Life's a Dream (La Vida es Sueño): (La Vida es Sueño)

Glossary

Glossary 155 HI Glossary Note: I believe all these terms will be comprehensible in performance in the contexts in which I have translated them. For directors who disagree, I offer in brackets acceptable substitutions for the most obscure entries. Aeneas. Trojan hero of Virgil’s epic poem, the Aeneid; son of Anchises and Aphrodite. He escaped the sack of Troy and wandered for seven years before settling in Italy. Book 4 of the Aeneid recounts how he stops in Carthage (near present-day Tunis), where the queen, Dido, falls in love with him; but he is convinced by the gods to abandon her in order to pursue his destiny as the founder of Rome. He leaves behind a sword, and the queen, overwhelmed by grief, stabs herself with it and hurls herself onto a funeral pyre. Atlas. In Greek mythology, a Titan condemned by Zeus to support the heavens on his shoulders. Calderón often refers to him as a metaphor for those who support the elderly. [Atlas-likeJsupportive] Aurora. Roman personification of the dawn who came to be identified with the Greek goddess Eos. Aurora is seen as a lovely woman who flies across the sky announcing the arrival of the sun. According to one myth, her tears cause the dew as she flies across the sky weeping for a slain son. [Dawn] Babylonia. Ancient empire of Mesopotamia in the Euphrates River valley with its capital at Babylon. It flourished under Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar II but declined after 562 B.C. and fell to the Persians in 539. In Calderón, it was a symbol of chaos because of its associations with the Tower of Babel. Glossary 156 Bellona. Roman goddess of war, popular among Roman soldiers. Her attribute is the sword, and she is depicted wearing a helmet and armed with a spear and a torch. She accompanied Mars in battle and was variously understood as his wife, sister, or daughter; but Calderón identifies her with the sun, meant to represent the king. [“act as Bellona”J“fight with ferocity”] Danae. In Greek mythology, the daughter of Acrisius. An oracle warned her father that Danae’s son would someday kill him, so Acrisius shut Danae in a bronze room, away from male company. However, Zeus conceived a passion for her and came to her through the roof in the form of a shower of gold that poured down into her lap; as a result she had a son, Perseus, who eventually fulfilled the prophecy by killing Acrisius. [“Danae, Leda, Europa” J“those who fell for such ruses”] Diana. In Roman mythology, the virgin goddess of hunting and childbirth, traditionally associated with the moon and identified with the Greek Artemis. Calderón seems to want to contrast her to the warlike Pallas, perhaps because of the nurturing qualities associated with midwives, but her virginity and her role as huntress blur the opposition. In the Zaragoza branch of the play’s textual transmission, “Venus” appears in place of “Diana” at this point in the manuscript. [Venus] Dropsy. Medical condition, known in modern times as edema, characterized by abnormal accumulation of fluid in the body tissues or body cavities, causing swelling or distention of the affected parts. In the Renaissance it was thought to be caused by excess drinking, so further intake of liquids was considered life threatening. [“suffer from the dropsy” J“be insatiable”] Euclid. Greek mathematician of the third century B.C. who applied the deductive principles of logic to geometry, thereby deriving statements from clearly defined axioms. Calderón’s reference to him is an example of antonomasia, that is, the use of a well-known proper name to represent an entire group (in this case, mathematicians). [mathematician] Europa. In Greek mythology, a Phoenician princess who inflamed the desire of Zeus. He appeared to her in the form of a beautiful white bull and encountered her at the seashore. By appearing to be tame, he coaxed her to climb onto his back and then swam off with her across the sea to Crete. The socalled “rape of Europa” is a favorite motif of Renaissance poetry and iconography . [For substitutions, see Danae.] Glossary 157 Flora. Roman goddess of the blossoming flowers of spring. [Springtime] Halberd. Weapon of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that came to replace the lance in combat, having an axlike blade and a steel spike mounted on the end of a long shaft...