The Lusiads (Oxford World's Classics)

by Luis Vaz de Camoes

  Reflecting he had laboured in vain: much that followed historically is anticipated in this stanza. Initially, the Portuguese had hoped to enter the spice trade through peaceful alliances. Unable to provide the goods and bullion from Europe to finance that trade, Portugal devised an entirely new concept of empire—to control the seas and make the system pay for itself by levying duty on all goods carried in the Indian Ocean and China seas. Hence the events described in canto 10. 10–73, as the Portuguese seized the strategic points between East Africa and Macau. The Arab and Indian traders were slow to comprehend what was happening. As the Shah of Gujerat exclaimed when the Malabar coast was first attacked: ‘Wars by sea are merchants’ affairs, and of no concern to the prestige of kings.’ (quoted in Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 50).

  an interval of joy: the climax to The Lusíads (in all senses of the word) begins here with Venus’ preparations for the Island of Love. The intense beauty and carnal pleasures of this island (for Camões was no prude in rewarding his mariners) should not seduce us from his larger purpose—to offer us, in a single episode extending over cantos 9 and 10, a complete portrait not only of the solar system and of the true dimensions and riches of the planet mankind inhabits (as the context of Portuguese achievements), but of the relationship between the physical and the intellectual, the sensual and the philosophical, the imaginative and the moral, the ‘Roman’ and the Christian visions of the world, with a due sense of their relative claims. The island is not just a place for love-making; it is the setting for the two visions granted da Gama and his companions, and the cantos should be taken together.

  for she owned many: I have taken this much-debated passage to mean that Venus possessed islands beyond those normally attributed to her in the Mediterranean. For Hercules’ pillars, see canto 3. 18.

  Such a device: references follow to Dido, her love for Aeneas, and to how she gained land in North Africa by requesting no more than a bullock’s hide would cover and then cutting the hide in strips to measure out Carthage.

  Peristera: a nymph who beat Venus in a race to pick flowers and was changed by Cupid to a dove.

  Actaeon: see note to p. 32. King Sebastian was obsessed with hunting and disturbingly reluctant to marry.

  such as happened . . . : references follow to Myrrha (see canto 4. 63); to Byblis who fell in love with her brother (Ovid, Metamorphoses, ix. 454 ff.); to Amnon, King David’s son, who raped his sister Tamar (2 Samuel 13. 1–36); and to Ninyas, possibly the son of Semiramis, with whom he had an affair (cf. cantos 3. 100 and 7. 53), but there are other candidates.

  ensnared in Vulcan’s net: the net cast over Venus and Mars when Vulcan caught them together.

  Typhoeus: see note to p. 121. The whole speech echoes Metamorphoses, v. 365 ff. and Aeneid, i. 663–6.

  Zephyr and Flora: the warm west wind and the goddess of flowers.

  I wish to populate: the first hint of Venus’ larger purpose, to bring about a union between the Portuguese and the sea.

  the lovely birds: swans. Cygnus, Phaethon’s friend (cf. canto 1. 46), lamented his death and was changed into a swan.

  the giant goddess Fame: portrayed as a giantess in Aeneid, iv. 178–88 and Metamorphoses, xii. 39–63.

  Memnon’s: see note to p. 47.

  Delos: a floating island until Latona, fleeing Juno’s jealousy, hid there to give birth to Apollo and Diana, when it became fixed in its present position.

  the various trees: references follow to Daphne who, pursued by Apollo, became a laurel; and to Cybele’s lover Atys, who was changed to a pine for breaking his vow of chastity. The poplar and myrtle were sacred to Hercules and Venus respectively.

  Pomona’s: goddess of fruits. There is an untranslatable pun on amor (love) and amora (mulberry).

  Narcissus: fell in love with his own reflection and became the flower which bears his name.

  Adonis: son of Myrrha and Cinyras (see canto 4. 63), was loved by Venus. At his death, the anemone sprang from his wound.

  hyacinths: the flower, named after the friend Apollo killed accidentally with a quoit, is supposed to form the letters αι (from the Greek aiai, alas) with its leaves.

