『루지아다스』와 비너스의 의미

Abstract

This study goes to answer the old but simple question of why Camões chose Venus as a guardian diety for the Gama’s fleet heading for India in his epic poem Os Luisadas. Os Luisadas, printed in 1572, is the most distinguished masterpiece of Portuguese Literature. Having been written in the era of Renaissance, however, the work is full of pagan symbols instead of Christian ones. The acceptability of pagan symbols in Christian societies and the reasoning of these symbols’ meaning have been most attractive subject for researchers who study deep into Lusiadas. In this study, however, putting aside these classical questions, I tried to focus on the interpretations of Venus: what is her role and what she represents in this poem. Venus is a complex symbol having multiple interpretations. In my previous research, I argued and showed a possible interpretation of Venus as invisible divine interference based on the Emanation Theory for the purpose of explaining the acceptability of pagan symbols in the Christian societies of the time. This is still valid in the current study. But the question is if Venus represents only the divine will, there will be no way to glorify Gama’s feat or great achievements accomplished by portuguese in the era of geographical discoveries. In this study, I argue that, beside the interpretation of invisible divine will, Venus not only has interpretation of legitimating portuguese ownership of building new order in western hemisphere but also acts as a motive for the portuguese by which got over all the difficulties beyond men’s capability. I can reach this conclusion through the reasoning based on the possible interpretation of Oedipus and on discussions on Eros and Love from Plato to Ficino. If I am not much mistaken, Venus is the only qualified symbol that can meet Camões’ intentions: glorifying God, Portuguese legitimacy of building new order, praising great achievements accomplished by Portugal.