The Decline of Gods and Heroes in the Last Castilian Book of Chivalry

Abstract

In this paper I study the treatment of the figure of the gods and heroes of Classical Antiquity in the last Castilian book of chivalry. Juan Cano López, royal scribe at the court of Madrid, puts an end to the most widely read genre of narrative fiction in Europe and America in the 16th century. His fifth and sixth parts of Espejo de príncipes y caballeros (Mirror of Princes and Knights) (ca. 1640) continue the adventures of the famous Caballero del Febo, left unfinished by Don Marcos Martínez in 1587. But this time the protagonists are the children (Part Five) and grandchildren (Part Six) of this old knight, now Emperor of Trapesonda. While the former suffer the kidnapping of the Greek princesses by the necromancer Selagio and the impotence of not being able to act —since their rescue is reserved for heroes not yet born—, the latter, the infant siblings Clarisol and Clarabela, will bring this adventure to a climax. In an attempt to stop the young princes of Lyra, the evil sage will turn to the great forces of the past: the gods and heroes of the classical world.