A Protean Moral? Aristotelian Metamorphoses in the Figures of Icarus, Daedalus, and Phaethon

Abstract

Abstract This chapter analyses the myths of Icarus and Phaethon, arguing that their ability to illustrate different facets of Aristotle’s mean underpins their remarkable popularity in literature. It uses emblems, mythography, and Renaissance commentaries to construct an interpretative framework for moralizing references to these tales, covering: their use to evoke either the general triadic model of virtue or the specific vice of temerity; their association specifically with a modified understanding of temerity that was commonplace in the Renaissance; and further ambivalence in the figure of Daedalus, who may be a figure of the prudential mean (contrasting Icarus), or a second cautionary figure of temerity. This framework clarifies multi-voiced Golden-Age poems that blend several aspects of this heritage, including sonnets by Herrera and Arguijo, and Villamediana’s ‘Fábula de Faetón’. The chapter subsequently examines Icarus and Phaethon’s literary deployments more broadly, demonstrating that their frequent use in key literary contexts depends on the revised definition of temerity which they represent. Such contexts include: discussions of literary endeavour and poetic imitation; the unrequited sentiment of the Petrarchan lover; and the impossible love of socially mismatched couples in drama. Examples are drawn from Villamediana, Herrera, Gracián, Lope, Cervantes, Garcilaso, and Cetina, with a particular focus on Lope’s El perro del hortelano. A concluding section extends this temerity logic to contexts where Icarus and Phaethon need not appear, such as theatre’s concern with providentially assigned social roles (exemplified by Calderón’s El gran teatro del mundo), and picaresque obsession with social ascent (playfully explored in the Lazarillo).