Alarcon's El dueno de las estrellas: Hero and Pharmakos

Abstract

A.C HE eclectic base of the comedia is implicit, and at times explicit, in Alarc6n's El duenio de las estrellas, an unusual play in which suicide, a rarity in Spanish Golden Age literature, fixes the protagonist Licurgo's role as hero and pharmakos,1 a role that embodies consummate magnanimity and civic duty in the classical sense, as well as the ideal honor, vassalage, and emphasis on free will of the Spanish tradition. A close study of El duenio de las estrellas reveals the dual aspects of the protagonist as hero and pharmakos, elucidates the cohesiveness of the complex and dramatic circumstances of the play, and demonstrates Alarc6n's dramatic craftsmanship. Too much the dramatist to limit himself to a simple historical version of his protagonist, Alarc6n integrates cultural and dramatic aspects in his portrait of Lycurgus, undoubtedly drawn from Plutarch's account of the famous ninth-century B. C. Spartan legislator and social reformer. According to Plutarch's Lives, Lycurgus was a wise and rational legislator who established just laws and reforms in Laconia. After exacting a promise from his fellow citizens that there would be no legislative reform during his absence, he left his country to consult the oracle at Delphi where he was told that