Nevertheless, Ovid was not the first poet to exploit the poetic potential of these mythical figures. In fact, etymologically Galatea can be translated to mean “milk-white.” Nevertheless, within the context of Góngora's poem a reference or metaphor to milk does not occur. Sensualism in poetry had always been harangued by Church officials particularly during the Renaissance when there was a renewed interest in Pagan culture. "Mas no cabrás allá": Góngora's Early Modern Representation of the Modern Sublime.”, This page was last edited on 7 December 2020, at 15:54. Polyphemus and Galatea (1 of 1) This work —one of the most important of the Roman Empire— represents a love scene inspired by the Hellenistic poem "The Cyclops". On seeing Acis, through as many races There exists in all three poems a description of his unappealing physical appearance. In its entirety, the Polifemo comprises 504 lines. During the early 17th century, several scientific and cultural breakthroughs were being made that greatly reshaped Western cosmological perceptions. 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. Throughout the poem there is an abundance of poetic correspondences (i.e. We’d love your help. Wool flakes in scores are on the other snowing. Ribó notes that Góngora opts instead for other representations of feminine beauty that appeal to the platonic or Marian or Beatricean abstraction of femininity. See more ideas about Ovid, Ovid metamorphoses, Metamorphosis. 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. It is a mythological work that served as an inspiration to the Cordoban poet and dramatist Luis de Góngora y Argote to write the fable "Polyphemus and Galatea". ", Barnard, Mary E. "The Gaze and the Mirror: Vision, Desire, and Identity in Gongora's Fabula de Polifemo y Galatea. His voice beech trees as jealous thunder harried: Ovid seems to represent Galatea as entirely helpless and passive as she laments over the brutality of Polyphemus: (Ovid Book XIII of the Metamorphoses ln 742–749. 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. Góngora chooses to exclude the image of the Cyclops raking (i.e. ¿Pero pueden olvidarse de la presencia de Polifemo? Given his fondness for convoluted and self-fashioned metaphors in addition to his profuse use of hiperbatón, the quality of the lyrical poetry defamiliarizes and reconfigures all aspects of the original narration (see ostranenie). Contrasts or dissimilitude were often employed in Baroque art, more so than in the art of the Renaissance. Galatea is also the name, in some versions of the Pygmalion story, of the statue that Pygmalion creates and then falls in love with. This limited edition print may be available for purchase. Wagschal, Steven. O al disonante numero de almejas. Instead, the Baroque is often characterized by a breakdown in such distinctions and the deterioration of these established ideals. Góngora's song is more subtle and consciously avoids the burlesque comedy found in Ovid. This poetic trend entranced with antithesis is concurrent with the Chiaroscuro style that matured in 17th century Western painting. The injustice experienced on a personal level, of change and of loss, offers a different rendition of what is theorized on the plane of remote abstraction. 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. Certainly it's very difficult to read and understand, full of rhetoric figures, but also very beautiful once you get it. In this sense, the poem escapes the regular criticism so prevalent in Góngora's time. November 1st 1988 Porque los cultismos que utiliza no san nada convencionales; es decir, si a mí no me indican que es un cultismo YO NO LO VEO. However, the name Galatea was ascribed to the figurine only in the 18th century and gained prominence through Jean-Jacque Rousseau's opera, Pygmalion (1762). 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. "El lenguaje hermetico en la Fabula de Polifemo y Galatea de Gongora. Homer describes Polyphemus as a violent creature with no regard for anyone else but himself. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published It is through his situation that his art emerges. There are several comedic elements to the ancient texts that were selectively discarded by Góngora. Esta es la única palabra que viene en mi mente para describir esta obra maestra de ese Titán de las letras españolas. Instead of relying upon a preexisting cosmological force and the doctrine of Original Sin, the pagans offered a much more rational explanation that rested in the philosophical categorization that delineated the good. 