oa O Vento, as Éguas da Lusitânia e os Autores Gregos e Latinos

The myth of the Lusitanian mares impregnated by the wind is related, on one side, with similar myths, such as the ones found in Homer and explained by Aristotle. On the other side, we find the myth accepted by well reputed writers such as Varro, and poets like Silius, who transmit a version intimately connected with Lusitania. There are though some features of the tale’s structure which are kept unchanged troughout the centuries (until the 17th century) : (1) the wind; (2) the place; (3) the mares and their fertility; (4) the colts, that last less than normal ones. All these principles are surrounded and sometimes affected, although not in the essence, by rationalism (Iustinus). The modern structuralist interpretation, which views the myth as a result reflecting the structure of the patriarchal society, is not very convincing, though interesting. In fact it is hard to believe that the impregnation of the lusitanian mares without a stallion is a debasing process, because it is easier and more rational the interpretation that conceiving without a male is a proof of the independance of the female and of a certain purity which was not unnoticed by the Fathers of the Curch, when they had to justify the virginity of the Holy Mary. It would be tempting to see in the myth a rationalization of some natural fact unexplainable by the ancient science but nothing can be found in the pregnancy of the mare that could induce or support such interpretation.