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Julio Cortázar was extremely well read in ancient literature and philosophy. He collected editions and translations of Heraclitus and based the short story ‘Todos los fuegos el fuego’ (‘All Fires the Fire’) on his philosophy in which Fire steered the Universe. The enigmatic ‘obscure’ style of the Ephesian philosopher, his use of riddles and dark metaphors, his philosophy of language, and his philosophy of time (eternal recurrence) all fascinated Cortázar. He knew the Stoics ascribed the concept of ecpyrosis, final conflagration, to Heraclitus and he knew these ideas influenced Christian apocalyptic imagery and eschatological teachings. We argue that the metaphors and the experimental narrative of ‘All Fires the Fire’ (merging a modern story and a story set in Roman Antiquity, both ending in a final conflagration) are inspired by Heraclitus and by the Bible. This paper explores the interaction between the use Cortázar made of Heraclitus and the Christian traditions: the function of the biblical allusions (to Matthew 5:13; Revelation 22) he inserted in the story, to early Christian symbolism (the fish), and to an ancient Christian numerical riddle (888) on the name of Jesus taken from the Sibylline Oracles. In this way we hope to clarify his view of the reader as an intellectual accomplice of the author.1
Julio Cortázar was extremely well read in ancient literature and philosophy. He collected editions and translations of Heraclitus and based the short story ‘Todos los fuegos el fuego’ (‘All Fires the Fire’) on his philosophy in which Fire steered the Universe. The enigmatic ‘obscure’ style of the Ephesian philosopher, his use of riddles and dark metaphors, his philosophy of language, and his philosophy of time (eternal recurrence) all fascinated Cortázar. He knew the Stoics ascribed the concept of ecpyrosis, final conflagration, to Heraclitus and he knew these ideas influenced Christian apocalyptic imagery and eschatological teachings. We argue that the metaphors and the experimental narrative of ‘All Fires the Fire’ (merging a modern story and a story set in Roman Antiquity, both ending in a final conflagration) are inspired by Heraclitus and by the Bible. This paper explores the interaction between the use Cortázar made of Heraclitus and the Christian traditions: the function of the biblical allusions (to Matthew 5:13; Revelation 22) he inserted in the story, to early Christian symbolism (the fish), and to an ancient Christian numerical riddle (888) on the name of Jesus taken from the Sibylline Oracles. In this way we hope to clarify his view of the reader as an intellectual accomplice of the author.1
The philosophy of Heraclitus as thematic subtext of Julio Cortázar's 'All Fires the Fire' In an interview he gave a few months before his demise, Julio Cortázar identified two teachers from the Escuela Normal ‗Mariano Acosta' in Buenos Aires as defining influences on his intellectual career. Don Arturo Marasso, his professor of Greek and Spanish literature, was soon aware of Cortázar's literary vocation. He initiated the young Cortázar in ancient mythology, invited him to his home and gave the talented but poor student free access to his personal library. Marasso introduced him to Sophocles, taught him how to read Homer well, and made him appreciate the lyric poetry of Pindar. Under Marasso's influence he also read all the Platonic dialogues. His philosophy teacher, Vicente Fatone, a specialist of logic and epistemology, broadened his knowledge of ancient philosophy and made him read Aristotle. Cortázar recalls that the challenging Fatone inspired him to consider a career in philosophy. Although he did not have the temperament for systematic philosophy, he recalls: ‗Me fascinaba porque la filosofía te mete en lo fantástico, en lo metafísico, pero no tenía un temperamento para avanzar o sistematizar en el campo filosófico y la abandoné.' (Soriano 1983: 4) Heraclitus in the works of Cortázar Throughout his life and writings, Cortázar remained fascinated by classical culture. 1 He seems to have been particularly interested in a philosophical author whose fragments have been compared to the choral works of Pindar and who has been called ‗one of the most powerful 1 Two forthcoming articles by Aagje Monballieu study the importance of the classical tradition for Cortázar: ‗La vocación helenística de Julio Cortázar. Sus lecturas y su formación clásica en el Mariano Acosta (1929-1936)' Bulletin Hispanique 2012 and ‗Más que un amateur esclarecido. La afición de Julio Cortázar por la filosofía de Heráclito': on the presence of Heraclitus in his personal library, forthcoming in Neophilologus 2011. stylists not only of Greek Antiquity but of World Literature' (Kahn 1983: IX): Heraclitus of Ephesus (° ca. 540 B.C.). Cortázar owned several scholarly books on the philosophy of Heraclitus and it is even fair to say that he collected editions and translations of the Heraclitean fragments. His collection included editions of the original Greek next to Spanish, French and English translations by Battistini, Brun, Farré and others. His love for Heraclitus was also known to his friends: we know e.g. that his copy of Heraclitus by Philip Wheelwright (1959) was a gift from his friend the critic Ana María Hernández. 2 Heraclitus appears quite often in his writings: both in early and in very late publications. In a short essay published a few years before his death, ‗Un sueño realizado' (1980), 3 Cortázar mentions Le rayon vert by Jules Verne (1882) and he compares this natural phenomenon to the transformation of the elements as described by Heraclitus. 4 ‗Sobremesa' (Final del juego), published in 1964, has fragment DK 52 as its motto: ‗...
