The Figure of Ganymede in Early Modern Spanish Comedias

Abducted by Jupiter for his beauty and made cupbearer to the gods, Ganymede has long been interpreted as an emblem of pederasty and queer desire. While critics such as James M. Saslow and Leonard Barkan have emphasized the (homo)erotic readings of this mythological figure, they have largely overlooked the Iberian Peninsula. This book offers the first sustained study of Ganymede in seventeenth-century Spain, a context marked by political decline and an extraordinary flowering of literary production. Focusing on comedias, this book identifies sixteen overt references to Ganymede across works from Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Ana Caro, Andrés de Claramonte, and others, ranging from La escolástica celosa (1596-1602) to Fray Manuel de Guerra's Aprobación (1682). By analyzing canonical and noncanonical plays alike, it demonstrates how Spanish playwrights reimagined Ganymede as a political, moral, and erotic figure whose meanings were fluid and contested. Drawing also on non-theatrical sources such as Juan Peréz de Moya, the study shows how Ganymede became a tool for guiding, criticizing, and educating audiences, complicating the assumption that he functioned only as a symbol of forbidden desire. The Figure of Ganymede in Early Modern Spanish Comedias will be of interest to scholars and students of Early Modern literature, theater, and mythology, as well as those engaged with queer theory, reception studies, and cultural history. Its distinctive contribution lies in recovering the neglected Iberian dimension of Ganymede's reception and in demonstrating that his ambiguities open new ways of reading the political, moral, and sexual cultures of Early Modern Spain.

Felipe E. Rojas is Associate Professor of Spanish at West Liberty University, United States. He earned his PhD from the University of Chicago in 2014. His research focuses on early modern Spanish literature, with interests in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century theater, queer and gay studies, classical mythology, and the intersections of politics, religion, and sexuality in Early Modern Spain. His work explores veiled sexual references on the early modern stage and how these coded expressions engage with Spain's political, religious, and historical transformations. His scholarship also delves into areas such as the role of children's games in literature and their cultural significance.

1. Introduction 2. The Political Ganymede 2.1 Political (In)Credibility: La hermosa Alfreda (1598-1600) as Forewarning of Artistic and Privados' Deception 2.2 Political Liaisons: Lope de Vega's Las mujeres sin hombres (1613-18) as Metaphor of Habsburg Dynastic Marriages 2.3 Political Education: Advising a Young King in Lope de Vega's La mayor victoria (1615-1624) 2.4 A Political Hunt for Ganymede: Queer Space and Juan Ruiz de Alarcón's Los favores del mundo (c. 1616?-1617) 3. The Moral/Religious Ganymede 3.1 A Moral Dilemma: Early Modern Mythographers and the Case of Lope de Vega's La escolástica celosa (1596-1602) 3.2 "Claiming" the Moral High Ground: Tirso de Molina's Religious La mejor espigadera (1614) and the Joys of the Pagan 3.3 Loose Morals: Andres de Claramonte's La ciudad sin Dios, o El inobediente (1652) and the Insertion of Ganymede 3.4 Zipper Moral: The Multifaceted Character of Ismael in Tirso de Molina's La prudencia en la mujer (1634) 4. The Sexual Ganymede 4.1 Early Modern Sexual (Mis)Conduct: Ganymede Through his Escapades 4.2 Sexual Minorities: Sodomites and Incest in Lope de Vega's Adonis y Venus (1597-1603) and its Forgotten Interlude 4.3 Sexual Ambiguity: Cross-Dressed Same-Sex Desires in Lope de Vega's El gallardo catalán (1599-1603) 4.4 Sexual Tension: Reconstructing and Re-Interpreting a "Feminine" Ganymede in Ana Caro's Valor, agravio y mujer (c. 1635) 5. Epilogue