Góngora's first Solitude commences with the introduction of a pilgrim protagonist, charactaristic of Santiago de Compostela:

              Pasos de un peregrino son, errante,
              cuántos me dictó, versos, dulce musa:
              en soledad confusa
              perdidos unos, otros inspirados.

Here we would expect the adverb 'errante' to terminate in 's' ("pasos errantes"), but no: 'errante' reflects on the peregrino himself. Don Luis could have continued his introduction with: 'Cuántos versos me dictó la dulce Musa', but this would have been too predictable. The rest of the first stanza can be easily be understood by anyone interested, not just by Gongorists. The footsteps have gone lost forever; the verses are inspired, also forever.
Why write about a pilgrim? Well, because of his involvement in the Catholic Church, Góngora traveled widely (to Madrid, Pontevedra, Salamanca, Huelva, Béjar, Granada, Valladolid), and must from time to time have felt like a pilgrim himself. The pilgrimages to Santiago had established themselves as a well-known tradition during don Luis' lifetime, because they date back as far as 844.
We know for certain that the poet visited Pontevedra, so it is not impossible to reach the conclusion that the priest Góngora also visited the tomb of Saint James in Santiago, some sixty kilometers from this (then) small harbor village on the Atlantic Coast. Are there references to Galicia and to Santiago de Compostela in his oeuvre? One would think so, although we do not have any proof of a visit to the City of Santiago.
After praising the Duke of Béjar - a bear hunter - in the Introduction to the Soledades, don Luis writes down:

               Era del año la estación florida [spring]
               en que el mentido robador de Europa [the disguised bull who raped Goddess Europa]
               - media luna las armas de su frente [its horns]
               y el Sol todos sus rayos de su pelo - [the sun rays on its velvet skin]
               luciente honor del cielo,
               en campos de zafiro pace estrellas [he sows stars in sapphire fields].

Stanley's translation (1651) is as follows:

              'T was now the blooming season of the year
              And in disguise Europa's ravisher,
              (His brow armed with a crescent, with such beams
              Encompast as the sun unclouded streams
              The sparkling glory of (the zodiac) led
              His numerous herd along the azure mead.

The story of the discovery of the grave of St. James the apostle (in the ninth century) also mentions a field beneath the stars. A shepherd was guided to this field (Santiago) by following the stars at night. Don Luis simply adds some mythological imagery to this scene, taken from the Odyssus and Eneida. The application of hyperbaton is obvious. 'Era la estación florido del año' and 'Y todos los rayos del Sol en su piel'. Interesting is the phrase: 'media luna las armas' etc. Shouldn't that have been 'lunas' (two horns? No, he places the Moon next to the Sun, surrounded by many stars. ('Mentido' is a neologism.)

We do possess an earlier version of the same stanza.

               Era del año la estación florida
               en que el luciente robador de Europa,
               media luna en su frente,
               y el sol todo en su pelo
               por los campos del cielo
               zafiros pissa, sino pace estrellas.

                    This picture features in the "Chacón Manuscript".

                     Góngora in Pellicer's "Lecturas Solemnes" (Madrid: 1630).

                    A totally different Góngora features on the cover of a book published in 1791.

In the early 1600s don Luis was preparing his master pieces, the 'Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea' (1613) and his 'Soledades' (1613-14). Early poetic imagery - from the 1580s and 90s - were being rediscovered and re-used by don Luis, be it in a more elaborate way.
In the Introduction to his Soledades he praises his sponsor, the Duke of Béjar (in Extremadura). This is understandable, because this noble man paid don Luis a salary to write these Soledades. The priest Góngora was also a 'racionero' of the Cordovan cathedral, which meant that he received a ration of that church's income from land rights and income from harvest. Nevertheless, because of his habit of gambling he always required additional sums of money.  This inspired one of his contemporaries, the poet Francisco de Quevedo, to write down: 'Góngora murió en Barajas.' In Quevedó's fantasy don Luis were to die in the tiny village of Barajas, near Madrid. Simultaniously Quevedo created one of his well-known concepts: 'barajas' also signifies 'decks of cards'.