"Sensus mythologicus atque astrologicus": Gongora’s allegory of the celestial Bull

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to make a detailed analysis of the six verses at the beginning of Luis de Góngora’s first Soledad. Based on the ancient and modern readings, it exposes the difficulty and semantic richness of its metaphoric tissue and shows the most viable hermeneutical approaches in order to examine its complex mythological and astrological allegory, suggesting a whole exegesis for this subtle and significant passage of Góngora’s poetry.