Case file · Folklore / legend
Adamastor, spirit of the Cape of Storms
In Camões's epic Os Lusíadas (1572), a monstrous giant named Adamastor rises from the sea off the Cape of Good Hope and foretells disasters for the Portuguese who dare pass it.
1572 CE · -34.36, 18.48 · status: legend
The account
Adamastor personifies the dangers that met Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama. The figure became a lasting symbol of the Cape in Portuguese and South African literature, and the Cape's storms and wrecks fed later legends such as the Flying Dutchman.
The sceptical view
A literary creation, though it drew on real sailors' fears of the Cape's weather.