Adamastor

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.

Background

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 to ruin anyone hardy enough to pass 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 Canto V.

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.

Mentions

The corresponding verses in the 1572 edition.

Adamastor, both the mythological character and the sculpture, are mentioned several times in José 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.

A popular gathering place in Lisbon is also known by the name 'Adamastor' because of the large stone statue of the mythical figure which presides over the space, which is officially called the Miradouro de Santa Catarina. This vista point offers visitors some of the most scenic views of the Tagus river, the 25 de Abril Bridge and the Cristo-Rei monument.

Adamastor is also mentioned in the opera L'Africaine (1865) about Vasco da Gama by the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer. The slave Nelusko sings a song about Adamastor while he deliberately steers the ship into a storm and it sinks.

It is mentioned by Voltaire in his Essai sur la poésie épique. It also appears in the works of Victor Hugo: Les Misérables (III, Marius, chap III) and in a poem dedicated to Lamartine (Les Feuilles d'automne, chap IX). Alexandre Dumas, père refers the giant six times: Le Comte de Monte Cristo (chap. XXXI), Vingt ans après (chap. LXXVII), Georges (chap. I), Bontekoe, Les drames de la mer, (chap. I), Causeries (chap. IX) and Mes Mémoires (chap. CCXVIII). Gaston Leroux also mentions it in The Phantom of the Opera (chap. VI). Herman Melville mentions Adamastor and Camões in his Billy Budd, at the end of Chapter VII.

Adamastor is also the name of a sauropod dinosaur, Angolatitan adamastor from Angola, named by the paleontologist Octávio Mateus.

Etymology

The name Adamastor may have been made as

• An adaptation for the Portuguese language from the Greek word for "Untamed" or "Untameable" (Adamastos).
• An adaptation for the Portuguese language from the Latin word for "imitative rival of Adam" (Adamaster).

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adamastor.

• Cyril Coetzee, "Myth of Adamastor revisited"
• Ferreira, Ockert Jacobus Olivier (1940- ), "Adamastor, Spirit of the Cape of Storms"/ "Adamastor, Espírito do Cabo das Tormentas"/ "Adamastor, Gees van die Stormkaap"