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Adamastor
Adamastor is a mythological character created by the Portuguese poet Luís de Camões in his epic poem ''Os Lusíadas'' (first printed in 1572), as a personification of the Cape of Good Hope, symbolizing the dangers of the sea and the formidable forces of nature challenged and ultimately overcome by the Portuguese during the Discovery Age. Adamastor manifests itself out of a storm. Background Camões gave his creation a backstory as one of the Giants of Greek mythology, banished to the Cape of Good Hope by sea goddess Doris for falling in love with her daughter Tethis, now appearing out of a storm cloud and threatening to ruin anyone hardy enough to attempt passing 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: Vasco da Gama, ahead of the Portuguese expedition, confronts the creature by asking ''"Who are you?"'', prompting Adamastor to tell his story. De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Os Lusíadas
''Os Lusíadas'' (), usually translated as ''The Lusiads'', is a Portuguese epic poem written by Luís Vaz de Camões ( – 1580) and first published in 1572. It is widely regarded as the most important work of Portuguese-language literature and is frequently compared to Virgil's ''Aeneid'' (1st c. BC). The work celebrates the discovery of a sea route to India by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (1469–1524). The ten cantos of the poem are in ottava rima and total 1,102 stanzas. Written in Homeric fashion, the poem focuses mainly on a fantastic interpretation of the Portuguese voyages of discovery during the 15th and 16th centuries. ''Os Lusíadas'' is often regarded as Portugal's national epic, much as Virgil's ''Aeneid'' was for the Ancient Romans, or Homer's ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'' for the Ancient Greeks. It was written when Camões was an exile in Macau and was first printed in 1572, three years after the author returned from the Indies. Internal structure The poe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
L'Africaine
''L'Africaine'' (''The African Woman'') is an 1865 French ''grand opéra'' in five acts with music by Giacomo Meyerbeer and a libretto by Eugène Scribe. Meyerbeer and Scribe began working on the opera in 1837, using the title ''L'Africaine'', but around 1852 changed the plot to portray fictitious events in the life of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama and introduced the working title ''Vasco de Gama'', the French version of his name. The copying of the full score was completed the day before Meyerbeer died in 1864. The opera was premiered the following year by the Paris Opéra in a version made by François-Joseph Fétis, who restored the earlier title, ''L'Africaine''. The Fétis version was published and was used for subsequent performances until 2013, when some productions and recordings began using Meyerbeer's preferred title, ''Vasco de Gama'', for performing versions with revisions based on the manuscript score. In 2018 the music publisher Casa Ricordi, Ricordi issued a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, based on the misbelief that the Cape was the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian oceans, and have nothing to do with north or south. In fact, by looking at a map, the southernmost point of Africa is Cape Agulhas about to the east-southeast. The currents of the two oceans meet at the point where the warm-water Agulhas current meets the cold-water Benguela current and turns back on itself. That oceanic meeting point fluctuates between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point (about east of the Cape of Good Hope). When following the western side of the African coastline from the equator, however, the Cape of Good Hope marks the point where a ship begins to travel more eastward than southward. Thus, the first mode ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luís De Camões
Luís Vaz de Camões (; sometimes rendered in English as Camoens or Camoëns, ; c. 1524 or 1525 – 10 June 1580) is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Milton, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry and drama but is best remembered for his epic work '' Os Lusíadas'' (''The Lusiads''). His collection of poetry ''The Parnasum of Luís de Camões'' was lost during his life. The influence of his masterpiece ''Os Lusíadas'' is so profound that Portuguese is sometimes called the "language of Camões". The day of his death, 10 June OS, is Portugal's national day. Life Origins and youth Much of the information about Luís de Camões' biography raises doubts and, probably, much of what circulates about him is nothing more than the typical folklore that is formed around a famous figure. Only a few dates are documented that guide its trajectory. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
André Brink
André Philippus Brink (29 May 1935 – 6 February 2015) was a South African novelist, essayist and poet. He wrote in both Afrikaans and English and taught English at the University of Cape Town. In the 1960s Brink, Ingrid Jonker, Etienne Leroux and Breyten Breytenbach were key figures in the significant Afrikaans literary movement known as ''Die Sestigers'' ("The Sixty-ers"). These writers sought to use Afrikaans as a language to speak against the apartheid government, and also to bring into Afrikaans literature the influence of contemporary English and French trends. While Brink's early novels were especially concerned with apartheid, his later work engaged the new range of issues posed by life in a democratic South Africa. Biography Brink was born in Vrede, in the Free State (province), Free State. Brink moved to Lydenburg, where he matriculated at Hoërskool Lydenburg in 1952 with seven distinctions, the second student from the then Transvaal Colony, Transvaal to achieve t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Memorial Do Convento
