Venus Owns the Portuguese
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Bem vês as Lusitânicas fadigas, Que eu já de muito longe favoreço, Porque das Parcas sei, minhas amigas, Que me hão de venerar e ter em preço. E, porque tanto imitam as antigas Obras de meus Romanos, me ofereço A lhe dar tanta ajuda, em quanto posso, A quanto se estender o poder nosso.
You see well the labors of the Portuguese, which I have favored from long ago and far away; for I know that the Fates, my friends, are bound to venerate me and hold me in esteem. And because they so imitate the ancient deeds of my Romans, I pledge to give them all the aid I can, as far as our power reaches.
On the Isle of Love, Venus explains to Cupid why she favors the Portuguese: they revive the virtue of her old Romans, so she pledges them all the help her power can reach.
Venus is speaking to her son Cupid, and this stanza is her argument for taking the Portuguese side. She frames her patronage not as whim but as something the Fates themselves ratify: she favors these sailors, and the Fates, her friends, owe her honor. The claim she rests everything on is the last one, that the Portuguese revive the deeds of her Romans.
What a first reader misses is that this is a dynastic hand-off. Venus was mother of Aeneas and so ancestress of Rome; by saying the Portuguese "imitate the ancient works of my Romans," Camões is quietly transferring the goddess's ancient Roman favor onto a new nation, making Portugal the true heir of Aeneas's line. The whole Aeneid lineage is being annexed to Lisbon in two lines.
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