El estoicismo de Séneca en La Araucana de Alonso de Ercilla.

Abstract

In this paper on Alonso de Ercilla’s La Araucana [The Araucana], I provide an intertextual reading, in the Renaissance manner, of one of the epic’s main heroes, Caupolicán, throwing light on the consistency of his characterization as a Stoic hero and wise man at the very moment in which he confronts his barbaric death. I show how Ercilla brings to bear L.A. Seneca’s moral essays and Stoic notions directly on the construction of the Araucanian hero’s character. Until the publication of this essay, the decisive infl uence of the Roman Imperial philosopher on the Finis Terrae stoicism of Alonso de Ercilla had not been rigorously described and interpreted.