Classical Poetry PDF EPUB

The Lusiads

Downloads: Under 100
First published: 1572
Pages: 383

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About this book

Portugal's national epic follows Vasco da Gama's pioneering sea voyage around Africa to India, and turns that real feat of navigation into a grand poem of empire, courage and divine intrigue. As the sailors push into unknown waters, the gods of classical mythology take sides above them, Venus favoring the Portuguese while Bacchus schemes to wreck their mission. Camoes, who had sailed and fought in the East himself, folds Portuguese history, heroic legend and hard-won firsthand knowledge of the sea into ten cantos of ringing verse. First printed in 1572, it stands beside Virgil and Homer in the European epic tradition. This free PDF and EPUB edition presents Richard F. Burton's translation.

About the author

Luís de Camões

Luis de Camoes (roughly 1524-1580) was Portugal's greatest poet. He led an adventurous, often troubled life as a soldier and traveler across Africa and Asia, losing an eye in battle and surviving shipwreck, experiences that fed the maritime epic on which his fame rests.

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