Lusus
Encyclopedia
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 the its inhabitants, the Lusitanians
, seen as the ancestors of the modern Portuguese people
. Lusos thus has functioned in Portuguese culture
as a founding myth
.
With the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula
(from 219 BC to 17 BC; the Romans called it Hispania
), the region of Lusitania
was converted in a Roman province
, corresponding approximately to the present area of Portugal south of the Douro
river with Extremadura
(Spain
). There are no historic records of the eponym
s 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 the origin of the name Lusitani who gave its name, is unclear. The name may be of Celtic origin: Lus and Tanus, "tribe of Lus". The name may derive from Lucis or Lusis, an ancient people mentioned in Avienus
's Ora Maritima (4th century) and based 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.
's Naturalis Historia
. The mistake would have been in the interpretation of the word lusum or lusus as a proper name
, instead of a simple common name
that means game.
In a translation of Pliny: "M. Varro
informs us, that... the name "Lusitania " is derived from the games (lusus) of Father Bacchus, or the fury (lyssa) of his frantic attendants, and that Pan was the governor of the whole of it. But the traditions respecting Hercules and Pyrene, as well as Saturn, I conceive to be fabulous in the highest degree.'"
This would have been read by André de Resende
as "the name "Lusitania" derives from Lusus of Father (master or father) Bacchus", and therefore was interpreted that Lusus would be a companion or son of the furious god. It is this interpretation that is seen in the strophe 22 of Canto III of The Lusiads
of Luís Vaz de Camões.
The mistranslation became a real and plausible myth because according to Roman mythology
, Bacchus would have been the conqueror of the region. Plutarch
, according to the 12th Book of the Iberica of Spanish author Sóstenes, says that (notice that this theory is today completely descredited):
The Greek
expression lyssa may mean "frenetic fury" or "madness", typical of Bacchus/Dionysus
. Though, these etymologies
seem little trustworthy.
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.
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
, the Roman god
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...
of wine and divine madness, to whom Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
national mythology attributed the foundation of ancient Lusitania
Lusitania
Lusitania or Hispania Lusitania was an ancient Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river and part of modern Spain . It was named after the Lusitani or Lusitanian people...
and the fatherhood of the its inhabitants, the Lusitanians
Lusitanians
The Lusitanians were an Indo-European people living in the Western Iberian Peninsula long before it became the Roman province of Lusitania . They spoke the Lusitanian language which might have been Celtic. The modern Portuguese people see the Lusitanians as their ancestors...
, seen as the ancestors of the modern Portuguese people
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
. Lusos thus has functioned in Portuguese culture
Culture of Portugal
The culture of Portugal is the result of a complex flow of different civilizations during the past Millennia. From prehistoric cultures, to its Pre-Roman civilizations , passing through its contacts with the Phoenician-Carthaginian world, the Roman period , the...
as a founding myth
Founding myth
A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as an important national symbol and affirm a set of national values. A national myth may sometimes take the form of a national epic...
.
History of the name
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
(from 219 BC to 17 BC; the Romans called it Hispania
Hispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
), the region of Lusitania
Lusitania
Lusitania or Hispania Lusitania was an ancient Roman province including approximately all of modern Portugal south of the Douro river and part of modern Spain . It was named after the Lusitani or Lusitanian people...
was converted in a Roman province
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
, corresponding approximately to the present area of Portugal south of the Douro
Douro
The Douro or Duero is one of the major rivers of the Iberian Peninsula, flowing from its source near Duruelo de la Sierra in Soria Province across northern-central Spain and Portugal to its outlet at Porto...
river with Extremadura
Extremadura
Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. Its component provinces are Cáceres and Badajoz. It is bordered by Portugal to the west...
(Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
). There are no historic records of the eponym
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
s Luso or Lusus amongst the Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
This is a list of the Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian peninsula .-Non-Indo-European:*Aquitanians**Aquitani**Autrigones - some consider them Celtic .**Caristii - some consider them Celtic ....
(in this specific areas, Celts or pre-Celts).
