Mythical Melodies: A Study of Robertson Davies’ The Lyre of Orpheus

Abstract

Myths are tales of the basic essence of life and are evidence of the unifying soul of the world. It is this unifying truth which myths proclaim that finds expression in Robertson Davies’ trilogies. Davies’ delightful novel, The Lyre of Orpheus, presents an enchanting world of myths dexterously merged with the realm of the modern. In its exemplary evocation of mythical motifs and archetypal situations, the novel becomes a fine instance of the mythic method adopted by the Modernist novelists at the beginning of the twentieth century. In fact, through the silent but central metaphor of the musical instrument called lyre, Davies bridges the mythical and the modern.