The War of the Gods and the Giants
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Noutra parte esculpida estava a guerra, Que tiveram os Deuses com os Gigantes; Está Tifeu debaixo da alta serra De Etna, que as flamas lança crepitantes; Esculpido se vê ferindo a terra Netuno, quando as gentes ignorantes Dele o cavalo houveram, e a primeira De Minerva pacífica oliveira.
On another panel the war was carved that the gods fought against the Giants; there lies Typhoeus beneath the high ridge of Etna, which throws out crackling flames. And there Neptune is shown in relief, striking the earth, at the moment when the ignorant peoples received the horse from him, and received also the first olive tree of peaceful Minerva.
Still reading the carved panels on the doors of Neptune's undersea palace, where the history of the gods is set out in relief. This panel shows the gods' war against the Giants, Typhoeus pinned under Etna, and the contest between Neptune and Minerva over Athens.
The panel does two jobs at once. First it settles an old score: the Giants who tried to storm heaven are shown losing, and Typhoeus is not dead but pinned, alive under Etna, which is why the mountain still spits fire. Then it shifts to a quieter scene from Athens, where Neptune struck the ground and a horse sprang out, and Minerva made an olive tree grow, and the city judged hers the better gift.
What is easy to miss is that these carvings are on the doors of Neptune's own palace, and one of them records a contest he lost. Camoes is not decorating. He is showing a sea god who keeps the memory of his defeat where he has to walk past it, just before the gods convene the council that will decide whether Gama's ships survive. The olive beat the horse once; the question hanging over Canto 6 is whether force will lose again.
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Os Lusíadas 6.13 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/lusiadas/6.13/