Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8kt4b Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-07T02:50:31.679Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Myth or History? Lope de Vega’s Caballero de Olmedo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2023

Isabel Torres
Affiliation:
Queen's University Belfast
Get access

Summary

In the following chapter, I will understand ‘myth’ as a story that was thought to have been composed either for an allegorical purpose, or as a fantastic elaboration of a historical event. This genre of mythological storytelling was defined by Pérez de Moya in his highly influential work, Philosofía secreta, as ‘una habla que con palabras de admiración significa algún secreto natural, o cuento de historia, como la fábula que dice ser Venus de la espuma del mar engendrada’. This understanding was long and venerable: for example, the myth of Apollo and Daphne was explained in the medieval Ovide moralise as being an explanation for the abundance of laurels around the banks of the River Peneus (Daphne’s father): Apollo’s warmth, mixed with the water, caused the profusion of trees. In an alternative explanation, the Ovide moralise suggests that Daphne may have been a historical individual who rejected numerous suitors and died whilst attempting to avoid being raped, and was subsequently buried under a laurel. Other, more moral, meanings could be spun off the core: virgins should be pure in mind as well as body, for example; or a remarkably ingenious allegory of the Incarnation could be extracted from Ovid’s verses.

Early modern Spanish society was soused in mythology, in the ancient lore of Greece and Rome. That backward glance provided a touchstone of reference and a means of structuring stories. The field of reference or knowledge took in history as well as myth, of course: stories of Nero as well as Aeneas, Alexander the Great as well as Achilles, the blind Athenagorus of Cyrene as well as Cupid. And it will be to the uncertain division between myth and history that we shall return, although first I intend to consider the manner in which Classical mythology and history are used in what would seem, at first sight, relatively infertile territory for their harvest: a history play, set during the beginning of the fifteenth century in Spain, against a background of nobiliary unrest, oppressionof religious minorities, schism in the Church, an unseemly and unworthy king, and the sphinx-like character of his favourite, Álvaro de Luna: Lope’s El Caballero de Olmedo.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×