*Os Lusíadas* is a poetic work by the writer Luís Vaz de Camões, regarded as the Portuguese epic par excellence. Likely completed in 1556, it was first published in 1572 during the literary period of Classicism, three years after the author’s return from the East.

The work consists of ten cantos, 1,102 stanzas in octaves of ten syllables, following a fixed rhyme scheme AB AB AB CC – known as the Camonian octave rhyme. The central action is the discovery of the sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, around which other episodes from Portuguese history are depicted, glorifying the Portuguese people.