All 4 Uses of
Orpheus
in
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- You take Orpheus for Hermes.†
Chpt 1.5.1 *
- Daedalus is the base; Orpheus is the wall; Hermes is the edifice,—that is all.†
Chpt 1.5.1
- While Daedalus, who is force, measured; while Orpheus, who is intelligence, sang;—the pillar, which is a letter; the arcade, which is a syllable; the pyramid, which is a word,—all set in movement at once by a law of geometry and by a law of poetry, grouped themselves, combined, amalgamated, descended, ascended, placed themselves side by side on the soil, ranged themselves in stories in the sky, until they had written under the dictation of the general idea of an epoch, those marvellous books which were also marvellous edifices: the Pagoda of Eklinga, the Rhamseion of Egypt, the Temple of Solomon.†
Chpt 1.5.2
- Gutenberg's letters of lead are about to supersede Orpheus's letters of stone.†
Chpt 1.5.2
Definition:
Greek mythology: a great musician; when his wife Eurydice died he went to Hades to get her back but failed