The Lusiads (Oxford World's Classics)

by Luis Vaz de Camoes

  Let them sing on: Vasco da Gama’s dismissive summary of the Odyssey and Aeneid matches Camões’s introduction (see canto 1. 3), but note also st. 94–9 and cantos 7. 81 and 10. 145.

  as Fulvia found: Martial (Epigrams, xi. 20) describes the verses Augustus wrote about Fulvia’s reactions to Antony’s affair with Glaphyra.

  Scipio: the myth that Scipio the Younger wrote comedies seems to derive from his role as the Roman playwright Terence’s patron.

  Canto Six

  illustrious pillars: see note to p. 51.

  his new pilot: Da Gama’s pilot was long reputed to have been Ahmed Ibn Majid, the greatest Arab navigator of his day and author of numerous treatises on the Indian Ocean. He is now thought to have retired in 1465.

  wicked Bacchus: the second half of The Lusíads begins with a further assembly of the gods, this time in Neptune’s underwater palace. Only the sea-gods are present and there is no debate, just a harangue from Bacchus.

  the underwater god: Neptune.

  primeval chaos: the shapeless mass out of which the four elements (fire, air, earth, and water), the basic components of all creation, were separated.

  Typhoeus: one of the Titans, imprisoned after the war beneath Mount Etna (see canto 5. 58, where Enceladus has suffered the same fate).

  Smiting the earth: the legend is that Neptune’s gift of the first warhorse was countered by Minerva’s gift of the first olive tree (see Ovid, Metamorphoses, vi. 80).

  Triton: the description imitates Metamorphoses, i. 330–42.

  Father Ocean came: the various sea-gods who assemble include Father Ocean, god of the oceans surrounding the ancient world as opposed to the Mediterranean which was enclosed by it; Nereus his son with his wife Doris, parents of the Nereids or sea-nymphs (see cantos 1. 96 and 2. 18–33); Proteus, custodian of seals and other sea animals (see canto 1. 19) and a prophet; Tethys, Neptune’s wife, who appears regularly in The Lusíads; Amphitrite, Neptune’s second wife, accompanied by the dolphin which persuaded her to accept his love; Ino and her son Melicertes, who fled from her infanticidal husband and became, with the help of the nymph Panopea, a sea-god jointly with her son; and Glaucus, who accidentally became a sea-god by eating a herb, spurned Circe for love of Scylla, and saw her changed into a sea-monster (afterwards, she became the rocks of the Messina Straits).

  one of my former vassals: Lusus (see canto 1. 39).

  Boreas, and his friend Aquilo: the names of north winds.

  Aeolus: see note to p. 46.

  The bells of the first watch: watches at this time were changed at midnight.

  Leonard: Lionardo Ribeiro (cf. cantos 4. 81–2 and 9. 75–82).

  Veloso: see cantos 4. 81–2 and 5. 31. William Mickle (Camões’s eighteenth-century translator) comments: ‘All but the second watch are asleep in their warm pavilions: the second watch sit by the mast sheltered from the chilly gale by a broad sail cloth; sleep begins to overpower them, and they tell stories to entertain one another. For beautiful, picturesque simplicity there is no sea-scene equal to this in the Odyssey or Aeneid.’

  The Twelve of England: most of the figures mentioned in this story are historical, the context (chivalry with its blood-sports) is entirely plausible, and Camões insists the tale itself is true. No Portuguese football team sets out for England without the press invoking the name of Magriço and wishing them equal success.

  Magriço: the ‘skinny one’, was Álvaro Gonçalves Coutinho, son of the Marshal of Portugal and chamberlain to the Duke of Burgundy.

  the Tagus to the Bactrus: the River Bactrus, a tributary of a tributary of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, standing here for the East as the Tagus does for the West.

  Corvinus and Torquatus: Marcus Valerius Corvinus and Titus Manlius, both victors in single combat in Rome’s fourth-century wars against the Gauls.