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 the oxymoronic that by means of the underlying symbolic meanings construct whole images, characters, settings, thoughts and emotions. From the Thirteenth Book of the Metamorphoses : GALATEA relates the Story. These underlying values are reflected in the prevailing themes of Renaissance literature, particularly intangible beauty and harmonious idealization. Podría hacerse un cuadro con cada una de las estrofas. As Lehrer goes on to state in her mythological analysis of the Polifemo, “interruption of a speaker is in fact a motif that occurs in Góngora’s Soledad Primera and suggests displacement and alienation. Through 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. Oda de la materia, mística de la materia, como dice Pedro Salinas. [12] 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 is not transcendent and thus, anti-intellectual. 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 Theocritus, Ovid and Góngora, the Songs of the Cyclops resemble one another to varying degrees. In both the Latin and the Spanish poem, the youthful Acis is crushed and killed by Polyphemus's striking boulder. Mi voz, por dulce, cuando no por mía. Aunque admiro mucho la capacidad de escribir de Góngora, no le entiendo y se me hace muy pesada la lectura. Love eventually enters into a state of disequilibrium where both exterior circumstance and the instrinsic instability of the emotion jointly transmute the original form. Some of them have a merely ornamental function, while others are organically essential to Góngora’s poem.”[18]. Some examples are, “más brillante que el cristal” (brighter than cristal) and “más luciente que el hielo” (more translucent than ice). The revelation of betrayal is accentuated by an analogous impression of the sublime as experienced in nature. The elaborate summoning of the Sicilian Muse Thalia celebrates antiquity and the pastoral genre. Acis, también, está enamoradο de ella pero la pareja no tiene un final feliz. His perpetual pain and incessant longing drive his lyrics. ISBN-10: 0820405663. This story clarifies why several cities close together have this common prefix. Beauty itself as a pleasurable distinction amid a multitude of phenomena can only be made sensible through the necessary existence of the outlying inferior qualities or distinct forms surrounding the object in focus. Her shamelessly unrestrained behavior is distinct. Regarding its literary form, the poem develops in a manner that is distinctively unmindful of the mediating artistic clarity outlined in Aristotle’s Poetics[2], Contemporary critics such as Luis Carrillo y Sotomayor would come to see these Aristotelian precepts as artistically stifling. "Sobre el Bozo de Acis: Una Apostilla a los Versos 279-280 del Polifemo de Gongora.". For the opera composed by, Opening (dedication to the Patron of Niebla) – Stanzas 1–3, The Cave and the World of Polifemo – Stanzas 4–12, Lovers discovered, death and transformation of Acis – Stanzas 59–63, Background, the classical precursors of the, Deviations from the Ovidian portrayal and Gongorine innovation, The murder of Acis: Premeditated vs. crime of passion, The beauty of Galatea: The material vs. the transcendental, see Jauregi's "Discurso poético contra el hablar culto y oscuro" (1624) and Polyphemus lists his fecundity or material wealth in all 3 poems. Purpúreos troncos de corales ciento, 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[14] Unlike 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. love for Galatea. Synopsis | acisandgalatea. 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. [1] 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. Additionally, the poem of Carillo y Sotomayor was in deed dedicated to the very same Count of Niebla. 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 Deaf daughter of the sea, your ears resistant ", Garcia, Luis M. Vicente. organic or interior referencing), which contrast sharply with the abstruse quality of the cultismos (i.e. 18 Bk XIII:1-122 The debate over the arms: Ajax speaks. Additionally, the ornamentality and detail of the work is further complicated by a profuse usage of classical symbolism and external referencing (i.e. Ovid, Gongora's predecessor, portrays Acis’ murder as a premeditated act: “Well, he may please himself for all of that, but what I don’t like is, he pleases YOU, Galatea –just let me at the guy, he’ll learn that I’m as strong as I am big! Refresh and try again. In 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. Góngora wrote his Polifemo in honor of Luis Carillo y Sotomayor's Fabula de Acis y Galatea, which was a contemporary poem depicting the same mythological account. This underlying difference hints at Góngora's primary concern with form and his concern in capturing the full aesthetic effect through his representation of the emotional torrents of love, jealousy and murder. [4], The primacy of ingenio contradicted the claims of more traditional critics who sought to tame instinct by imposing a rigorous aesthetic framework of poetic regulations derived from the ancients in order to establish a more coherent dialogue with the audience or reader. [22] Even in paradise, where a harmonious and fruitful relationship between the loved and beloved remains a possibility, love never forms or subsists in a vacuum and is instead constantly tested and reshaped by the external realities that also allowed for it. «The Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea»: Translated and Analyzed by Miroslav John Hanak (American University Studies) by Miroslav John Hanak (Author) ISBN-13: 978-0820405667. A cultismo, though often intuited as an umbrella term for 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. Acis, 1 the Lovely Youth, whose loss I mourn, From Faunus and the Nymph Symethis born, Was both his Parents pleasure: but … Góngora was interested in this particular story for the contrasts, tensions, and resolutions of the forces which it offered, and his innovations and alterations were directed toward that purpose.”