ABSTRACT
The tale of Daphne first appeared in Greece in the second half of the third century BC, but its origins are probably oriental and far more ancient. More than seven hundred lines of the poem, Ovide moralise, are devoted to the story of Daphne which is first recounted according to the version in Ovid, though with some amplifications. In this work Daphne is the pure Christian soul threatened by Apollo, the demon who comes to tempt her and fails. It is not surprising that people find frequent references to the myth of Daphne in the trattatisti d'amore of the Cinquecento. In 1607, Marco da Gagliano reset the libretto for Rinuccini's work on Daphne to music, while in 1627 the German poet Martin Opitz and the musician Heinrich Schutz collaborated on the first German opera.
