The Classics in the Poetry of Nuno Júdice – The Myth of Europe

Abstract

In the poetry of Nuno Júdice, characterized by a diversified intertextuality, it is common to use motifs and figures from the Classical Antiquity to challenge Modernity. The myth, a timeless and universal symbolic language, is a particularly seductive domain for the Portuguese author. A European citizen, Júdice gives voice to the reality lived in the old continent where he integrates with a critical eye, recovering in particular the famous myth of Europe to rediscover it in Contemporaneity. In this study, through the approach of two poetic compositions, the aim is to outline the image the author presents of a Europe in which he himself moves in the daily life of the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.