Luís Vaz de Camões, The Lusiads

Like many Iberian men in the 16th century, the Portuguese poet Luís Vaz de Camões (1524-1580) saw overseas military service as the surest way to advance his fortunes. As historian John Charles Chasteen emphasizes, Portuguese trade outposts in Africa and Asia were key to the crown’s monopoly access to spices, silks, and gold (Chasteen, 29). Soldiers, merchants, and bureaucrats like Camões played a central role in the growing global movements of peoples, animals, and goods.

Camões began writing his epic masterpiece The Lusiads while stationed in Macau. The ten cantos of The Lusiads are an inventive chronicle of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama’s 1497-1498 discovery of a sea route to India via the Cape of Good Hope. Camões rhetorically places the Portuguese voyage within the larger epic tradition of classics like the Aeneid and the Iliad. As the historian Anthony Grafton argues in New Worlds, Ancient Texts, European intellectuals in the Age of Discovery frequently drew on models from ancient texts like Greek classics or the Bible (Grafton, 18-22). These models shaped both what chroniclers thought was worthy of recording, and the way they interpreted their interactions with non-European peoples.

Drawing on classical models, Camões’ Lusiads has the Roman gods argue over the fate of Vasco da Gama’s voyage, with Bacchus using bad weather to force da Gama to spend several days in an East African kingdom. While the guests of the African king, da Gama tells his royal hosts the history of Portugal, emphasizing the bravery and nobility of Portuguese soldiers. Only after Venus intervenes is da Gama able to resume his historic journey to India. Venus’ nymphs sing Portugal’s phrases, foretelling imperial riches and glories to come.

While of course Camões’ account of da Gama’s voyage is not firsthand – da Gama’s trip occurred well before Camões’ birth – Camões’ extensive colonial service in the East and the popularity of his work makes The Lusiads valuable for understanding 16th century Portuguese imperial attitudes and nationalist efforts to assert Portugal’s place in world history. Camões’ depictions of non-European peoples are typical of his era: he portrays the Africans and Indians as culturally inferior, brutal, and backward, valuable only for the colonial riches they can bring the Portuguese.

Works Cited:

Chasteen, John Charles. Born in Blood and Fire. 4rd edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2016.

Grafton, Anthony. “A Bound World: The Scholar’s Cosmos.” New Worlds, Ancient Texts. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1995.

William Julius Mickle’s 1877 English Translation of The Lusiads on Project Guttenburg

By Dr. Katherine Holt