ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the fact that the denouement of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice is left open partly, which explains the extraordinary literary posterity of what is really no more than an episode in the myth. The structure of the myth of Orpheus becomes clear provided this first, Argonaut episode is not omitted. The folding back upon itself which is typical of the structure of myth is present here, though admittedly in this case it may be that the literary myth repeats the myth proper. His call upsets Rilke's Eurydice: like Nietzsche Rilke opposes all looking back when it is necessary to go forward, to say yes even to death, and to anticipate every farewell. After Eurydice has died for the second time and Orpheus has passed through the underworld, he seems much more fragile, and his power to charm is less reliable in its effect.
