The Symbolic-Hermeneutic Concept of the Labyrinth of Fortune by Juan de Mena

Abstract

Juan de Mena's masterpiece is classified in the literature of visions. In the concepts that the author exposes expressly or through allusions, symbols, and metaphors, one can see the scholastic philosophical-theological tradition of the Middle Ages and, naturally, the biblical knowledge of the author. Rather than repeating the thoughts of the great scholastics, he applies the philosophical-theological concepts with some particular variation in his work. Accordingly, he introduces the idea that free will is a possible cause of a person's loss of privileged position and his fall from the wheel of Fortune. Much more peculiar is, however, the description of his rapture and his interior and mystical experience. Not only the narration of this scene and the concluding image of the vision demonstrate the profound theological knowledge of the poet, but also the entire conception and structure of the work that transforms the labyrinth, a symbol of horizontal extension that represents the chaos at that time in Castile, in a symbol of vertical extension, a traditional allegory of the unpredictability of fate. In this manner, Juan de Mena is not only a predecessor of the mystical literature of the later century, but he presents us in the Laberinto de Fortuna a philosophical-theological treatise in the form of a poem.