberto Bolaño 's novel 2666 (published posthumously in 2004), "The Part about Amalfitano", one of the characters (the poet, whose name is never explicitly stated) quotes a verse from Góngora: Ande yo caliente y ríase la gente . John Crowley 's novel "The Solitudes" (a.k.a."Aegypt", 1987) repeatedly refers to and quotes from Góngora's poem "Soledades." A portrait of Luis de Góngora appears as an Easter egg in

8094-472: The most prominent Spanish poets of all time. His style is characterized by what was called culteranismo , also known as Gongorismo . This style apparently existed in stark contrast to Quevedo's conceptismo , though Quevedo was highly influenced by his older rival from whom he may have isolated "conceptismo" elements. Góngora was born to a noble family in Córdoba , where his father, Francisco de Argote,

8208-504: The most studied. The Fábula is written in royal octaves ( octavas reales ) and his Soledades is written in a variety of metres and strophes, but principally in stanzas and silvas interspersed with choruses. Góngora's Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea (1612) narrates a mythological episode described in Ovid 's Metamorphoses : the love of Polyphemus , one of the Cyclopes , for

8322-409: The most unlikely of characters. Throughout the poem the Cyclops's eye is identified with the sun, a traditional Apollonian symbol for dispassionate truth or enlightenment. The Cyclops realizes his surrogate beauty in the form of discourse and song, which he contrasts with the tangible beauty of a lover. Sorda hija del mar, cuyas orejas A mis gemidos son rocas al viento: O dormida te huerten

8436-595: The motivations of others, until the point to behave "to the occasion" and "to play of the" dissimulation. Gracián is recognized as precursor of existentialism , he also influenced French moralists like La Rochefoucauld , and, in the 19th century, the philosophy of Schopenhauer . This half of the century closes with the Life and facts of Estebanillo González , man of good humor (Antwerp, 1646). It narrates his life (1608–1646) as servant of many masters, and soldier in several causes. It displays many characteristic themes of

8550-472: The objects from which they emanate. No longer is there the subjugation of form required in Renaissance art . Instead, the Baroque is often characterized by a breakdown in such distinctions and the deterioration of these established ideals. As with Baroque visual art, within the Polifemo, there is a genuine lack of easily recognizable forms. In turn, this new awareness and appreciation of form in-itself became

8664-562: The opening of the poem, the Polifemo was dedicated to the Count of Niebla , a Castilian nobleman renowned for his generous patronage of 17th century Spain’s most preeminent artists. The work’s predominant themes, jealousy and competition, reflect the actual competitive environment and worldly aspirations that drove 17th-century poets such as Góngora to cultivate and display their artistic ingenuity. Góngora wrote his Polifemo in honor of Luis Carillo y Sotomayor 's Fabula de Acis y Galatea , which

8778-479: The other are included within the story itself and poetry from each is included at the back of some of the books. In Giannina Braschi 's bilingual novel Yo-Yo Boing! (1998) contemporary Latin American poets have a heated debate about Góngora's and Quevedo's role in defining the Spanish empire through their works. The musical group Dead Can Dance used an English translation of Góngora's Da bienes Fortuna as

8892-520: The other period in Western History, the Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea takes upon itself this very theme concerning chromatic contrasts, the clash between darkness and radiance. The poem was written with a technique akin to the chiaroscuro style one would see in the visual arts. As Dámaso Alonso wrote: "On one side, there is this gloomy presence, that accompanies that which is monstrous, that which

9006-565: The other snowing. Or to those who fleece the snow or gold are moving, They worship, either out of love, or piety, Without a temple, Galatea’s deity. Sicily, the setting of the tale, resembles the classical archetype of Arcadia . This contrasts sharply with the Darkness of Polyphemus’ cave. Contrasts or dissimilitude were often employed in Baroque art, more so than in the art of the Renaissance. As Enrica Cancelliere explains in her article "Dibujo y Color en la fabula de Polifemo y Galatea",

9120-500: The overall narration. Ultimately, it is the poet who goes beyond the mere resemblance and commonality of things as orchestrator of inter-subjectivity to both imagine and project a kindred will . This issue of similitude and the underlying perception of persistent sympathies that arise between two separate entities was an idea deeply rooted in the 16th century épistémè , as Michel Foucault exposes in his highly influential work Les Mots et Les Choses . Góngora portrays Galatea as both

9234-472: The oxymoronic that by means of the underlying symbolic meanings construct whole images, characters, settings, thoughts and emotions. This poetic trend entranced with antithesis is concurrent with the Chiaroscuro style that matured in 17th century Western painting. The striking contrast of the poem rests in the juxtaposition of the dark, gloomy and burdened existence of Polifemo with the figure of Galatea,

