GONGORA'S 'POLIFEMO' AND ITS CLASSICAL PREDECESSORS (LUIS CARRILLO Y SOTOMAYOR, SPAIN)

Why did Gongora write a major poem on the Polyphemus- Galatea theme? This dissertation proposes that it was not just that the theme had a long Classical tradition behind it, that Polyphemus' song was very popular in Renaissance and Baroque Europe, and that a younger poet, Carrillo y Sotomayor, had recently written a poem on the same theme. Gongora was also attracted because the story had the potential for showing violent contrasts, for building up something beautiful and then destroying it, and for presenting an alienated outsider to act against a fortunate pair of lovers. These characteristics responded to conflicts in Gongora's life and are seen in other poems of his.;Chapter I of the dissertation examines three smaller poems in Gongora's work which point to issues which Gongora elaborated in the Polifemo. Chapter II studies the Classical predecessors of the Polifemo--Theocritus' Idyll 11, Vergil's Eclogue 2, and Ovid's Metamorphoses XIII. 740-897--and establishes the theme that runs through them: the contrast between disparate beings. Chapter III discusses Gongora's innovations in the Polifemo. They enhance the poetic tension and the contrasts which interested Gongora so much. Chapter IV treats the "Fabula de Acis y Galatea" of Luis Carrillo y Sotomayor and compares it to Met. XIII. 740-897 and Gongora's Polifemo. Chapter V discusses the Acis-Galatea interlude of the Polifemo, Gongora's most original contribution to the Polyphemus-Galatea theme. Chapter VI examines the Cyclops' song, indicating how Gongora's treatment made it more than the topos it had become. Chapter VII, the conclusion, shows how Gongora created an alternate plot of images, contrasts, and tensions in the Polifemo which was profoundly related to his life and the period in which he lived.