Labyrinths: myth and metaphor in Baroque texts. Notes on the story of his journey

The sense in which Spanish authors in the Baroque period employ the word labyrinth' presupposes an evolution, from ancient understanding of it, which the present article aims to outline. For Classical authors the word had the physical sense of a complex construction', although it could also be used metaphorically. But already in certain texts (Virgil, Ovid), the narration of the Cretan myth invited a moralizing interpretation which is given further prominence in late medieval and Renaissance texts. A further elaboration sees the labyrinth converted into a theological symbol representing deceit, offering an erroneous path which the Christian must avoid. Once these and other parallel lines of development have been traced, it becomes possible to see how complex is the use Calderon makes of the concept in El laberinto del mundo. El sentido en el que se emplea el vocablo laberinto' entre autores del barroco espanol representa una evolucion semantica, respecto a su acepcion en la antiguedad, cuyo rumbo este articulo pretende trazar. Para los autores clasicos la palabra tenia un sentido fisico de construccion compleja', si bien se podia emplear tambien en sentido metaforico. Pero ya en ciertos textos (Virgilio, Ovidio) la relacion del mito griego invitaba a una interpretacion moralizante, aspecto realzado en textos tardio-medievales y renacentistas. Una perspectiva aun mas evolucionada presenta el laberinto como simbolo teologico que representa el desengano, ofreciendo un camino errado que el cristiano debe evitar. Una vez trazados estos desarrollos y otros paralelos, es posible ver con que complejidad Calderon maneja el concepto en El laberinto del mundo.