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, from the forests where he walked and the mountains where he worshipped to the artefacts, texts and philosophies built up round him. She traces 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 journey to Hades, and his terrible death. We see him tantalising Cicero and Plato, and breathing new music into Gluck and Monteverdi; occupying the mind of Jung and the surreal dreams of Cocteau; scandalising the Fathers of the early Church; and, filling Rilke with poems like a whirlwind. He emerges as t simply ather mythical figure but the force of creation itself, singing the song of light out of darkness and life out of death.
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Vintage Publishing
ISBN-10
0224091360
ISBN-13
9780224091367
eBay Product ID (ePID)
105491589
Dimensions
Weight
475g
Height
224mm
Width
145mm
Additional Product Features
Place of Publication
London
Spine
25mm
Content Note
Illustrations
Prizes
Winner of John D. Criticos Prize 2012.
Author Biography
Ann Wroe is the Briefings and Obituaries editor of The Economist. She is the author of six previous works of non-fiction, including Pilate: The Biography of an Invented Man, which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Award and the W.H. Smith Award. She lives in north London.
