Heavens, monsters and a portuguese shipwrecked: Aleixo Garcia and Iberian Mythology of Conquest (1300 - 1745)

Abstract

This article examines four of the myths that belonged to the imagination of the Portuguese and Spanish explorers, from a period spanning at its maximum extent, from the fourteenth century until the mid-eighteenth century and where are inserted the Great Navigations. It also analyzes the history of the castaway Aleixo Garcia in his quest for Eldorado. Finally, it seeks to show how both issues are interrelated.