| "Hemos visto un mal tan fiero" explores the figure of Ganymede, the cupbearer of the gods and lover of Jupiter, through the lenses of seventeenth-century Spain, a period of political decline that intriguingly still possessed a flourishing literary production. There are at least fourteen overt mentions of Ganymede in Siglo de Oro theatre. The purpose of my study is to propose that this mythological character conceals many secrets that have not been fully uncovered by Spanish literary scholars.;Authors from the Middle Ages portrayed Ganymede as a allegorical figure that was synonymous for same-sex desires, although he was often allegorized so as to bring about instruction to the pious. A much different depiction of this character, however, is revealed throughout the Renaissance and early modern periods. While James Saslow and Leonard Barkan have concentrated mainly on the erotic Ganymede of the Renaissance, they consistently leave out Spain from their discussions. My study aims to confirm that Ganymede is not exclusively employed as an instrument that portrays forbidden desires in the Spanish Golden Age. A political, religious/moral, and erotic Ganymede unlocks hidden nuances that have been lost to a twenty-first-century reader. Throughout my study, I will attempt to steer away from equating Ganymede with homosexuality and replace this term with "same-sex desires" or sodomy. This is an attempt to remain within the confines of the time period in which many of the comedias were written. Equating Ganymede with any of these terms, furthermore, cannot be completely supported by primary sources. The direct mentions of Ganymede, in fact, have sometimes very little to do with his same-sex desires.;My concentration on theatre is two-fold. One, I hope to give my study a focal point through the sense of seventeenth-century Spanish comedias. Secondly, many of the plays studied in this dissertation are very light in critical analysis. For example, neither El gallardo catalan (1609) by Lope de Vega or La mejor espigadera (1614) by Tirso de Molina, have much written about them. What this study proposes is to analysis the references to Ganymede in early modern Spain and brings new interpretations to canonical and non-canonical texts. |
