Egas Moniz, the Loyal Old Man
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Este que vês olhar com gesto irado Para o rompido aluno mal sofrido, Dizendo-lhe que o exército espalhado Recolha, e torne ao campo defendido; Torna o moço do velho acompanhado, Que vencedor o torna de vencido: Egas Moniz se chama o forte velho, Para leais vassalos claro espelho.
This one you see looking with an angry gesture at the broken, impatient pupil, telling him to gather up his scattered army and return to the field he must defend: the young man comes back accompanied by the old, who turns him from a beaten man into a victor. Egas Moniz is the name of this strong old man, a bright mirror for loyal vassals.
Paulo da Gama, explaining the painted banners to the Catual of Calicut, points to the figure of Egas Moniz, the aged tutor who rallied the defeated young Afonso Henriques and turned defeat into victory.
Paulo da Gama keeps narrating the figures on the banners to the Catual, and here the pointing finger lands on an old man scolding a young one. The stanza turns entirely on a reversal: the youth is first "rompido" and beaten, then, with the old man beside him, returns "vencedor" where he had been "vencido." Camões builds the whole octave so those two words land on top of each other.
What a first reader misses is who these two are. The young pupil is Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, and the old man is his tutor Egas Moniz, whose famous act of loyalty comes in the next stanzas. Calling him a "mirror" for vassals is not a compliment in passing; Camões is setting up the exemplum of fidelity that the following octave will pay off, when Egas offers his own life to keep his word.
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Os Lusíadas 8.13 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/lusiadas/8.13/