5/20/2023 0 Comments The Lusiads by Luís de Camões![]() ![]() On a more negative note, the poem does suffer from its concessions to historical fact. And for a Christian epic, it's surprisingly erotic, such as when Venus seduces Jove to allow her to intercede on da Gama's behalf against Bacchus or nearer the end when she rewards the sailors by creating an island populated by horny nymphs. ![]() Also strange are the moments when Camoes begs the Muses for aid because he is growing tired of writing. It's a Christian epic, with da Gama and his sailors calling upon God and Jesus for salvation, yet at the same time, it's populated by a whole host of classical gods and goddesses, who are both the cause of and salvation from the trials and tribulations from which da Gama prays for divine intervention. It's also one of the weirdest classical poems I've ever read. It's a damn shame, because it's a fantastic poem, making me yearn to reread The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid. Case in point, I made it through college without even once hearing about the Portuguese epic poem, The Lusiads. ![]() It always surprises me to realize just how large a world my ignorance of world literature encompasses. ![]()
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