Lusus

Lusus is the supposed son or companion of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and divine madness, to whom Portuguese national mythology attributed the foundation of ancient Lusitania and the fatherhood of its inhabitants, the Lusitanians, seen as the ancestors of the modern Portuguese people. Lusus thus has functioned in Portuguese culture as a founding myth.

"Bold though these figures frown, yet bolder far
These godlike heroes shined in ancient war.
In that hoar sire, of mien serene, august,
Lusus behold, no robber-chief unjust;
His cluster'd bough, the same which Bacchus bore,
He waves, the emblem of his care of yore;
The friend of savage man, to Bacchus dear,
The son of Bacchus, or the bold compeer,
What time his yellow locks with vine-leaves curl'd,
The youthful god subdued the savage world,
Bade vineyards glisten o'er the dreary waste,
And humanized the nations as he past.
Lusus, the loved companion of the god,
In Spain's fair bosom fixt his last abode,
Our kingdom founded, and illustrious reign'd
In those fair lawns, the bless'd Elysium feign'd,
Where winding oft the Guadiana roves,
And Douro murmurs through the flowery groves.
Here with his bones he left his deathless fame,
And Lusitania's clime shall ever bear his name."

Luís Vaz de Camões, The Lusiads, Canto VIII, from strophes 2–4, translated by William Julius Mickle^[1]

Origins of the name

With the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula (between 219 and 17 BC), the Roman province of Lusitania was established, broadly in what is today Portugal south of the Douro river together with Extremadura in Spain. There are no historic records of the eponyms Luso or Lusus amongst the Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula (in this specific areas, Celts or pre-Celts).

The etymology of Lusitania, like that of Lusitani, is unclear. The name may be of Celtic origin (Lus and Tanus, "tribe of Lus"), or derive from Lucis or Lusis, an ancient people mentioned in Avienius's Ora Maritima (4th century AD, but drawing on the Massaliote Periplus of the 6th century BC), and Tan, from Celtic Tan (Stan), or Tain, meaning a region or implying a country of waters, a root word that formerly meant a prince or sovereign governor of a region.^[2]^[3]^{[better source needed]}

Origins of the mythological character

The entire character of Lusus in fact seems to derive from a mistranslation^[4] of an expression in Pliny's Naturalis Historia. Pliny writes: "M. Varro informs us that... the name 'Lusitania' is derived from the games (lusum) of Father Bacchus, or the fury (lyssam) of his frantic attendants, and that Pan was the governor of the whole of it." The mistake would have been in the interpretation of the word lusum as a proper name ("Lusus") rather than as the common noun meaning "games": thus "lusum [...] liberi patris"^[5] becomes "Lusus of father Bacchus" rather than "the sportiveness of father Bacchus." The resulting interpretation made "Lusus" a companion or son of Bacchus. It is this interpretation that is seen in Luís Vaz de Camões's Lusiads (canto III, strophe 21):

Esta foi Lusitania, derivada

De Luso, ou Lysa, que de Baccho antigo

Filhos foram, parece, ou companheiros,

E nella então os incolas primeiros.^[6]

This Lusitania was; in whom we greet

Lusus, or Lysa, who the offspring were,

Or friends, of ancient Bacchus, as appears,

And her first dwellers in her earliest years.^[6]

In Portugal

In The Lusiads by Camões (1572), Lusus was the progenitor of the tribe of the Lusitanians and the founder of Lusitania. For the Portuguese of the 16th century it was important to look at the past prior to the Moorish domination to find the origins of the nationality.

These interpretations would strongly be propagated by the authoritarian right-wing regime of the Estado Novo during the 20th century.^{[citation needed]}

References

^ Luis de Camoens (1809). The Lusiad. Vol. 3. Translated by William Julius Mickle. London: Lackington, Allen & Co. pp. 50–52.
^ An Universal History From the Earliest Account of Time, 1747, p. 22.; Charles Vallancey, Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Vvol. 6, pt.1, 1786, p.279.
^ Edward Lhuyd and John O'Brien, Focalóir gaoidhilge-sax-bhéarla, or An Irish-English dictionary, 1768, p. 464.
^ The Lusiads of Luiz de Camões. Translated by Leonard Bacon. New York: The Hispanic Society of America. 1950. p. 119. The origin of the eponymous hero Lusus appears to be due to a mistranslation of a passage in Pliny (III, 3), who says that the name Lusitania is derived 'from the Lusus or Lyssa of Father Liber (Bacchus).' These two common nouns were mistaken for the names of persons, who were accordingly invented to fit the bill.
^ Pliny the Elder. Natural History. 3.5.
^ ^a ^b Luís Vaz de Camões (1884). The Lusiads. Vol. 1. Translated by John James Aubertin. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. p. 124–125.

[1] Luis de Camoens (1809). The Lusiad. Vol. 3. Translated by William Julius Mickle. London: Lackington, Allen & Co. pp. 50–52.

[2] An Universal History From the Earliest Account of Time, 1747, p. 22.; Charles Vallancey, Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Vvol. 6, pt.1, 1786, p.279.

[3] Edward Lhuyd and John O'Brien, Focalóir gaoidhilge-sax-bhéarla, or An Irish-English dictionary, 1768, p. 464.

[4] The Lusiads of Luiz de Camões. Translated by Leonard Bacon. New York: The Hispanic Society of America. 1950. p. 119. The origin of the eponymous hero Lusus appears to be due to a mistranslation of a passage in Pliny (III, 3), who says that the name Lusitania is derived 'from the Lusus or Lyssa of Father Liber (Bacchus).' These two common nouns were mistaken for the names of persons, who were accordingly invented to fit the bill.

[5] Pliny the Elder. Natural History. 3.5.

[Aubertin1884-6] Luís Vaz de Camões (1884). The Lusiads. Vol. 1. Translated by John James Aubertin. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. p. 124–125.

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Origins of the name

Origins of the mythological character

In Portugal

See also

References