How does Orpheus appear not only in the Greek and Latin tradition but also in literature today? The poets who wrote about Orpheus are mainly Vergilius and Ovidius. The first pays attention to the religious dignity of myths and to the mystery of suffering; he considers Orpheus as a model for the elegiac poet. Thinking about his friend Gallus, he celebrates his highness and his weakness. Ovidius' elegiac melancholy is turned into the grace of his epic narratio: Orpheus meets Eurydice again only when dying. The myth is still alive: Boetius criticizes Orpheus; dante replaces Eurydice with Beatrix. The article deals also with Nerval, Anouilh, Cocteau, P.J. Jouve, P. Emmanuel, and mainly Rilke who considers that Orpheus is expressing God's "absence ardente."
