The female point of view of the legend of Olisipo in the writing of Natália Correia and Dulce Maria Cardoso

Abstract

Associating the name of Ulysses with the founder of Lisbon, forcing ety­mologies that would link a Homeric character (already with a Latinized name) to Portugal, has been a way of dignifying the nation, giving it a famous patriarch – like the other male figures that appear, for example, in Os Lusíadas. It does not matter that the character is mythical; after all, “[o] mytho é o nada que é tudo”, as Fernando Pessoa wrote. If the myth­ical Olisipo (Lisbon) then becomes part of the history of Portugal, it also becomes, more recently, a source for reflections that start from a female perspective. This can be seen in short stories such as “A Ilha de Circe”, by Natália Correia, and “Tudo são histórias de amor”, by Dulce Maria Car­doso. In both short stories, the legend that Ulysses’ journey had a stop in Portuguese lands is taken up to highlight, however, the goddesses who would be linked to these places: Circe, in Natália’s short story, and Ophiu­sa in the text by Dulce Cardoso. The two narratives also have in common the fact that they feature a male figure not through the lens of coloniz­ing glory and authority, but rather, to use a very contemporary term, of emotional irresponsibility. We will focus on these points in this essay, linking Olisipo to other possible mythical female genesis of Portugal.