1580-1980 Portugal Adamastor Mythological Character of Os Lusíadas, 400th Anniversary of Luiz de Camoes, Massive Bronze Medal.
1580-1980 Portugal Adamastor Mythological Character of Os Lusíadas, 400th Year Anniversary of Luiz de Camoes, Massive Bronze Medal by M. Inacio.
This is an absolutely massive medal of the following dimensions:-
Country. Portugal
Size. 125 mm in diameter
Thickness. 10 mm at base
Weight. 925 grams approx (32.5 oz)
Engraver. M. Inacio
Mintage. < 200 pieces (or Less)
This makes this Massive Medal a piece of rarity hardly able to come by of such high and beautiful relief and incredible details.
- Adamastor, Mythological: -
Adamastor is a mythological character created by the Portuguese poet Luís de Camões in his epic poem Os Lusíadas (first printed in 1572), as a personification of the Cape of Good Hope, symbolizing the dangers of the sea and the formidable forces of nature challenged and ultimately overcome by the Portuguese during the Discovery Age. Adamastor manifests itself out of a storm.
Camões gave his creation a backstory as one of the Giants of Greek mythology, banished to the Cape of Good Hope by sea goddess Doris for falling in love with her daughter Tethis, now appearing out of a storm cloud and threatening to ruin anyone hardy enough to attempt passing the Cape and penetrate the Indian Ocean, which was Adamastor's domain. Adamastor became the spirit of the Cape of Good Hope, a hideous phantom of unearthly pallor:
Even as I spoke, an immense shape
Materialised in the night air,
Grotesque and enormous stature
With heavy jowls, and an unkempt beard
Scowling from shrunken, hollow eyes
Its complexion earthy and pale,
Its hair grizzled and matted with clay,
Its mouth coal black, teeth yellow with decay.
— Camões, The Lusiads Book V
Vasco da Gama, ahead of the Portuguese expedition, confronts the creature by asking "Who are you?", prompting Adamastor to tell his story.
I am that vast, secret promontory
you Portuguese call the Cape of Storms
which neither Ptolemy, Pompey or Strabo,
Pliny, nor any authors knew of.
Here Africa ends. Here its coast
Concludes in this, my vast inviolate
Plateau, extending southwards towards the Pole
And, by your daring, struck to my very soul.
— Camões, The Lusiads Book V
Deeply moved, the giant eventually vanishes, dispersing the clouds and calming the sea, leaving the path towards India open.
Adamastor represented the dangers Portuguese sailors faced when trying to round the Cape of Storms – Cabo das Tormentas – henceforth called the Cape of Good Hope.
- About Os Lusíadas - Epic poem by Luís de Camões: -
Os Lusíadas usually translated as The Lusiads, is a Portuguese epic poem by Luís Vaz de Camões (sometimes anglicized as Camoëns).
It is often regarded as the most important work of Portuguese literature and is frequently compared to the Aeneid, Virgil's great epic poem.
The work celebrates the discovery of a sea route to India by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (1469–1524). The ten cantos of the poem are in ottava rima and total 1,102 stanzas.
Written in Homeric fashion, the poem focuses mainly on a fantastical interpretation of the Portuguese voyages of discovery during the 15th and 16th centuries.
Os Lusíadas is often regarded as Portugal's national epic, much as Virgil's Aeneid was for the Ancient Romans, or Homer's Iliad and Odyssey for the Ancient Greeks.
It was written when Camões was an exile in Macau and was first printed in 1572, three years after the author returned from the Indies.
- Luís de Camões: -
Luís Vaz de Camões (c. 1524 or 1525 – 20 June 1580) is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama but is best remembered for his epic work Os Lusíadas (The Lusiads). His collection of poetry The Parnasum of Luís de Camões was lost in his lifetime. The influence of his masterpiece Os Lusíadas is so profound that Portuguese is sometimes called the "language of Camões".
Camões belonged to a family originating from the northern Portuguese region of Chaves near Galicia. At an early age, his father Simão Vaz left his family to pursue personal riches in India, only to die in Goa in the following years. His mother later remarried.
Camões lived a semi-privileged life and was educated by Dominicans and Jesuits. For a period, due to his familial relations he attended the University of Coimbra, although records do not show him registered (he participated in courses in the Humanities). His uncle, Bento de Camões, is credited with this education, owing to his position as Prior at the Monastery of Santa Cruz and Chancellor at the University of Coimbra.
He frequently had access to exclusive literature, including classical Greek, Roman and Latin works; he read Latin and Italian, and wrote poetry in Spanish.
Camões, as his love of poetry can attest, was a romantic and idealist. It was rumored that he fell in love with Catherine of Ataíde, lady-in-waiting to the Queen, and also Princess Maria, sister of John III of Portugal. It is also likely that an indiscreet allusion to the king in his play El-Rei Seleuco, as well as these other incidents, may have played a part in his exile from Lisbon in 1548. He traveled to the Ribatejo where he stayed in the company of friends who sheltered and fed him. He stayed in the province for about six months.
He enlisted in the overseas militia, and traveled to Ceuta in the fall of 1549. During a battle with the Moors, he lost the sight in his right eye. He returned to Lisbon in 1551, a changed man, living a bohemian lifestyle. In 1552, during the religious festival of Corpus Christi, in the Largo do Rossio, he injured Gonçalo Borges, a member of the Royal Stables. Camões was imprisoned. His mother pleaded for his release, visiting royal ministers and the Borges family for a pardon. Released, Camões was ordered to pay 4,000 réis and serve three years in the militia in the Orient.
He departed in 1553 for Goa on board the São Bento, commanded by Fernão Alves Cabral. The ship arrived six months later. In Goa, Camões was imprisoned for debt. He found Goa "a stepmother to all honest men", and he studied local customs and mastered the local geography and history. On his first expedition, he joined a battle along the Malabar Coast. The battle was followed by skirmishes along the trading routes between Egypt and India. The fleet eventually returned to Goa by November 1554. During his time ashore, he continued his writing publicly, as well as writing correspondence for the uneducated men of the fleet.
At the end of his obligatory service, he was given the position of chief warrant officer in Macau. He was charged with managing the properties of missing and deceased soldiers in the Orient. During this time he worked on his epic poem Os Lusíadas ("The Lusiads") in a grotto. He was later accused of misappropriations and traveled to Goa to respond to the accusations of the tribunal. During his return journey, near the Mekong River along the Cambodian coast, he was shipwrecked, saving his manuscript but losing his Chinese lover, Dinamene. His shipwreck survival in the Mekong Delta was enhanced by the legendary detail that he succeeded in swimming ashore while holding aloft the manuscript of his still-unfinished epic.
In 1570 Camões finally made it back to Lisbon, where two years later he published Os Lusíadas, for which he was considered one of the most prominent Iberian poets at the time.[3] In recompense for this poem or perhaps for services in the Far East, he was granted a small royal pension (15000 réis) by the young and ill-fated King Sebastian (ruled 1557–1578).
In 1578 he heard of the appalling defeat of the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, where King Sebastian was killed and the Portuguese army destroyed. The Castilian troops were approaching Lisbon[citation needed] when Camões wrote to the Captain General of Lamego: "All will see that so dear to me was my country that I was content to die not only in it but with it". Camões died in Lisbon in 1580, at the age of 56. The day of his death, 10 June OS, is Portugal's national day. He is entombed in the Santa Maria church, part of the Jerónimos Monastery complex, near Vasco da Gama, in the parish of Belém in Lisbon.
