La Mitología en la Obra del Marqués de Santillana
1980; University of Lisbon; Volume: 10; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1484/j.euphr.5.126873
ISSN2736-3082
Autores Tópico(s)Cultural and Mythological Studies
ResumoThe cast of mythological personae that the middle age literature knows is pretty abundant and, although often mishaped by authors themselves, personae occur everywhere in quotations and are familiar to middle age people, as the case will not be in later times. Those legendary personae referring to the classical world are very highly esteemed by middle age Christianity, mainly because of showing natural virtues. That is why often colected examples and sentencies repeat their names. Romanesque tales in prose and verse did also its best to make readers acquainted with mythical personae from classical Greek and Roman history, which were regarded as gifted with moral qualities of high nature. Thus in Santillana’s poetical works like his Visión, Lucrecia and the Greek nymphs are to the marquis a model of firmity, loyalty, chastity (strophe xi) and same occurs in Planto de la Keina Margarida (copla xvii). The marquis seems to grow himself enthousiastic when reading about the deeds of Priamo, ≪the virtuous≫ (Sueño, copla lii). The invocation of Muses could neither fail in our poet’s work (as had said Boccaccio himself too in Amorosa Visione and in Genealogia Deorum) and he puts it at the beginning of his more elaborate works (Comedieta de Ponza, Infierno de los Enamorados). Gods are thus hold themselves too as influencing stars, which never cease to be of godly nature, themselves too (Sueño, iii; Coronación de Mossen Jordi de Sanci Jordi, xvii). The marquis, probably because of considering himself involved in humanistic trends of his age, never avoids occasion to mention ≪I saw≫, ≪I read≫ or ≪fablavan≫ (they told): ≪they told as do pleasant novels and tales≫, thus showing his vast mythological knowledge (Comedieta de Ponza, xlv, xlvii, lii; Bias, Lxxviii; Pregunta de Nobles, x; Sueño, xlix, li, lx, etc.). In spite of this proof of scholar pride and knowledge, Santillana is handling a sort of second class mythology. He thousands of times mistakes not only the transcription of names, but often the ternata of legends themselves too, although mistakes may be sometimes attributed to bad copist’s work, which, by the way, was often the case with Juan de Mena’s works too. As an instance of this, we see Achilles sometimes appear as Arquiles (Infierno, 55, a); Adriana stands for Ariadna (Comediela, 103, b); Aloydes for Aloades (Bias, 158, a); Cadino for Cadmo (Canonización, 13, b); Daymira for Deyanira (Bias, 120, e); Laumedón for Laomedonte (Pregunta de Nobles, 6, a); Monasteus for Muestro (Sueño, 51, b); Peritheo for Piritoo (Sueño, 9, g); Theresias for Tiresias (Sueño, 35, h); Vagnes for Evadne (Comedieta, 99, d), etc. Somewhere else, mistakes do not correspond with wrong translation of names, but to lack of knowledge about legends or interferences between them. Thus he lets Cloto appear as a weaver, which corresponds to Atropo (Defunsión, 22, h), or situates the Olimpo mountain in Toscana (Infierno, 5, h). The marquis, too, likes himself to reinforce the mythological complexity with perifrasis and quotations, pratically ununderstandable to all them who were not aware of mythical personae, nor legends. No doubt this is the consequence of his elytist’s concern. Thus, he mentions through periphrasis to Ifigenia (Comedieta, 13, a-c); Dido (Comedieta, 14, a-c); Ulises (Defunsión, 10, b-d); Andrómaca (Comedieta, 55, f); Apolo (Infierno, 7, c); Achilles (Coronación, 1, a-b); Diana (Sueño, 36, h); Gorgona (Infierno, 23, g); Jupiter (Comedieta, 91, d); Arthemis (Soneto, xlv, 5); Medea (Planto de la Peina Margarida, 1, a-d); Escila (Comedieta, 48, c), etc. Santillana often carries too far his mythological resources through a real display of his knowledge and scholarship. In some of his works we may often find that this incidence is most outstanding as is the case with, for instance, the Comedieta de Ponza (coplas cm, cu, civ and cv); Infierno de los Enamorados (coplas v, vii, xi, xiv, xxiii, xxxi, lii, lv and lvi) and Pregunta de Nobles (coplas iii, iv and ix). Iñigo López de Mendoza, in spite of his revivalist approach, cannot fully overcome his medieval inheritance and sometimes treats to link mythology with Christian traditions. Thus his quotation to the Sibila legend as a model to the Holy Virgin (Dezir de la Reina de Castilla, p. 557, b); to the Sibila of Cumas as a prophet to Christ (Bías, 68, a-b, and Comedieta, 102, e). The idea of Christianization appears as well in his xiv sonnet, where he seems to link Latona, Artemisa’s and Apolo’s mother, to the Holy Virgin. Dido is may be the mythological hero that most frequently occurs in Santillana’s works (Triunphete de Amor, copla 18; Infierno de los Enamorados, 54, a-d; Comedieta, 83, c-d; Bias, copla 119; Proverbios, 54, a-d; Soneto, xii). It is the inconsistence of his mythological scholarship what makes him confuse ≪lanza de Peleo≫ with ≪Aquiles≫ own spear (Dezir, p. 558, a). And we are shocked to see elephants wandering about in his Coronación de Mossen Jordi de Sanct Jordi (copla vi), detail surely taken from triunfant descriptions from classical literature or from gods like Jupiter and Pallas. T he celebrated legend of Procne and Filomela could not fail to appear in his quotations (Infierno de los Enamorados, 11, d; Comedieta, 103, f; Triunphete, 18, g; Sueño, 60, c), as well as his mythological treatment of the ≪dawn≫ thema, that stems from the Homeric poems and is as well to be found in the Eneis (iii, 521; iv, 129; vii, 25-26) and in Dante (Purgatorio, ii, 1-4; ix, 1-3) and Petrarca (Trionfo d’Amore, i, and Trionfo della Morte, ii). The same happens to him when dealing with mythological hours (Comedieta, 85, a-b; Planto de la Reina Margarida, 1, e-g; Canonización de S. Vicente Ferrer, 1, e-h; Sueño, copla 6). We may not, after what has been considered above, have any doubts about the marquis love and concern for classical mythology, although most of times he searchs for it just as a scholar who needs for ornamental elements. Besides what has been shown previously, we may quote an amount of two hundred seventy eight mythological names that occur in his work, not to mention of alusions and perifrasis. All this exuberance will be later picked up and sublimized by revivalist poets in our literature, who often will take their small trips to classical mythology, although with other aesthethical views.
Referência(s)