Der Untergang von Atlantis als Ursprungsmythos der Dichtung

die Sinnzuweisung an die Katastrophe in Jacint Verdaguers L'Atlàntida (1886)

Abstract

With his epic L’Atlàntida (1877), Jacint Verdaguer brings the Catalan language back among the languages for literature of erudition. The poem is focused on a new version of the Platonic myth of Atlantis from a Hispanic point of view. The end of Atlantis, which only Hesperis, saved by Hercules, will survive, does not only mean a divine punishment of planetary dimensions for the sinful Atlants. The Atlantic Ocean comes to existence, the Greek isles surge to the surface of the Mediterranean, and Hercules and Hesperis repopulate the Iberian Peninsula. In the frame narrative of the poem Christopher Columbus feels inspired for his journey by the tale of the cataclysm, and shall repair the consequences of the divine punishment. This paper analyses the literary aesthetics of the catastrophe, as can be found only in biblical and mythological speech contexts, as well as the renewed ideological orientation given to the myth by Verdaguer.