The Old Man of Restelo (), also known as the Old Man of Belem, is a fictional character introduced by the Portuguese epic poet LuÃÂs de Camões in Canto IV of his epic poem Os LusÃÂadas (The Lusiads). The Old Man of Restelo is interpreted in different ways as a symbol of pessimism, or as representing those who did not believe in the likely success of the then upcoming Portuguese Discoveries. The character appears at the departure of the first expedition to India (1497), giving warnings about the odyssey that was about to happen.
This episode begins at the outset of the voyage of Vasco da Gama across unknown oceans. An old man (the Old Man of Restelo) goes down denounce the voyages and the occupants of the ships, arguing that the reckless navigators, driven by greed for fame, glory, and riches, are courting disaster for themselves and the Portuguese people.
This is the argument of the Old Man of Restelo against the voyage that Vasco da Gama and his crew were about to undertake:
It remains uncertain to what degree the monologue of the Old Man reflects Camões's own views. There seems to be a contradiction between the writing of a large epic on maritime expeditions, in which there was a clear enthusiasm for the undertaking, and, on the other hand, the fear, apprehension, and pessimism that emerge in this speech and certain other passages in the work. Historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam lists different possible interpretations of the passage: that Camões was criticizing the degenerated moral state of the Portuguese empire in the East in his own time; that he was utilizing a standard theme of nostalgia for Portuguese agrarian life as opposed to its "destiny overseas" (Subrahmanyam considers this less likely); or that Camões was merely acknowledging the historical reality that overseas expansion had its opponents in Portugal in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
Subsequent allusions in Portuguese to the Old Man of Restelo have tended to portray him in a negative lightas a "doubting Thomas", not as a "Cassandra" who expresses apposite cautions. For example, in a speech in 2013, the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said that Brazil would not have been discovered (by Europeans) if "the Old Man of Restelo had prevailed at that time, on that beach, there on the Tagus in Lisbon."