Un espectáculo sangriento en “La muerte de Orfeo” de Metamorfosis XI de Ovidio

Abstract

The episode of “The Death of Orpheus” opens the book XI (1-66) in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It functions as the epilogue of the “Orpheus Cycle” that begins in book X (“Orpheus and Eurydice”, 1-71). Orpheus is, first, the internal narrator of a poetic performance that exercises a charming and peaceful control over the Earth and the kingdom of shadows. Then he becomes a prey who is torn apart by the women of Thrace in a state of furor. In the narrative, the gods Apollo and Bacchus act in absentia but “appear” indirectly through their special features and elements, namely related to musical manifestations. From a narratological approach, I will show that such a contrast is shaped in terms of a battle between artistic modes by Ovid’s use of some traditional epic devices. The primary narrator establishes a link with the cosmogonic episode of “The Four Ages” (I, 89-150), from the Golden Age of Orpheus’ song until his final tearing. Thus Ovid problematizes not only the arbitrariness of violence and war but also the Apollo-Bacchus paradox. Indeed, as they are opposite spheres, the Apollonian peace and the Bacchic furor deepen the poetical and metatextual implications of the poem.