Para uma mitanálise da fundação sagrada do reino de Portugal em Ourique

Abstract

This study, as well as others published in the meantime, evolves around a hermeneutic and mythanalytical view. It addresses the underlying assumptions and operative concepts regarding narratives of a religious nature which relate to the presence of Christ in the political origins of the Portuguese kingdom and, therefore, in the life of the first Portuguese King, D. Afonso Henriques (1109-1185). The famous miracle of Ourique, which Alexandre Herculano refuted through the critical analysis of diplomatic and historical facts, comprehends profound features of the human and social imagery, which is intelligible in light of the mythocriticism/mythanalysis proposed by Gilbert Durand and other contributions, like the Psychology of Profoundries by Carl Gustav Jung and Georges Dumézil’s study on myths and cults. Following this theoretical-m(y)thodological line of thought, it was possible to show the Miracle in its essence (sacred and profound narrative) as the Founding Myth of Portugal, a kingdom born in Christianity under the providential will of God. Finally, this study is divided into three parts: the first part concerns an “epistemological opening”; the second one focuses on “the paradigm of founding kings/saints”, speaking of, namely, Clovis and Afonso Henriques; and the third and final part comprises the myth-analysis of the Miracle of Ourique, with recourse to the concepts of myth and archetype.