Orpheus

The Song of Life

Ann Wroe

• Publisher: ABRAMS Press
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781468301816
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Folklore & Mythology
• Index: Social Sciences

"[A] startlingly original history that traces the obscure origins and tangled relationships of the Orpheus myth from ancient times through today" ( Library Journal ). For at least two and a half millennia, the figure of Orpheus has haunted humanity. Half-man, half-god, musician, magician, theologian, poet, and lover, his story never leaves us. He may be myth, but his lyre still sounds, entrancing everything that hears it: animals, trees, water, stones, and men. In this extraordinary work, Ann Wroe goes in search of Orpheus, tracing the man and the power he represents through the myriad versions of a fantastical life: his birth in Thrace, his studies in Egypt, his voyage with the Argonauts to fetch the Golden Fleece, his love for Eurydice and the journey to Hades, and his terrible death. We see him tantalizing Cicero and Plato, and breathing new music into Gluck and Monteverdi; occupying the mind of Jung and the surreal dreams of Cocteau; scandalizing the fathers of the early Church, and filling Rilke with poems like a whirlwind. He emerges as not simply another mythical figure but the force of creation itself, singing the song of light out of darkness and life out of death. "Did Orpheus exist? Wroe thinks he did, and still does, and dedicates this lyrical biography to doubters." — The New Yorker "This insightful and visionary study, treading a perfect line between imagination and scholarship, is as readable and necessary as a fine novel. Ted Hughes, another mythographer, would have loved it." — The Independent "A book to make readers laugh, sing and weep." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "[ Orpheus ] will leave you dancing." — New Statesman

Index

Abraham, 208–9, 211, 213

Acheron, river, 140, 142

Acteon, 165

Adonis, 111

Aegean, 12, 23, 68, 86, 182

Aeschylus, 71, 226

Aether, 16, 25, 26, 37, 47, 48, 55, 56, 57, 182, 189, 210

Air, 26, 49, 85, 94, 111, 195, 202, 204

Aites, King, 96, 102, 103, 110

Alexander Severus, 213

Alexandria, 9, 49, 51; and see Clement of; Jews of

Alphabets, 22, 44; proto-Cyrillic, 38, 235; Pelasgian, 38, 70; tree, 70

Anouilh, Jean, Eurydice cited: 17, 112, 113, 160, 161, 164, 222

Antisthenes, 196

Aphrodite (Venus), 22, 58, 111, 115, 126, 183, 220, 242

Apollinaire, Guillaume, 135–6

Apollo, 11, 15–16, 20, 21, 25, 27, 32, 33, 37, 40, 49, 58, 72, 77, 79, 140, 191, 192, 198, 199, 218–19, 243; as father, 16, 37, 44, 45, 90–93, 97, 100, 126, 176–7, 188, 205, 213, 229, 230, 231, 232, 242; as god of the sun, 16, 25, 91–3, 206–7; as god of healing, 81, 89, 92; as god of song, 16, 25, 91–3, 219; his oracle, 72, 175, 230; his tripod, 36, 91; Orpheus singing to, 45, 65, 80, 92, 93, 197, 204–7

Apollonius Rhodius, 75, 77, 78, 80, 84, 89, 95, 98

Apollonius of Tyana, 120, 213

Apples, 10, 121, 15...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Also by Ann Wroe
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• First string: Winter
• Second string: Trees
• Third string: The sea
• Middle string: Love
• Fifth string: Death
• Sixth string: Fame
• Seventh string: Scattering
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• Index