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 Adamastor - Lisbon, Portugal
N 38° 42.571 W 009° 08.860
29S E 487161 N 4284552
The grisly spirit of the Cape of Storms, the mythical monster Adamastor told by the first time by Camões. An epic being that stormed the Discoveries, that can be seen in of of Lisbon's viewpoints, the Miradouro de Santa Catarina.
Waymark Code: WMCXP6
Location: Lisboa, Portugal
Date Posted: 10/23/2011
Views: 14
The Adamastor has been present in the Portuguese and world history whenever the Age of Discoveries is talked. It represented all the myths the Discoverers had to face on those times. It's still a living reference to all sailors that go around the Cape of Good Hope, in South Africa. From the Wikipedia.org article: ( visit link) quote:
Adamastor is a Greek-type mythological character famed by the Portuguese poet Luís de Camões in his epic poem Os Lusíadas (first printed in 1572), as a symbol of the forces of nature Portuguese navigators had to overcome during their discoveries.
Camões gave his creation a history as one of the Gigantes of Greek mythology who had been spurned by Thetis, now appearing in the form of a threatening storm cloud to Vasco da Gama and threatening ruin to anyone hardy enough to pass the Cape and penetrate the Indian Ocean, which was Adamastor's domain. Adamastor became the Spirit of the Cape, 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 Canto V.
The corresponding verses in the 1572 edition.
Adamastor represented the dangers Portuguese sailors faced when trying to round the Cape of Storms, henceforth called, in consequence of the resultant success in despite thereof, Cape of Good Hope.
Adamastor, both the mythological character and the sculpture, are mentioned several times in Jose Saramago's Nobel Prize winning novel, The Year Of the Death of Ricardo Reis.
Adamastor has figured in much poetry of the Cape. In The First Life of Adamastor, a novella by André Brink, the writer refashioned the Adamastor story from a 20th-century perspective.
Time Period: Middle Ages
Approximate Date of Epic Period: 1500
Epic Type: Mythical
Exhibit Type: Figure, Statue, 3D Art
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