The topic of the urban fires in the epic on the war of Arauco: a critical view of the conquest of Chili

Abstract

The present article analyzes the passages in the epic poems on the war of Arauco that report the urban fires in the south of Chile, in the context of the war of Arauco in the 16th century. From it, we propose that these statements were inspired by the topic of the fires offered by the classical tradition, to praise the destruction of the cities and to amplify the scopes of the Spanish defeat, which responsibility would relapse into the conquerors themselves.