Eurydice's transgression in Vetranović's transformation of the myth of Orpheus

Grmača, Dolores. (2012). Eurydice's transgression in Vetranović's transformation of the myth of Orpheus. Umjetnost riječi : časopis za znanost o književnosti, 56(1-2). pp. 23-42. ISSN 0503-1853

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Abstract

The myth of Orpheus occurs frequently in the works of the most prolific Ragusan Renaissance poet Mavro Vetranović (1482–1576). His mythological drama Orpheus has drawn considerable attention of Croatian literary scholarship. What makes his dramatisation of the popular Orpheus and Eurydice’s story uncommon are his interventions in the Orphic myth – in his version, it is Eurydice who turns back instead of Orpheus. Hence, Vetranović’s Orpheus doesn’t have an active role, and he doesn’t even enter the underground world, as opposed to the common version of this myth. This paper focuses on the possible reasons of Eurydice turning back and discusses her central role in the dramatic agon, as well as the tradition of allegorical transformations of the Orphic myth. Vetranović’s drama is compared to similar Italian Renaissance literary texts and placed in the wider context of the medieval and Renaissance interpretations of the Orpheus and Eurydice’s story.

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