  Another of the twelve: said to be Álvaro Vaz de Almada (see canto 4. 25).

  A sudden, almighty tempest: the description of the storm is partly modelled on Metamorphoses, xi. 475–543.

  The Halcyon birds: Alcyone, daughter of Aeolus, threw herself into the sea when her husband Ceyx was drowned, and both were changed into kingfishers. It was believed they built floating nests, and that their nesting time brought calm weather.

  sooty blacksmith . . . : references follow to Vulcan (who forged Aeneas’ armour to please his wife, Venus); to the weapons hurled at the Titans (cf. cantos 1. 20 and 5. 51); and to the Greek version of the biblical flood, when Deucalion and Pyrrha cast stones which changed into people to repopulate the world (Metamorphoses, i. 381 ff).

  the children of Israel . . . : references follow to Moses and the Red Sea crossing (Exodus 14. 19–31); to St Paul’s voyage past the sandbanks of North Africa known as Syrtes (Acts 27. 14–44); and to Noah and his ark (Genesis 6–9).

  Must I endure . . . : references follow to Scylla and Charybdis in the Straits of Messina (cf. canto 2. 45); to Syrtes (see st. 81); and to Acroceraunia, a rocky cape on the coast of Epirus, excoriated by Horace (Odes i. 3).

  the amorous star: Venus (cast as the Morning Star) sees the fleet which has survived without her, but still believes her intervention necessary (cf. canto 2. 18–33). Orion, with his sword, sets as Venus rises.

  Orithyia: daughter of the Athenian king Erechtheus, and wife of Boreas.

  Galatea . . . Notus: Galatea was a sea-nymph; Notus, a south wind.

  Calicut: their destination on India’s south-west coast, described in detail in canto 7.

  Canto Seven

  Christ’s fold: the Catholic Church. The Lusíads was composed when the Reformation was splitting Christendom, as stanzas 2–14 reflect.

  Consider the Germans: Luther’s home and the heart of the Reformation, in revolt against Emperor Charles V.

  rough Englishman: Henry VIII (1509–47), attacking the English Reformation, and his claim to the title ‘King of Jerusalem’, then under Turkish control. It has been urged that this stanza must have been composed before Henry’s death. But in this survey of Christendom’s divisions, the English break with Rome comes appropriately after Germany’s revolt.

  unworthy Gaul: Francis I of France, also d. 1547, criticizing his claims to Naples and Navarre, and his alliance with Suleiman II of Turkey against Charles V. Charles and Louis are Charlemagne and Louis IX (St Louis).

  dragon’s teeth: Cadmus, after slaying the dragon which killed his companions, took Minerva’s advice and sowed the dragon’s teeth, which sprang up as armed men and fought each other until five survivors helped him build Thebes.

  Lydia: home of King Croesus, containing the gold-bearing rivers Pactolus and Hermus.

  Greeks . . . : after capturing Constantinople (Byzantium) in 1453, Turkey occupied Athens and much of the Balkans.

  Calicut: Vasco da Gama’s instructions were to make for this city on the Malabar coast in the extreme south-west of India, the main Indian centre for the spice trade. The fleet arrived on 20 May 1498.

  Beyond the Indus: this brief survey of India is expanded in canto 10. 91–43. The landscape is described simply: in the Himalayas to the north rise two rivers, the Indus flowing south-west, the Ganges south-east; between them is a vast peninsular, shaped like a pyramid pointing south towards Ceylon. Of the various peoples, Hindu and Moslem, Camões mentions Pathans in what is now Pakistan, Delhis living in the Punjab, and the peoples of the Deccan, Orissa, and Bombay. The two greatest kingdoms are Cambay, that is, the Moslem kingdom of Gujarat to the north-west, and what the Portuguese called Narsinga, that is, the Hindu Empire of Vijayanagar, occupying the whole of southern India. The south-west coast, however, is cut off by a range of mountains called the Western Ghats, behind which Malabar, and other smaller states, preserved their independence.