9348-415: The paragon of light, beauty and contentedness. An interesting correlation of Góngora's poem to that of the classical source is the individual's appeal through his pedigree. The divine lineages of the two suitors, an issue of prevalence within classical works, is incorporated into the poem. In these lines, Acis pursues Galatea with a different approach than his wistful cycloptic rival. John McCaw in “Turning

9462-732: The picaresque genre: swindles, fights, deceits, drunkenness, robberies and prostitution. Religious prose shines with Miguel de Molinos (1628–1696), originally from Teruel but settled in Rome. His quietist doctrine can be read in Spiritual guide (1675), a manual of contemplative mysticism which despises action. Luis de Góngora and Francisco de Quevedo were the two most important poets. They were enemies and composed many bitter (and funny) satirical pieces attacking each other. Góngora's lyric collection consists of numerous sonnets, odes, ballads, songs for guitar, and of certain larger poems, such as

9576-566: The poem there is an abundance of poetic correspondences (i.e. organic or interior referencing), which contrast sharply with the abstruse quality of the cultismos (i.e. highly idiosyncratic linguistic modifications, classical lexicon and scholarly references) themselves. Additionally, the ornamentality and detail of the work is further complicated by a profuse usage of classical symbolism and external referencing (i.e. relevant mythological accounts communicated through metaphors and anecdotes ). A cultismo , though often intuited as an umbrella term for

9690-682: The poem's visual dynamics, primordial darkness itself, embodied by the character of Polifemo, seems to be the recurring cradle and grave of all perception or advancement: La noche se muda en posibilidad de regeneración y no solamente por la topología uterina del antro sino por el vuelco mismo de la calidad cromática, connotando el negro, la ausencia absoluta de color, una infinita posibilidad receptiva y regeneradora: campo de epifanías de donde se espera que nazcan otra vez la luz, los colores, la profundidad, las apariciones, en fin, la caverna esotérica, sea de Platón, sea de los antiguos ritos iniciáticos y de los misterios. The night, in its vacuity, welcomes

9804-476: The possibility for redefinition or regeneration and this is possible not merely by means of its concavity, its uterine topology which begs to be filled, but by means of the natural overturning occurring firstly on this very chromatic dimension, connoting the black, the absolute absence of color, an infinite receptive and regenerative possibility: realm of possibilities where one can await the recurrent birth of light, of life, of both profundity and form and, ultimately,

9918-535: The quality of the lyrical poetry defamiliarizes and reconfigures all aspects of the original narration (see ostranenie ). The presence of contrasts, of antithesis and dissimilitude reflects a veritable lack of aesthetic concentration as well as deficient narrative unity deemed necessary in traditional Aristotelean aesthetics . Instead, Góngora juxtaposes conflicting images of beauty and ugliness, harmony and discord to hint at an underlying dichotomy of erotic love as both prolific and destructive. The interspersing of

10032-528: The reader's understanding, literary critics, such as Dámaso Alonso , have labeled Góngora's style as particularly impressionistic. Luis de G%C3%B3ngora y Argote Luis de Góngora y Argote (born Luis de Argote y Góngora ; Spanish: [lwis ðe ˈɣoŋɡoɾa] ; 11 July 1561 – 24 May 1627) was a Spanish Baroque lyric poet and a Catholic prebendary for the Church of Córdoba. Góngora and his lifelong rival, Francisco de Quevedo , are widely considered

10146-465: The sea waves molder. Or, the dissonant clash of clams persistent Furthermore, as Leher points out, when displaying his wealth and fecundity: Cuyos enjambres, o el abril los abra, O los desate el mayo, ámbar destilan Y en ruecas de oro rayos de sol hilan Whose swarms will April free, if not as many As May unleashes, wax the amber sealing, As if were sunrays off gold distaffs reeling. In addition to ornamental descriptions giving life to

10260-561: The second half of the century is The Criticon (modeled on The Satyricon ) (1651–1657) by the Aragonese Jesuit Baltasar Gracián (1601–1658). With it, the Spanish novel is solved in concepts or abstractions. The idea prevails over the concrete figure. It is a philosophical novel written in form of allegory of the human life. Gracián cultivated didactic prose in treatises of moral intention and practical purpose, like The Hero (1637), The Politician don Fernando

10374-420: The square or led to the corral, and ladies attended the spectacle with their faces covered with masks or obscured behind lattice windows. The function began with a performance on guitar of a popular piece; immediately, songs accompanied with diverse instruments were sung. The praise came soon, species of explanation of the merits of the work and synthesis of its argument. The main comedy or work then started, and in

