The Reception of Viriathus’ figure in contemporary Portugal

Between the arts and letters (A first attempt)

Abstract

Viriathus, who resisted the expansion of Rome in Hispania in the middle of the 2nd century BCE, appears in several identity and nationalist construction narrative typologies in Spain and Portugal. The use of this historical figure becomes particularly evident from the 19th century onward and, in Portugal, with exceptional clarity during the ‘Estado Novo’ regime (1926/1933-1974), a circumstance that has been analyzed in academia (Guerra; Fabião, 1992).

We will focus, however, on the representation of Viriathus in the visual arts and especially on stage from the end of the 20th to the early 21st centuries without detracting from specific works (especially literary ones), further expanding the first essay carried out in this context (Guerra; Fabião, 1998) to find a hypothetical iconographic and narrative model and scrutinize its origin, objectives, and consequences. Such an analysis would remain truncated if we failed to contemplate this figure in a popular context and public spaces, which we also intend to achieve, even if only tentatively.