  The people there: perhaps a vegetarian Hindu sect whose followers covered the mouth with a veil to avoid breathing in small insects.

  Porus: a king defeated by Alexander the Great.

  A Mohammedan: Vasco da Gama’s envoy was ‘accosted by two Spa
nish-speaking Tunisians with the words “What the devil has brought you here?” to which he replied “We have come to seek Christians and spices”.’ (C. R. Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire (London, 1973), 37).

  in ancient Rhodope: the simile is adapted from Horace, Odes, i. 12.

  Perimal: said to have ruled in the ninth century, and to have retired to Mecca but died on the voyage.

  Medina: setting of Mohammed’s tomb.

  Cochin . . . : these towns are scattered over some three hundred miles of the Malabar coast between Cannanore, north of Calicut, and Quilon to the south.

  Pythagoras: sixth century BC, called by Cicero the founder of philosophy, believed in the transmigration of souls.

  One had horns: Camões’s analogies with Roman and Egyptian gods are ingenious and amply convey Portuguese bafflement, but they do not allow us to identify which Hindu deities were displayed.

  Hydaspes: the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. Nysa, home of Bacchus (with the carefree face), was supposedly on its bank. For Semele, see note to p. 17.

  Semiramis: see note to p. 68. She is said to have made her stallion her heir.

  third empire: Alexander’s empire was counted the third of the ancient world (after the Assyrian and Persian).

  first made by Noah: for Noah’s vineyard, see Genesis 9. 20–1.

  Cânace’s: Aeolus’ incestuous daughter. He sent her a sword with which she killed herself after writing to her brother.

  shipwreck: see canto 10. 128.

  Hezekiah: Isaiah told him God was adding fifteen years to his life. (Isaiah 38. 5).

  Canto Eight

  By the first of the paintings: the shields of Achilles (Iliad, xviii) and of Aeneas (Aeneid, viii) provide precedents for the use of a series of pictures to illuminate history.

  Lusus: see note to p. 10.

  Elysium: the Elysian Fields (home of the blessed) were located by the ancients far in the west. Camões’s claim that they were in Portugal rests in part on a play on words between Lusus and Elysium.

  See another figure . . . : Camões repeats the stories of Ulysses and Lisbon (canto 3. 57), Viriathus (cantos 1. 26 and 3. 22). Sertorius (see canto 1. 26) Henry of Burgundy (see canto 3. 25–7), Afonso I (see canto 3. 38) and Egas Moniz (see canto 3. 35–41). For the Battle of Guimarães, see canto 3. 31.

  Postumius: the Roman Consul Spurius Postumius Albinus, taken by surprise by the Samnites (321 BC) and forced to submit to their symbolic yoke. When the Roman senate rejected these terms, he surrendered again to the enemy.

  Dom Fuas Roupinho: (see canto 1. 12) captured the Almoravid governor of Càcares and Valencia de Alcantara who was beseiging him at Porto-de-Mós, near Leira. As admiral under Afonso I, he also won a naval battle against the Arab fleet, off Cape Espichel, opposite Lisbon. He died after being defeated at sea off Ceuta.

  this band in foreign armour: for crusaders’ help in the capture of Lisbon, see canto 3. 57–8. Heinrich of Bonn, a German crusader, was associated with the miracle Camões records.

  Prior Teotónio: prior of Santa Cruz (Coimbra), who lost Leiria to the Almoravids and captured Arronches instead (see canto 3. 55).

  Mem Moniz: the son of Egas Moniz. He fought at Santarém and in Sancho’s attack on Seville (cf. canto 3. 75–80).

  Gerald the Fearless: see note to p. 60.

  this Castilian: Pedro Fernández de Castro, who quarrelled with Alfonso VIII of Castile (over a feud with the Count of Lara) and fought alongside the Almohad amir Ya’qub, who devastated the Tagus valley, capturing Abrantes in 1195. The case scandalized Christendom, leading Pope Celestine III to excommunicate those involved and to reinstate Spain as a crusading zone.

  this warrior Bishop: the battling Bishop of Lisbon, granted a heavenly vision at the siege of Alcácer do Sal (1217) was named Dom Sueiro, not Mateus (cf. canto 3. 90).

