Take a look at England or most other European countries, with Spain as an example. literally hundreds of fairy tales, monsters, strange creatures, symbolic animals and heraldry and tradition... the list could go on and on and on. Portugal has Adamastor, mouras encantadas (which almost no one knows of) the twin ravens of lisbon, a few tidbits from the Romans like Pan ruling this clay and Ulysses founding Lisbon and LITERALLY nothing else. Portugal lacks CULTURE. it lacks SYMBOLS. It doesn't have iconic outfits like the Spanish conquistadors do, or the Grimm's fairy tales of Germany. They don't have the Yokai of Shintoism or the Arthurian legends of England, nor great and famous poets and works. Nothing about Portuguese culture or myth is known or celebrated, except (to a small extent) in Portugal, in the form of glorification of ancient exploits.
Why do you think that there are almost no Portuguese characters in fiction (certainly none in Pop-culture) but plenty of French, Spanish, English and even Brazilian? Portugal is, at least seemingly, hollow and soulless, it lacks culture and defining characteristics.
This, I believe, is one of the biggest issues with the country and one of the things that stops it from growing further. Without this cohesive myth, these iconographic and pervasive legends and feeling of colectivisim and national identity, the Portuguese struggle to coalesce as a nation and these feelings of patriotism fail to arise and are, instead, actually frowned upon.
If only there was some form of mythologist, some Grimm-esque wanderer who could perhaps compile a list of potential myths and legends and propagate the Portuguese myth and bring Portugal a sense of tradition.
What can be done about this? In this age, the creation of myths, legends, iconography and culture seems insincere and artificial. Is Portugal doomed in this regard?
