Abstract

The article is a proposal for a new interpretation of Czesław Miłosz’s poem. The author presents that Orpheus’s catabasis in the poem and in the myth itself – which is revealed while its reading – is a figure of mourning, ending with the second death of Eurydice and coming out to the surface. Interpretation of descent to Hades is inspired by the poet's self-commentary and observations of Freud, and Croce and di Nola on mourning. Such reading also explains the meaning of troublesome for interpreters changes, which Miłosz made in the story of the myth compared to traditional versions by Virgil, Ovid, Rilke.