Orpheus (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Jean Cocteau
- First Published: 1927
- Type of Work: Drama
- Type of Plot: Tragicomedy
- Time of Work: Early twentieth century
- Setting: Thrace, Greece
- Principal Characters: Orpheus, Eurydice, Heurtebise, Algaonice, Death, The Commissioner of Police
- Genres: Drama, Mythological literature, Tragicomedy
- Subjects: Twentieth century, Poetry or poets, God, Death or dying, Creative process, Ethics, Visions, epiphanies, or revelations, Greece or Greek people, Underworld or Hades
- Locales: Greece, ancient, Thrace, ancient
The Story:
Seated across from his wife, Eurydice, in their villa in Thrace, the poet Orpheus concentrated on the tapping of a white horse, housed in a niche in the center of the room. Orpheus believed this would indicate the next letter in an inspired message. Eventually, the horse tapped out “hell,” and finally, “hello” (in the original French, mer became merci). Orpheus had submitted a previous message, “Orpheus hunts Eurydice’s lost life” to the Thracian poetry competition. Eurydice’s complaints of neglect, compounded by her doubts regarding...
[The entire page is 2128 words long]
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