SOURCE: Lehrer, Melinda Eve. “Introduction” and “Góngora's Innovations in the Polifemo.” In Classical Myth and the Polifemo of Góngora, pp. 1-17. Potomac, Md.: Scripta Humanistica, 1989.

In the first excerpt that follows, Lehrer argues that three minor works by Góngora, the sonnet “Mientras por competir con tu cabello,” the romance “En un pastoral albergue,” and the canción “!Qué de invidiosos montes levantados,” all contain hallmarks of Góngora's greatest poetry, the Polifemo y Galatea and the Soledades. In the excerpt, Lehrer demonstrates how Góngora altered Ovid's story of Polifemo to emphasize themes of contrast, tension, and resolution.

Introduction

While critics recognize the Polifemo (1613) and the Soledades (1612-13) as Góngora's two major works, they have argued about which is the greater poem. Dámaso Alonso has called the Polifemo Góngora's “indiscutible obra maestra”¹ and David Foster has written recently that the Soledades may...