[23] In sum, Góngora seeks to recreate the experience in order to capture the full aesthetic potential provided by the background narrative. Lures you to dancing; some day, you’ll discover The ruthless Polyphemus, jealous of this sentiment, killed poor Aci, leaving Galatea into despair, who wept him along the shores of the sea. Theocritus would write sympathetically of Polyphemus, telling of the attempts of the giant to wed the Nereid Galatea, even going to great lengths to improve his appearance to woo the nymph. This reluctance to appeal to or rely on preconceived abstractions and prosaic lexicon and expressions forces the reader to reconstruct meaning. [1] Polyphemus first appears as a savage man-eating giant in the ninth book of Homer's Odyssey.Some later Classical writers link his name with the nymph Galatea … A hollow rock forms 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[13]). What an experience does not entail allows for the intellection of its reality. In addition to ornamental descriptions giving life to the Cyclops' mundane possessions, Góngora often incorporates anecdotes that detract from the overall narration as in St. 50-53 regarding the shipwrecked Genoese merchants. Polyphemus kills his rival with a boulder; Neptune, Galatea’s father, then turns Aci into a river that flows into the sea, where he can be reunited with Galatea. La primera vez que lo leí fue un choque muy grande para mí, no entendía casi nada, decodificarlo fue un reto. For what are fields, and more, to Ceres owing; Tendrá el mérito que tenga que tener, pero Góngora podría haber demostrado su increíble portento de alguna forma. Instead, Galatea loved Acis, the son of Faunus and Symathis. As stated by Cancelliere in her investigation of 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.[16]. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. 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 the Italian Dolce Stil Novo poets, such as Petrarch, who revolutionized the poetry of the 14th and 15th centuries. ¿De verdad? This impression is the precursor to violence, destruction and the complete devolution of the Cyclops to his natural state. Be the first to ask a question about The Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea. —marino, si agradable no, instrumento— Deidad, aunque sin templo, es Galatea. Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea. The story of Galatea and Polyphemus ends with Galatea’s love, Acis, being killed by Polyphemus (Alexander) The use of light is a critical tool in this wall painting. By coral trunks that in the sea waves molder. Bk XIII:738-788 Acis and Galatea Bk XIII:789-869 The song of Polyphemus Bk XIII:870-897 Acis is turned into a river-god. Essentially, life as a continuum of contingent experiences reflects the doctrine of Heracletan flux that greatly influenced the course of Western philosophy. Though Ovid's work serves as the thematic and narrative framework for the Polifemo, Góngora doesn’t seem content to merely imitate Ovid. The poem was written with a technique akin to the chiaroscuro style one would see in the visual arts. He goes on to deify her in the minds and rituals of the Sicilian locals. Galatea holds her … This is an oil on canvas painting. In Theocritus, “Polyphemus’ four comparisons are with the daily business of agriculture and husbandry, made special nevertheless by the endearing simplicity of this Cyclops.”. The Polifemo ultimately represents the redeeming aspect of love as it arises from and is consequently destroyed by the inscrutable primordial chaos that gives form to passion. "Vision, Desire, and the Reader of the Polifemo. This style existed in stark contrast to Quevedo's Conceptismo. Given his drastically opposing style and clear deviation from the ancient poet's narrative structure, 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. A mis gemidos son rocas al viento: This inversion of the courtly poetry popular in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in which women were confined to the role of the humble, reticent and inactive role of the beloved spars with the expectations of the 17th century reader. coral trunks that in the sea waves molder. 