''Baltasar and Blimunda'' ( pt, Memorial do Convento, 1982) is a novel by the Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese author José Saramago. It is an 18th-century love story intertwined with the construction of the Convent of Mafra, now one of Portugal's chief tourist attractions, as a background. Two young lovers interact naturally with historical characters including the composer and harpsichordist Domenico Scarlatti and the priest Bartolomeu de Gusmão, recognized today as an aviation pioneer, all in the shadow of the Inquisition. The lovers are always at center stage wrapped in Saramago's language, which ranges from short simple sentences to surrealistic, unpunctuated paragraphs that help to intensify both the action and the setting. The book served as the basis for the opera ''Blimunda'' (1990), composed by Azio Corghi. Critical reception "Much reverberates in memory after reading this enchanting novel, but most of all the love story which soars over the rest of the action like a f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Year Of The Death Of Ricardo Reis
''The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis'' (in Portuguese: ''O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis'') is a 1984 novel by the Portuguese novelist José Saramago, the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature. The book chronicles the final year in the life of the title character, Ricardo Reis, one of the many heteronyms used by the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa. In the novel, Ricardo Reis returns to Lisbon from Brazil, upon catching wind of Pessoa's death. While there, he chooses not to resume practicing medicine, but rather takes up residence in a hotel, where he wastes his days reading newspapers and wandering the streets of Lisbon. The novel was translated into English by Giovanni Pontiero in 1991 and won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Themes The novel addresses several powerful literary themes, though mostly indirectly. For instance, Reis reads of the events leading to the Spanish Civil War, and he sees floods of Spanish immigrants arrive in Lisbon seeking refuge, b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nobel Prize In Literature
) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , reward = 10 million SEK (2022) , website = , year2 = 2022 , holder_label = Currently held by , previous = 2021 , main = 2022 , next = 2023 The Nobel Prize in Literature (here meaning ''for'' literature) is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction" (original Swedish: ''den som inom litteraturen har producerat det utmärktaste i idealisk rigtning''). Though individual works are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, the award is based on an author's body of work as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doris (mythology)
Doris (; Ancient Greek: Δωρίς/Δωρίδος means 'bounty'), in Greek mythology, was a sea goddess. She was one of the 3,000 Oceanids, daughters of the Titans Oceanus Aelian, ''De Natura Animalium'' 14.28 and Tethys. Etymology Her name is connected with two words: ''Dôron'' meaning "gift" or "abundance," and ''Zôros'', meaning the "pure" and "unmixed." Zôros was often used to describe fresh water or, in terms of the teachings of the day, the pure soul of a woman, and from this derived words such as zôrua "the transference of running water" and zôrux "water conduit." Function When not associated with a god, Doris represented the fertility of the ocean, goddess of the rich fishing-grounds found at the mouths of rivers where fresh water mingled with the brine. Being an Oceanid meant she was a sister of the river gods. Family By her husband Nereus, Doris was mother to Nerites and the fifty Nereids, including Thetis, Amphitrite and Galatea. Namesake Doris Cove in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
25 De Abril Bridge
The 25 de Abril Bridge ( pt, Ponte 25 de Abril, 25th of April Bridge, ) is a suspension bridge connecting the city of Lisbon, capital of Portugal, to the municipality of Almada on the left (south) bank of the Tagus river. It has a total length of , making it the 46th longest suspension bridge in the world. From its inauguration on 6 August 1966 up to 1974, the bridge was named Salazar Bridge (), after Portuguese Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar, who ordered its construction. After the Carnation Revolution, which overthrew the remnants of Salazar's regime, the bridge was renamed for April 25, the date of the revolution. It is also commonly called the Tagus River Bridge (in Portuguese: ''Ponte sobre o Tejo'' = "bridge over the Tagus"). Later changes had to be made due to the rapid increase in population. In the 1990s, a fifth car lane was added, and in 1999, a lower deck, used as a railway track, which was planned since the beginning, was finally built. Today, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tagus
The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see #Name, below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections, to empty into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon. Its Tagus Basin, drainage basin covers – exceeded in the peninsula only by the Douro. The river is highly used. Several dams and diversions supply drinking water to key population centres of central Spain and Portugal; dozens of hydroelectric stations create power. Between dams it follows a very constricted course, but after Castle of Almourol, Almourol, Portugal it has a wide alluvium, alluvial valley, floodplain, prone to flooding. Its mouth is a large estuary culminating at the major Port of Lisbon, port, and Portuguese capital, Lisbon. The source is specifically: in political geography, at the Fuente de García in the Frías de Albarracín municipality; in physical geography, within ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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