Auristela and Cenotia, personalities from Horace in the Persiles

Abstract

In the 1599 translation of a poem by Horace one finds: “You who are good, a golden star, will go among the stars {astra} where you will be placed and taken for a Goddess.” This not only points to the first known literary use of the name of Auristela, albeit in Castilian translation, but also to her divine appearance on the Island of the Fishermen. A further surprise is that the greater part of this same poem consists of an accusation against the recipient of this praise, the disgusting sorceress Canidia. She, like Cervantes’ Cenotia enamored of the younger Antonio, lusts after Horace at the same time that she tortures him with hexes. In both cases the narrator mocks the powers claimed by the sorceresses, but without questioning the efficacy of their magic in the cases being narrated. Cenotia, usually focused on by critics in relation to her Morisco ethnicity, exhibits several traits of classic Roman sorcery. Among these is her link to fire and ashes, visible even in her name, which is related to that of Canidia. Her burning desire, like that of the followers of an ancient sorcerer on the Barbarous Isle, leads to devastating fires. The juxtaposition of the celestial Auristela with the infernal Cenotia seems to spring from Horace’s poem, and both authors share similar motives in the formulation of their ambivalent treatment of sorcery.