Four Orphic Hymns: the Poetic Path of Leonida Lari

The four Orphic hymns signed by Leonida Lari rewrite the legend of Orpheus' life in verse. The use of the first person destiny emphasizes the author's empathy with Orpheus' destiny. The poet's sufferings take on mythical proportions, the echo crosses in another pose the conditions of the creative man, which seem the same and, at the same time, different.This cycle is personalized, although it is written after the model of the Orphic hymns, dedicated to several gods. Leonida Lari selects Apollo, the god of the arts, also attributing to him the qualities of Zeus, through the quality of possessing lightning. Leonida Lari restructures the myth of Orpheus in four scores. The first is the paradisiacal memory of the righteous love between Orpheus and Eurydice, the second explains the preparation for the journey into the space of transhumanity. Inner transformation is the condition of recognizing human possibilities to overcome one's condition in the name of love. The third part includes the tragedy of the definitive loss of the beloved. But in this adaptation of the myth in its own shorthand, the death of the beloved begins to be equated with the great despair of losing the song of happiness. The lyrical self exposes itself by recognizing the feelings of the righteous mythical character as a heartbreaking empathy. Finally, there is a testament of happiness addressed to the poets. In the last hymn, the image of Orpheus appears distant, but he is the bearer of the memory of absolute love.