Mio Cid’s Powerful Gaze: The Subduing of the Lion in the Cantar de Mio Cid

This study seeks to broaden the understanding of the lion scene in Cantar de Mio Cid by exploring the visual interaction between Mio Cid and the lion. Given the importance the poet gives to optical imagery throughout the Cantar, vision and the gaze play a preponderant role in Mio Cid’s courageous subduing of the lion after the wild beast escapes from its cage. This study argues that Mio Cid is able to defuse the fierceness of the lion through the power of his gaze. As soon as the lion looks into the hero’s eyes, the beast is overwhelmed by the optical species emanating from them because these species convey the courage and inner worth immanent in Mio Cid’s soul. Thanks to textual evidence and theories of vision extant during the Middle Ages, this paper shows how humans were able to control and dominate both men and beasts through their gaze, and the lion is an apposite example of the power of human beings to exert their visual power upon others.