From the desire to pay homage to the passion for command: Semíramis' mechanisms of ambition in the first part of Calderón's La hija del aire

Abstract

This article extends previous studies that reexamine the notion of ambition in the protagonist of La Hija del Aire. This article studies in detail the dramatic mechanisms that progressively color the ambition of Semiramis, transforming it into a mixture of a legitimate «desire to pay homage» and «an excessive appetite for honor», in the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas. The specific mechanisms that contribute to this process include the heroic configuration of the protagonist, the role of his imagination, the laws of recognition and obligation, and the counterpoint constituted by the royal figure degraded to the state of a tyrant.