Lusus is the supposed son or companion of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and divine madness, to whom Portuguese national mythology attributed the foundation of ancient Lusitania and the fatherhood of its inhabitants, the Lusitanians, seen as the ancestors of the modern Portuguese people. Lusus thus has functioned in Portuguese culture as a founding myth. History of the name With the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula (between 219 and 17 BC), the Roman province of Lusitania was established, broadly in what is today Portugal south of the Douro river together with Extremadura in Spain. There are no historic records of the eponyms Luso or Lusus amongst the Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula (in this specific areas, Celts or pre-Celts). The etymology of Lusitania, like the origin of the name Lusitani who gave its name, is unclear. The name may be of Celtic origin (Lus and Tanus, "tribe of Lus"), or derive from Lucis or Lusis, an ancient people mentioned in Avienius's Ora Maritima (4th century AD, but drawing on the Massaliote Periplus of the 6th century BC), and Tan, from Celtic Tan (Stan), or Tain, meaning a region or implying a country of waters, a root word that formerly meant a prince or sovereign governor of a region. Mythology Presently it is thought that the mythological character Lusus derives from a mistranslation of the expression lusum enin Liberi patris ("from lusus father Liber derives"), in Pliny's Naturalis Historia. The mistake would have been in the interpretation of the word lusum or lusus as a proper name, instead of a simple common name that means game. In a translation of Pliny: "M. Varro informs us, that... the name "Lusitania " is derived from the games (lusus) of Father Bacchus, or the fury (lyssa) of his frantic attendants, and that Pan was the governor of the whole of it. But the traditions respecting Hercules and Pyrene, as well as Saturn, I conceive to be fabulous in the highest degree.'" This would have been read by André de Resende as "the name "Lusitania" derives from Lusus of Father (master or father) Bacchus", and therefore was interpreted that Lusus would be a companion or son of the furious god. It is this interpretation that is seen in the strophe 22 of Canto III of The Lusiads of Luís Vaz de Camões. This was the Lusitania, which was derived From Lusus, or