10488-483: The subsequent murder of Acis was realized much later in Ovid ’s Metamorphoses. Nevertheless, Ovid was not the first poet to exploit the poetic potential of these mythical figures. Though his influence on this poem is less direct, the founder of the bucolic or pastoral genre, Theocritus , wrote a burlesque poem representing Polyphemus and his unrequited love for the Sea-nymph Galatea. The pastoral genre

10602-462: The tale in a way that conformed to the Metamorphoses's integral theme of transformation where beginnings and ends that feed into one another. Though the narrative structure differs substantially from that found in Ovid's version, Góngora assumes a similar plot with the Cyclops's murder of Acis followed by the young boy's transformation. Though Ovid's work serves as the thematic and narrative framework for

10716-498: The tradition when introducing realistic elements, like the murder of a shepherd, or the agility of certain dialogues. In 1605 he published The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha , with immediate success. In 1613 the Exemplary novels appeared. They are a collection of twelve short novels that look for an ideal, although this is not always clear. In 1615, Cervantes published the second part of Don Quixote . In 1617,

10830-466: The trip they experience a variety of trials, mishaps, and delays: captivity by Barbarians, the jealousy and machinations of rivals. The work takes advantage of resources of the Exemplary Novels - especially the italianizing ones - puzzles, confusions, disguises, etc. Francisco de Quevedo wrote towards 1604 his first work of prose fiction : the picaresque novel titled The Life Story of

10944-400: The true testament of wit , which they in turn used to costume a thematic focus. Góngora recreates events by focusing on the sensual impressions granted by the narrative. This reluctance to appeal to or rely on preconceived abstractions and prosaic lexicon and expressions forces the reader to reconstruct meaning. Given his highly sensorial lyrics and his reluctance to directly engage or placate

11058-504: The unfinished Doctor Carlino . Although Góngora did not publish his works (he had attempted to do so in 1623), manuscript copies were circulated and compiled in cancioneros (songbooks), and anthologies published with or without his permission. In 1627, Juan Lopez Vicuña published Verse Works of the Spanish Homer , which is also considered very trustworthy and important in establishing the Góngora's corpus of work. Vicuña's work

11172-496: The unsavory and the melancholic with the idyllic deviates from the Renaissance ideal, which differentiated forms by establishing boundaries, namely foregrounds and backgrounds where central objects or figures displaced the prominence of other things. Within the art of the Renaissance, there is a higher degree of hermetic focus, concentration and stability of form. “In contrast to the classical delineation of boundaries”, which gives precedence to forms with greater density and texture,

11286-584: The usual burlesque representations of Polyphemus and Galatea (as seen in Theocritus), the words of the Góngora's Cyclops are incongruous with his outward appearance and his essential barbarism . The emphasis on the intellect, the dialectical or, the ancient rationalism Aristophanes satirically labelled as "thinkery" ( Phrontisterion - from The Clouds ) as well as the vigilance against moral and bodily corruption are central to neo-platonic understanding that finds its way into this bucolic landscape through

11400-503: The usual topics ( carpe diem etc.) the sonnets include autobiographical elements, describing, for example, the increasing decrepitude and advancing age of the author. In addition, Góngora composed one of his most ambitions works, El Panegírico al Duque de Lerma (1617), a poem in 79 royal octaves. Cervantes, after reading "El Panegírico", said: "the [work] I most esteem from those I've read of his." He also wrote plays, which include La destrucción de Troya , Las firmezas de Isabela , and

11514-427: The vast power, beauty, and scope of a mighty pen." As far away as Peru , he received the praise of Juan de Espinosa Medrano (ca. 1629–1688), who wrote a piece defending Góngora's poetry from criticism called Apologético en favor de Don Luis de Góngora, Príncipe de los poetas lyricos de España: contra Manuel de Faria y Sousa, Cavallero portugués (1662). As Dámaso Alonso has pointed out, Góngora's contribution to

11628-558: The “Polifemo” of Góngora , “Góngora made many innovations in the myth which he inherited from Ovid. Some of them have a merely ornamental function, while others are organically essential to Góngora’s poem.” There are several ornamental additions that detract from the narration that are obviously not present in its classical counterpart: O dormida te hurten a mis quejas Purpúreos troncos de corales ciento, O al disonante numero de almejas. Either, they [Galatea’s ears] are blocked, when slumber makes you distant coral trunks that in

