SOURCE: “The Place of Mythology in The Lusiads,” in Comparative Literature, Vol. 6, No. 2, Spring, 1954, pp. 97-122.

In the following essay, Pierce probes the complex scheme of Camões's supernatural machinery in The Lusiads, surveying the critical history of the poem in the process.

It is a surprising fact that a poem of the stature of Camões' epic, which has for so long been the subject of much comment and criticism, should still present a major problem of interpretation.¹ The problem may be put briefly: Camões envisages his theme from the comprehensive standpoint common to his age, that is, he sees human history as including and being ultimately justified by a divine plan; but this plan manifests itself through a whole pagan supernatural scheme inserted between Vasco da Gama and the Christian God. What does Camões mean by this unusual combination of elements not found in...