Já founder Suresh Nampuri will take part in an online talk with Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval of California State University in Fresno as part of the project ´Epopeia Viva´ promoting the masterpiece ´Os Lusíadas´ by Luís Vaz de Camões and celebrating the 500th anniversary of the poet’s birth.

According to the author, Os Lusíadas has been read as a Neoplatonic and Platonic text, but this reading disregards Camões’s great genius in reinventing the style and sexual contact between the Portuguese sailor and the nymphs on the Ilha dos Amores.

The talk by Saúl summarized his article on the topic, whose main argument is that Camões composes ‘Os Lusíadas’ considering the need for an heir to the Portuguese throne. The author suggests that the poet downplays the Neoplatonic/Platonic traditions that influenced the dolce stil nuovo to incite King Sebastian to seek a sexual encounter that could produce an heir.