Mitología clásica y paisajismo cubano en el Espejo de paciencia de Silvestre de Balboa

Abstract

In this article, the classical references present in Silvestre de Balboa's Espejo de paciencia, a late product of Renaissance epic combined with Baroque elements, published in 1608 and considered the founding text of Cuban literature, are analysed. Classical Greco-Roman mythology of European tradition is intermingled with Cuban landscape elements in this work dedicated to a contemporary event: the kidnapping of Bishop Altamirano. The end of the first of the poem's two cantoes represents the highpoint of this dislocation of mythological beings from the Greek forests to Cuban geography.