I-Juca Pirama

I-Juca Pirama is a narrative poem of Brazil by the nation's leading Romantic poet, Antônio Gonçalves Dias. The goal of establishing a Brazilian national identity based on indigenous peoples of Indian ancestry and the rich nature of the country was advanced in this poem. The title of the poem in Tupy means "He who should die."

"I-Juca Pirama" tells the story of a Tupy warrior held prisoner by the Timbira tribe who is facing ritual anthropophagic consumption when he has a vision of his blind father and begs for mercy, to be able to go help him. This act is taken by the Timbiras as cowardice and he is freed with the excuse that his consumed flesh would actually weaken the Timbira warriors. When the freed Tupy warrior finds his blind father he is repudiated and, ashamed by the son's behavior, the old man curses his son, who will try to prove himself worth being killed.