  ‘Tra la spica e la man . . . messo’: the line ‘Between the corn and the hand, what a wall is placed’, (i.e. ‘there’s many a slip between cup and lip’) is quoted from Petrarch, sonnet 56.

  the two Thebans: Bacchus and Hercules.

  Canto Ten

  adulterous Coronis: faithless Apollo’s unfaithful lover from Larissa.

  The smoky wines: Falernian wines were too expensive for Horace (Odes, I. xx).

  The names of heroes . . . : here (continuing to st. 73) begins the first of the two visions offered Vasco da Gama and the navigators, as the nymph describes Portuguese conquests in East Africa, Arabia, India, and the China Seas, to establish the seaborne empire first mentioned in canto 1. 1. For Proteus as prophet, see canto 6. 20.

  Iopas . . . Demodocus: the bards who sang before Dido and Aeneas (Aeneid, i. 740 ff.) and Odysseus and the Phaeacians (Odyssey, viii. 62 and xiii. 27) respectively.

  Calliope: see canto 3. 1.

  King of Cochin: the Raja of Cochin, south of Calicut, where in 1502 the Portuguese established a station after failing in their negotiations with the Samorin, who attacked Cochin as a consequence.

  one who would embark: the ‘matchless Pacheco’ (canto 1. 4), Duarte Pacheco Pereira, who sailed for India in 1503 to become ‘the Portuguese Achilles’. His defence of Cochin, with two ships and less than a hundred Portuguese, is described in stanza 13. Cambalon is an island, opposite the estuary on which Cochin is situated.

  Beypore and Tanur: on the coast between Calicut and Cochin. For Narsinga, see canto 7. 21.

  Not even Miltiades . . . : references follow to Miltiades’ victory over the Persians at Marathon (490 BC); to Leonidas’ stand against Xerxes at Thermopylae (480 BC); to Horatius and his defence of the bridge against the Etruscans (507 BC); and to Quintus Fabius’ delaying tactics against Hannibal (from 217 BC).

  Belisarius: the Roman general (AD 505–65), unjustly accused of conspiracy by the Emperor Justinian. Legend has him begging in the streets of Constantinople.

  the prize Ajax deserves: Ajax was cheated of the armour of Achilles through the sophistry of Ulysses.

  my poet’s word: the theme of the badly rewarded soldier and of royal ingratitude bears directly on Camões’s own situation.

  Francisco de Almeida: first Portuguese viceroy of India, together with his son, Lourenço, ‘the fearsome Almeidas’ (canto 1. 14).

  Kilwa: (cf. canto 1. 54–5) was attacked in 1505.

  Mombasa: (cf. cantos 1. 103 and 2. 1–29) also attacked in 1505.

  the powerful Samorin’s giant ships: this battle with the Samorin’s fleet occurred in 1506.

  Chaul: Lourenço died in the first Battle of Chaul against a combined Gujarati-Egyptian fleet in 1508.

  Scaeva: a heroic centurion in Caesar’s wars with Pompey.

  Mameluke and cruel Cambayan: Egyptian and Gujarati (the Gulf of Cambay is north of Bombay).

  sailing into the bay of Diu: the second battle of Chaul in 1509, against another combined Gujarati-Egyptian fleet, ended in victory for Francisco de Almeida, and secured Portuguese control of the Indian Ocean (see Introduction, p. ix). The battle was fought off Diu at the entrance to the Gulf of Cambay, after the viceroy had first sacked Dabhol, south of Bombay. Melik-el-Hissa was the Muslim governor of Diu, and Emir Hussein (st. 36) the Egyptian admiral.

  the dark and mournful outcome: Francisco de Almeida died in 1509 after being shipwrecked at the Cape of Good Hope (cf. canto 5. 45).

  But what great light: Tristão da Cunha commanded a fleet sailing for India in 1506. The flagship was blown off course towards Brazil, and da Cunha reached the South Atlantic islands named after him before exploring Madagascar (St Lawrence), and sacking the Swahili cities of Lamu, Oja, and Brava north of Malindi.

