Criticón (Jul 2014)

Las divinidades nefastas: desde la tragedia clásica hasta la fiesta teatral de la España barroca

  • Marcella Trambaioli

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4000/criticon.988
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 120
pp. 305 – 327

Abstract

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In ancient tragedies the fateful goddesses punish or execute the terrible laws of individual fate. In Euripides’s Heracles Hera drives Herakles mad using Lyssa in order to take revenge of Zeus’ infidelity. In Senecan tragedy Hercules furens the hero’s madness is related to his complex personality. Giraldi Cintio in the prologue of Orbecche introduces both Nemesis and Furies with senecan echos using them to create the irrational and tragic atmosphere of the plot. Classical theater influences Spanish drama of the Renaissance through the italian authors like Giraldi, and we find fateful goddesses in Juan de la Cueva theater (El infamador, El viejo enamorado, El príncipe tirano y La libertad de Roma por Mucio Cévola) serving evil characters; consequently, the religious and moral meaning of these goddesses is lost. Something similar happens in Spanish court dramas of the XVII century, in a context in which myth is totally debunked. Lope de Vega just uses Tesifonte in Adonis y Venus, in service of the jealous Apollo. Calderón uses the fateful goddesses in many plays (La fiera el rayo y la piedra, La púrpura de la rosa, Celos aun del aire matan, Andrómeda y Perseo, Hado y divisa de Leonido y de Marfisa); in his theater these characters, besides being functional for the special effects of court drama, dig out the moral and political meanings of the ancient tragedy in christian terms.

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