American Tempests: Virgilian Storms on Strange Seas

This talk offers a study of an epic topos – the storm at sea – in two of the earliest Latin epics written in Spanish and Portuguese America: José de Anchieta’s De Gestis Mendi de Saa (Coimbra 1563) and Francisco de Pedrosa’s Austriaca sive Naumachia (c. 1580). Anchieta and Pedrosa stand in a long tradition of early modern poets who chose to present their heroes battling Virgilian tempests, reflecting the influence of Renaissance poetics as well as the increasing frequency of transoceanic crossings – and shipwrecks – in the early modern period. Close attention to the sounds and imagery of their storms reveals that even a generic feature can perform conceptual work in the literary invention of a vast, early America, and points to the need for further research on the role of Latin poetry in colonial literature.