42 New and Upcoming Historical Fiction Novels. Galatea apela a su madre y ella lo convierte en río. Acis llega a la vida de Galatea, que acaba sucumbiendo al amor por él. So, too, before the livid cloud will sunder, Polyphemus had an intense love for a Nereid (sea nymph) called Galatea, but by all accounts his love was unrequited. [6] The sophisticated metaphors displayed in the Polifemo would later inspire French symbolists such as Paul Verlaine[7] as well as modern Spanish poets such as Federico García Lorca and fellow members of the Generation of '27. Whose swarms will April free, if not as many Furthermore, The tone is purely innocent and humorous, while hope for another love remains. Galatea, in Greek mythology, a Nereid who was loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus. Essentially, the poem exposits the implausibility of Arcadia, of an ideal world, given the persistent problem of evil. 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.[5]. This is perhaps one reason that can explain the anti-intellectual tone maintained throughout the poem. It presents evil not as an unjustified primordial element independent of humankind, but as a corollary to the finite nature of the material universe. As readers of Ovid quickly realize, the poet's vocabulary is extensive and can … G. Karl Galinsky: Ovid’s Aeneas's arrival in Trinacria is barely mentioned when Metamorphoses 13 launches a series of rich and strange tales involving love triangles, aversion, monsters, transformations from mortals to gods, or from … 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. Ovid's intention is, thus, cosmological in nature. This radical technique, which in Spain was dubbed tenebrismo, also applies on the allegorical level in form of 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. The Polifemo reflects a change in the aesthetic and philosophical perceptions of 17th-century Europe. Stephen Wagschal argues in "Mas no cabrás allá": Góngora's Early Modern Representation of the Modern Sublime” that in doing this, Góngora fully demonstrates the aesthetic character of the sublime, as Kant defined it, where the sublime in its dynamic form inevitably occurs at the climax of the narrative itself. ", Ribó Labastida, Ignasi. To see what your friends thought of this book. The poetic style also reflects the prevalent sense of anxiety characterizing both the Baroque period and the historical context of the Counter-Reformation. The Cyclops realizes his surrogate beauty in the form of discourse and song, which he contrasts with the tangible beauty of a lover. Y en ruecas de oro rayos de sol hilan. [3] 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. Within the scope of the Polifemo, the presence of ugliness and the grotesque which taints the Arcadian landscape of the pastoral, proves predestined to annihilate both the beauty and harmony inherent in pastoral naivety, something which was cherished in both Renaissance art and the ancient bucolic. (Such might sight a Lybian buckler traces, De sublimidad a sublimidad, el resultado final es un horror estético que pocas veces he sentido. In these lines, Acis pursues Galatea with a different approach than his wistful cycloptic rival. 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. No longer is there the subjugation of form required in Renaissance art. 3'5. The aesthetic focus, for example, shifts towards the sublime and perhaps this is the most palpable distinction. 19 reviews. O los desate el mayo, ámbar destilan Conversely, it is the subject who is the ultimate arbiter of artistic experience though they also limited to merely reflect a bundle of individual perceptions and privately held associations. Góngora quiso experimentar con el lenguaje y llevarlo al límite. The poem celebrates Pagan Love as described by Robert Jammes and conversely criticizes the intellectualism that needlessly justifies and consequently stifles erotic love. At the same time, the Polifemo could be interpreted analogically as a commentary of the aesthetic and ethical systems of Gongora's time and place. The intemperance of love and the existence of evil as the result neglecting the good are deeply rooted in a non-Christian pagan morality birthed by Socrates in which excess and evil are the products of ignorance, which can be effectively ameliorated with proper education. The question of perfection, of a harmonious situation where nothing can be added without worsening conditions for individuals and set relationships, drives the narrative of the Polifemo. The striking contrast of the poem rests in the juxtaposition of the dark, gloomy and burdened existence of Polifemo with the figure of Galatea, the paragon of light, beauty and contentedness. De cuantos siegan oro, esquilan nieve, Góngora places Galatea in a much different light by having her assume a more sexually assertive role. These philosophical trends undoubtedly allowed for the gradual Christianization of the empire. The divine lineages of the two suitors, an issue of prevalence within classical works, is incorporated into the poem. The story of the two lovers has been portrayed by many famous painters. 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. Raulston, Stephen B. 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.[11].