  That light too: Afonso de Albuquerque, second viceroy (1509–15
), was with the same fleet. Albuquerque ‘the fierce’ (canto 1. 14) conquered Ormuz (1507), Goa (first 1509, finally 1510), and Malacca (1511), consolidating Portuguese control of the main spice routes.

  hissing arrows: the so-called miracle of the reversed arrows when, in the confusion of battle, many of the defenders were shot by their own side (cf. canto 2. 49).

  Gerum . . . : Gerum Island, Musquat, Al Quraiyat, and Bahrain Island, in the Persian Gulf, with their pearls and salt mounds.

  that morning . . . Catherine: Goa was captured for the second time on St Catherine’s Day, 25 November 1510.

  the brutal, savage act: the execution of Rui Dias, an officer from Alenquer, for his relationship with an Indian woman. The details (Was she his mistress? Did he molest her? Was she a prostitute? Was she a slave of Albuquerque himself?) are lost in history, but Camões (unlike some of his editors) plainly feels the punishment was unjust.

  Alexander, seeing Apelles . . . : references follow to Alexander the Great, who gave up Campaspe to the painter Apelles; to Cyrus the Elder of Persia (sixth century BC), his captive, Queen Panthea, and her jailor Araspas who became her lover; and to Baldwin I who seized and married Judith, the daughter of Charles the Bald of France (d. 877).

  Soares de Albergaria: (viceroy 1515–18), built the fort at Colombo in Ceylon (cf. Taprobana, canto 1. 1).

  Lopes de Sequeira: (viceroy 1518–22) led an expedition to the Red Sea in 1520. Candace and Sheba were queens of ancient Ethiopia. Massawa is capital of Eritrea and Arkiko, a town on the coast.

  Duarte de Meneses: (viceroy 1522–4) served formerly in North Africa. He attacked Ormuz in 1523. Vasco da Gama succeeded him but (st. 54) died in his first year of office.

  a second Meneses: Henrique de Meneses (viceroy 1524–6). At his death, aged 30, he was rumoured to possess just 13 reis; hence Camões’s tribute.

  brave Mascarenhas: Pedro de Mascarenhas was elected viceroy in 1526 but was campaigning in Malacca and was denied the post through intrigue and imprisoned in Goa. Bintan (near Singapore) was captured in 1526.

  Sampaio: Lopo Vaz de Sampaio (viceroy 1526–9), Mascarenhas’s usurping rival. He won naval victories at Bacanore, north of Calicut (1526), and against Kutti Ali (1528), Muslim commander of Tanur (see st. 14). Meanwhile, Heitor da Silveira (the Portuguese Hector of Troy) won a further battle against the Gujarati fleet off Chaul in 1529.

  Da Cunha: Nuno da Cunha (viceroy 1529–38), son of Tristão da Cunha (cf. st. 39), fortified Chale, near Calicut (see canto 7. 35) and captured Bassein, north of Bombay.

  After will come Noronha: Garcia de Noronha (viceroy 1538–40) assisted Antonio da Silveira, the governor, in defending Diu from the Turkish siege.

  your son: Estêvão da Gama (viceroy 1540–2).

  Martim Afonso de Sousa: (viceroy 1542–5), former naval commander in Brazil, captured Damão in 1534, fortified Diu, and in 1537 finally destroyed the Samorin’s fleet off Cape Comorin on the southern tip of India, capturing Beadala on the nearby coast. Like Goa, Damão and Diu remained Portuguese possessions until 1961.

  João de Castro: (governor 1545–8, and viceroy for just two weeks before his death) helped defend Diu during the combined siege of 1546–7 led by the Sultan of Cambay. Among the heroes of this siege were João de Mascarenhas, commander of militia at Diu, Fernando de Castro, blown up by a mine, and Álvaro de Castro, dispatched by his father with reinforcements from Goa at the most dangerous time of the year.

  He will battle again: de Castro’s victories (1547) over the Sultan of Cambay, with his squadrons of elephants, and over Hidel Khan, former ruler of Goa, whose cities of Dabhol (see st. 72) and Ponda he destroyed.

