2 ?b90

260
Fronesis is an only child. She is, for all practical purposes, a virgin
mother. This situation seems to reflect "the extraordinary circumstances
of the hero's birth, the fact that he is begotten by a god and born of a
virgin. "
46
Fronesis senior has been described as an early Christian from
the times when Orphic tradition was giving way to Christ, the most illustri-
ous hero of all; Poci6n presents him as someone who has failed to live up
to his potential because he has fled from the chaos of Diaghilev's passion
for him. This attitude is partly the result of Focidn's personal bias
towards homosexuality. Yet there is sense of failure about Fronesis' fa-
ther which must be explained somehow. The inevitable fact that sons super-
cede their fathers contributes much to this impression, for always in myth
as in family life: "The virgin mother, connected directly with the god who
engenders the new order, but only indirectly with the husband, gives birth
to the hero who is destined to bring that new order into being and destroy
the old. "
47
The theme of the cycle of old and the new is constant in
Paradiso. Fronesis senior was "hijo de diplomi6tico, amigo de Hofmannsthal,
que sabfa hablar de pa5os de Liverpool
...
" (1,400) and now he is merely
11 el sesudo abogadote de Cubanacan" (1,396). Once he embodied qualities
which are now to be found in his son: "Esas condiciones que t6 sorprendes
en Fronesis, estaban sin desarrollar en su padre" (1,396). The symbolism
of the parents is by no means simple for it involves both real, physical
parents and archetypes which can work for good or evil through those parents.
There is an essential difference between, the mother and the father arche-
types in Jungian psychology which appears in Paradiso also, expressed in
the sUcange life of Fronesis' parents. We have observed the malevolent
aspect of the Great Mother at work in the fates of Alberto, Leregas, Farra-
luque, Foci6n and others, in contrast to the beneficial effects displayed
in Rialta's nature. The negative side was exposed in the fiercesome image-
ry of the tusked boar, the voracious snake and so on, so it is not surprising