Varia La vocación helenística de Julio CortázarSus lecturas y su formación clásica en el Mariano Acosta (1929)(1930)(1931)(1932)(1933)(1934)(1935)(1936) . Es sabido este profundo interés del escritor y se refleja de manera constante en su obra. Como se puede observar, no sólo el poema dramático sobre el Minotauro, sino también varios cuentos («Circe», «Las ménades» y «Casa tomada», por sólo mencionar algunos), novelas (pienso en Los premios y Rayuela), y hasta el ensayo literario Imagen de John Keats, dejan constancia de la fascinación cortazariana con los mitos griegos. Su afición por el mundo clásico no se limita al campo de la mitología, sino que se manifiesta, además, en sus amplios conocimientos de la filosofía, la literatura y el arte de la antigüedad, que igualmente han tenido eco en sus textos literarios 3 . 2 A pesar de la omnipresencia de la tradición clásica en la obra de Cortázar, hasta ahora la crítica no ha ahondado en las raíces de esta afición: la formación clásica del joven Julio Florencio en la Escuela Normal «Mariano Acosta» (1929)(1930)(1931)(1932)(1933)(1934)(1935)(1936) y las lecturas complementarias -anotadas y fechadas 4 -de la literatura griega y romana que el alumno realizó entonces por su propia cuenta. Me cuesta creer que hasta ahora esta última pista todavía no haya sido explorada 5 , sobre todo porque desde 1993 la biblioteca personal de Cortázar, tal como se encontraba en su última casa parisiense, se ha abierto al público en la Fundación Juan March de Madrid. Aunque se trata naturalmente de una selección de las obras griegas y latinas que había leído 6 , es mi intención reconstruir en estos párrafos, Sin embargo, en el Mariano Acosta también tenía muchos amigos con quienes se reunía en «La guarida» 11 para hablar de literatura, pintura, música, filosofía, política, etc. Este «club» formaba «una especie de célula de defensa contra la mediocridad de casi todos los profesores y los compañeros» 12. Entre los miembros no sólo se encontraban varios condiscípulos de Julio Florencio, tales como «Paco» Reta, Eduardo Jonquières y Jorge D'Urbano, sino también algunos profesores de la Escuela Normal, entre los cuales los únicos dos profesores -«¡Dos sobre cien!» 13 -a quienes Cortázar recuerda con ternura. Se trata del mencionado Arturo Marasso y de Vicente Fatone, que desempeñaron un papel decisivo en la formación clásica del joven Cortázar y con quienes el alumno mantenía una buena relación. Fueron de «esa clase de profesores con los que un buen día podés ir a su casa y se crea una relación que duró muchos años» Las clases de literatura griega y latina de Arturo Marasso (1933-1934 5 Para la formación clásica del joven Cortázar fue crucial la influencia de Arturo Marasso (1890-1970, gran humanista que era helenista, poeta y cervantista a la vez 16 . Su curso de literatura latina y griega, denominado sorprendentemente «Literatura Oriental, Griega y Latina», que Cortázar siguió durante el primer año del profesorado, esto es, entre 1933 y 1934, lo situó plenamente en el mundo de la mitología...
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