Visões do coletivo e da partilha em Homero e Aquilino: entre a convergência e a diferença

Andam faunos pelos bosques stands out in Aquilino Ribeiro’s vast work for the supposedly supernatural dimension created by a disruptive “mystagogic entity” embodying the power of Eros over humans, whose alleged assaults on beautiful girls impact the life of rich and poor alike in some bucolic villages of Beira Alta. There, everyday life includes many celebrations, more or less opulent, that constitute spaces of relevant social and personal interaction, and, ultimately, of hospitality, community and communion with nature. Collective feasting (“agape”) stands out among these moments of simple happiness, particularly the multitudinous picnic that closes the otherwise unsuccessful hunting journey for the mysterious creature. Its location in Chapter II and the presentation of a catalogue of hunters that parodistically evokes the Achaean Catalogue in the second canto of the Iliad, together with the use of Homeric allusions, allow the parallel between the countryside agape and the numerous feasts narrated in the Homeric poems, along with their concept of hospitality and happiness, expressed in some of the scenes engraved on Achilles’ shield. The parody involves the inversion of some fundamental features of Homer’s heroic world, with the valorisation of popular figures and the subversion of serious moments, such as the epic speech or song at the end of the feast, attributed not to a Nestor or Demodocus, but to a disgusting beggar, who takes the opportunity to deliver an anarchist sermon, with evangelical overtones.Thus, and in line with his thought, Aquilino blends the classical and Christian heritage, achieving at the end of the chapter a moment of communion between humans and also with nature, which was after all the goal of the “mystagogic entity” and his human avatars.