The etymology of Lusitania, like the origin of the name Lusitani who gave its name, is unclear. The name may be of Celtic origin: Lus and Tanus, "tribe of Lus". The name may derive from Lucis or Lusis, an ancient people mentioned in Avienus
Avienus
Avienus was a Latin writer of the 4th century AD. According to an inscription from Bulla Regia, his full name was Postumius Rufius Festus Avienius.He was a native of Volsinii in Etruria, from the distinguished family of the Rufii Festi...
's Ora Maritima (4th century) and based on the Massaliote Periplus
Massaliote Periplus
The Massaliote Periplus or Massaliot Periplus is the name of a now-lost merchants' handbook possibly dating to as early as the 6th century BC describing the sea routes used by traders from Phoenicia and Tartessus in their journeys around Iron Age Europe...
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.
Mythology
Presently it is thought that the mythological character Lusus derives from a mistranslation of the expression lusum enin Liberi patris ("from lusus father Liber derives"), in PlinyPliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
's Naturalis Historia
Naturalis Historia
The Natural History is an encyclopedia published circa AD 77–79 by Pliny the Elder. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day and purports to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny...
. The mistake would have been in the interpretation of the word lusum or lusus as a proper name
Proper name
"A proper name [is] a word that answers the purpose of showing what thing it is that we are talking about" writes John Stuart Mill in A System of Logic , "but not of telling anything about it"...
, instead of a simple common name
Common name
A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...
that means game.
In a translation of Pliny: "M. Varro
Marcus Terentius Varro
Marcus Terentius Varro was an ancient Roman scholar and writer. He is sometimes called Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus.-Biography:...
informs us, that... the name "Lusitania " is derived from the games (lusus) of Father Bacchus, or the fury (lyssa) of his frantic attendants, and that Pan was the governor of the whole of it. But the traditions respecting Hercules and Pyrene, as well as Saturn, I conceive to be fabulous in the highest degree.'"
This would have been read by André de Resende
Andre de Resende
André de Resende , the father of archaeology in Portugal, a Dominican friar.He spent many years traveling in Spain, France and Belgium, where he corresponded with Erasmus and other learned men. He was also intimate with King John III and his sons, and acted as tutor to the Infante D...
as "the name "Lusitania" derives from Lusus of Father (master or father) Bacchus", and therefore was interpreted that Lusus would be a companion or son of the furious god. It is this interpretation that is seen in the strophe 22 of Canto III of The Lusiads
Os Lusíadas
Os Lusíadas , usually translated as The Lusiads, is a Portuguese epic poem by Luís Vaz de Camões ....
of Luís Vaz de Camões.
- "This was the Lusitania, which was derived
- From Lusus, or Lisa
ElishahElishah was the son of Javan according to the Book of Genesis as well as the mediaeval, rabbinic Book of Jasher; he is said in Jasher to have been the ancestor of the "Almanim", possibly a reference to Germanic tribes . An older and more common traditions refers to him as a settler of Greece ,...
, from Bacchus ancient- Children where it looks, or then companions,
- And in it by then the first inhabitants."
- Camões, Os Lusíadas, strophe 22, Canto III
The mistranslation became a real and plausible myth because according to Roman mythology
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...
, Bacchus would have been the conqueror of the region. Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
, according to the 12th Book of the Iberica of Spanish author Sóstenes, says that (notice that this theory is today completely descredited):
"After Bacchus conquered IberiaIberian PeninsulaThe Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
, left PanPan (mythology)Pan , in Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, as well as the companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein , meaning "to pasture." He has the hindquarters, legs,...
to rule in his place, and it was him that gave his own name to the country, calling it Pania, that by corruption turned into HispaniaHispaniaAnother theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
."
The Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
expression lyssa may mean "frenetic fury" or "madness", typical of Bacchus/Dionysus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
. Though, these etymologies
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
seem little trustworthy.
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 previous to the MoorishMoors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
domination to find the origins of the nationality
History of Portugal
The history of Portugal, a European and an Atlantic nation, dates back to the Early Middle Ages. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it ascended to the status of a world power during Europe's "Age of Discovery" as it built up a vast empire including possessions in South America, Africa, Asia and...
.
These interpretations would strongly be propagated by the authoritarian right-wing regime of the Estado Novo during the 20th century.