  Master of the Order of Santiago: Paio Peres Correia, who helped Afonso III in the conquest of the Algarve (see canto 3. 95). He had earlier (1242) attacked Tavira after seven Portuguese hunters had been killed during a truce.

  these three knights: Gonçalo Rodrigues Ribeiro, Vasco Eanes, and Fernão Martins de Santarém, Portuguese knights of international fame in the early fourteenth century.

  for here is a man: another eulogy of Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira, High Constable of Portugal and hero of Aljubarrota (cf. canto 4. 14–21 and 34–5). The incident in stanzas 30–1 is said to have occurred at the Battle of Valverde (see canto 4. 46).

  Pompilius: Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome, in Plutarch’s account.

  another captain: references follow to Pero Rodrigues (from Landroal, near Évora), his defeat of the commanders of Calatrava and Alcántara during the Spanish invasions of 1384–5 (they are said to have captured 100 ewes and 1,500 she-goats), and his action in freeing his friend, Alvaro Gonçalves Coitado, whom they had also taken prisoner.

  Note Paio Rodrigues . . . : references to the pro-Castilean Paio Rodrigues Marinho, his act of treachery against the loyal Gil Fernandes, and the latter’s revenge, all in the same campaign. Later, Gil Fernandes, launched his own raid on Jerez de los Caballeros (Badajoz), while admiral Rui Pereira kept the Spanish fleet at bay off Lisbon, allowing the Portuguese to cross the Tagus in safety.

  Here you see seventeen Portuguese: an incident in the same war, when a group of seventeen Portuguese, lacking water, attempted to descend to the Tagus at Almada, opposite Lisbon, and were ambushed. The incidents celebrated in these stanzas seem increasingly anecdotal, but they are connected not only in time but by the coincidence of name and place (i.e. the two Rodrigues of stanzas 33 and 34, the actions of Gil Fernandes, the crossing between Lisbon and Almada).

  Viriathus: see cantos 1. 26, 3. 22, and 8. 6.

  two princes: see canto 4. 50.

  Count Pedro: Pedro de Meneses, Count of Viana (d. 1437), first governor of Ceuta, and his son Duarte who saved the life of Afonso V at Alcácer-Ceguer (cf. canto 4. 55) in 1464.

  What precious gifts?: see canto 4. 61–5. Vasco da Gama had only the most trumpery presents to offer the Samorin.

  Acidalia: this fountain in Boeotia was sacred to Venus.

  the sign of Aries: the tropics.

  the southern hemisphere: see canto 4. 49. Argo, Hydra, Ara (the Altar), and Lepus (the Hare) are all southern constellations.

  As the reflected light . . . : Camões’s version of a simile in Aeneid, viii. 17–25.

  Coelho: Nicolau Coelho, captain of the caravel Bérrio (see canto 4. 81–2).

  his brother: Paulo da Gama.

  Álvaro and Diogo: Álvaro de Braga, the clerk, and Diogo Dias, the overseer (cf. canto 4. 81–2).

  The King of Thrace . . . : references follow to Polydorus, Priam’s son, sent for safekeeping at the start of the Trojan war to the king of Thrace, Polymnestor, and murdered for the treasure he brought; to Danae daughter of Acrisius, imprisoned because of a curse that her son would kill her father, and visited by Jupiter in a shower of gold (she bore Perseus as a consequence, who killed Acrisius by accident); and to Tarpeia, who betrayed Rome to the Sabines for what they wore on their arms (meaning their gold bracelets) and was smothered under the weight of their shields.

  Canto Nine

  Ptolemy: King Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–247 BC) and his sister/wife.

  Its annual voyage: this trade route, following the monsoons, was the first threatened by the arrival of the Portuguese.