  God in supreme wisdom: the second (continuing to st. 142) of the visions granted Vasco da Gama is of the workings of the universe and the earth’s true dimensions. The model of the universe is, of course, Ptolemy’s, then current in Europe (Copernicus with his improbable, rival hypothesis being virtually unknown). According to this theory, the earth lies at the centre of eleven concentric and transparent spheres. The five known planets (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury), together with the sun and the moon, are each fixed to a sphere of their own whose motion, regular or otherwise, accounts for their movements against the background of the eighth sphere which is that of the fixed stars. Beyond the sphere of the fixed stars lies the crystalline sphere, which accounts for the movements of the equinoxes. Then comes the Primum Mobile, which drives the whole system, and beyond, in the eleventh sphere, the empyreal Heaven, or the abode of the blessed. Tethys guides Vasco da Gama inwards until she reaches earth at the centre and begins her geographical explanations.

  We serve only . . . : see Introduction, pp. xiv-xvi.

  on so tight a rein: Tethys is describing the crystalline sphere and its barely perceptible movement compared with that of the moon.

  the hostel of humanity: in her geographical survey (continuing to st. 142), Tethys begins briefly with Europe, then conducts Vasco da Gama via the Cape and East Africa to the Middle East and India, and onwards to China and Japan. With brief glances inland, this journey takes us along the coast, simulating another immense voyage.

  Monomotapa: the Portuguese arrival in Sofala coincided with the decline and abandonment of the walled city of Great Zimbabwe, and the rise of the Karanga kingdom, under its first king, Monomotapa, which ruled the region until the mid-nineteeth century. Modern historians of Zimbabwe are maddeningly coy about the precise relation between these events.

  Gonçalo da Silveira: a Jesuit missionary, killed in 1561 at Monomotapa’s court. Tethys also refers to the region’s gold-mines and to the lake (Lake Victoria) in which both the Nile and the Zambesi were believed to rise.

  the fortress at Sofala: built and defended by Spaniard, Pero de Anhaia, was commissioned by Francisco de Almeida, first viceroy.

  Meroé: the biblical city, which Tethys locates in Nubia on the Upper Nile.

  your unborn child: Cristovão da Gama, brother of Estêvão (see st. 62), died in Abyssinia, after two outstanding victories, repelling an invasion by the Sheikh of Zeila. For Malindi, see canto 2. 58. Rapto (Ptolemy’s name) and Quilmance are not identified (unless ‘Obi’ means the Uebi Shibel which flows through Somalia into the sea at Mogadishu).

  See Mount Sinai: crossing the Red Sea (like Moses) at the entrance to the Gulf of Suez, and passing above Mt Sinai (for St Catherine, see st. 43), Tethys turns south-east over Tur and Jiddah and the Asir Mountains to Aden (with Arabia to the east), before following the coast of the Yemen north-east past Ras Fartak and making for the Straits of Ormuz.

  Notice Dhofar: a province in southern Oman. Cape Ras el Hadd is the eastern tip of Muscat, at the entrance to the Gulf of Oman. Tethys tours this gulf, noting Cape Ras Musandam, opposite Ormuz (where Pedro de Castello Branco withstood a siege in 1541), together with Bahrein Island and the joint delta of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

  See mighty Persia: Persia is glimpsed from the coast as Tethys conducts us past New Ormuz (on Gerum Island: old Ormuz was on the mainland) where two governors, Pedro de Meneses and Pedro de Sousa, both probably Camões’s friends, won important victories. The almost excessive detail here (st. 105 takes us past Cape Ras Jaskah, east of Ormuz, and past the desert of eastern Persia) suggests close personal knowledge of this region.

  the beautiful Indus: introduces a vast sweep of India’s west coast from the delta of the Indus past Sind, the Gulf of Kutch, and Cambay, and the Malabar coast with its ‘thousand cities’ awaiting the Portuguese, to Cape Comorin opposite Ceylon.

  Saint Thomas: the legend of the apostle’s martyrdom (cf. canto 5. 12) dates from at least the sixth century, and complements for India the legend of Prester John in Africa. For Narsinga, cf. canto 7. 21.

  Mylapore: (or St Thomas), near Madras.

  their threads of office: the Brahmin’s insignia of authority.