ABSTRACT
The relation of the Middle English lay of Sir Orfeo to the classical myth of the cult hero Orpheus is obscure. For Vergil and for Ovid the connotations of the myth were tragic: the great musician failed in his attempt to regain his beloved Eurydice from the underworld and died of grief (see Georgics, IV, and Metamorphoses, X–XI). For Boethius the tale served as a warning against the futility of looking backward into hell (see Consolation of Philosophy, III, m. 12). But the Middle English minstrel tells a very different version of the tale. Dame Heurodis is abducted by an otherworld lover into a Celtic fairyland, from which Orfeo happily regains her.
