The Aemulatio of the Aeneid in os Lusíadas

Abstract

This article’s goal is to point out textual evidence of the aemulatio of Virgil’s Aeneid in Camões’ Os Lusíadas, as well as to suggest an indication of the importance of this procedure to the Portughese epic’s meaning. The analysis of some passages that allude to the Aeneid has allowed to identify certain lexical, morphological, syntactic, structural, and figurative tools used by Camões in order to build an “amplification rhetoric” which enhances the adventure narrated by him in opposition to that narrated by Virgil. It has also allowed to conclude that the meaning achieved through the emulation, at least as indicated by the analyzed passages, is the framing of an apotheosizing image of the Lusitanian and their divinely guided mission, which are superior even to the mythical hero Aeneas and the foundation of Rome itself told in the Aeneid. Therefore, the exaltation of the “barões assinalados” depends on the competitive allusion to the Aeneid, because in this way they end up unmatched in History.