11742-611: Was corregidor, or judge. In a Spanish era when purity of Christian lineage ( limpieza de sangre ) was needed to gain access to education or official appointments, he adopted the surname of his mother, Leonor de Góngora. His uncle, Don Francisco, a prebendary of Córdoba Cathedral , renounced his post in favour of his nephew, who took deacon 's orders in 1586. As a canon associated with this cathedral, Luis de Góngora traveled on diverse commissions to Navarre , Andalusia and Castile . The cities that he visited included Madrid , Salamanca , Granada , Jaén , and Toledo . Around 1605, he

11856-401: Was a contemporary poem depicting the same mythological account. Additionally, the poem of Carillo y Sotomayor was in deed dedicated to the very same Count of Niebla. Luis Carrillo y Sotomayor was both Góngora’s friend and a fellow “culteranist” poet who died at the age of 27 in 1610, three years before Góngora's Polifemo was completed. The premature death of a promising pupil in a sense prompted

11970-419: Was a master of conceptismo , a movement in opposition to culteranismo. Theatrical performances of this time took place in open sites, squares or fixed corrals : the corrals of comedies. They began around two in the afternoon and lasted until dusk. In general they did not have seats, and spectators remained standing throughout the performance. The nobility occupied balconies and windows of houses that surrounded

12084-453: Was a nearly living web of tubes, / it was a swordfish with an awful beard). This angry feud came to a nasty end for Góngora when Quevedo bought the house Góngora lived in for the sole purpose of ejecting him from it. In 1626 a severe illness, which seriously impaired the poet's memory, forced him to return to Córdoba, where he died the following year. By then he was broke from trying to obtain positions and win lawsuits for all his relatives. He

12198-564: Was appropriated by the Spanish Inquisition and was later surpassed by an edition by Gonzalo de Hozes in 1633. The Generation of '27 took its name from the year 1927 in which the tricentennial of Góngora's death, ignored by official academic circles, was celebrated with recitals, avant-garde happenings, and an ambitious plan to publish a new critical edition of his work, as well as books and articles on aspects of his work that had not been fully researched. The Generation of '27

12312-518: Was buried in one of the side chapels in the Mezquita section of the Córdoba cathedral where his funeral monument can be seen. An edition of his poems was published almost immediately after his death by Juan López de Vicuña; the frequently reprinted edition by Hozes did not appear until 1633. The collection consists of numerous sonnets, odes, ballads, songs for guitar, and of some larger poems, such as

12426-408: Was often reproached for activities beneath the dignity of a churchman. Culteranismo apparently existed in stark contrast with conceptismo , another movement of the Baroque period which is characterized by a witty style, wordplay, simple vocabulary, and conveying multiple meanings in as few words as possible. However, all elements of "conceptismo" were already present in Góngora's late style, which

12540-622: Was ordained priest, and afterwards lived at Valladolid and Madrid . While in Madrid, he attended the Medrano Academy (Poetic Academy of Madrid) founded by its president Sebastian Francisco de Medrano between 1616-1626. While his circle of admirers grew, patrons were grudging in their admiration. Ultimately, in 1617 through the influence of the Duke of Lerma , he was appointed honorary chaplain to King Philip III of Spain , but did not enjoy

12654-536: Was passionately debated and misunderstood even by his defenders. The best-known representative of Spanish conceptismo , Francisco de Quevedo, had an ongoing feud with Luis de Góngora in which each criticized the other's writing and personal life. The word culteranismo blends culto ("cultivated") and luteranismo (" Lutheranism ") and was coined by its opponents to present it as a heresy of "true" poetry. The movement aimed to use as many words as possible to convey little meaning or to conceal meaning. "Góngora's poetry

12768-480: Was probably Góngora, whose works Spinoza possessed, and who lost his memory a year before his death". The narrator of the Captain Alatriste series, a friend of Francisco de Quevedo within the stories, illustrates Góngora's feuding with Quevedo, both by quoting poetry from each as well as describing Quevedo's attitude toward Góngora through the course of the story. Excerpts of poetry from one against

12882-585: Was subject to later imitation by other prominent figures of antiquity, as seen in Virgil ’s Eclogues , as well as by prominent figures of the Italian and Spanish Renaissance , such as Petrarch and Garcilaso de la Vega . In Theocritus, Ovid and Góngora, the Songs of the Cyclops resemble one another to varying degrees. The two classical poems, which served as the framework for Gongora’s version, are characterized by

12996-562: Was the first to attempt to self-consciously revive baroque literature. Dámaso Alonso wrote that Góngora's complex language conveyed meaning in that it created a world of pure beauty. Alonso explored his work exhaustively and called Góngora a "mystic of words." Alonso dispelled the notion that Góngora had two separate styles – "simple" and "difficult" poems – that were also divided chronologically between his early and later years. He argued that Góngora's more complex poems built on stylistic devices that had been created in Góngora's early career as

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