The Backward Glance

TheBackward Glance SHANE BUTLER V>/f all the turning pointsin thehistory of poetry, themostimportant liesjustbelowthesurface ofthe earth, almostat theendofthesteepclimbup from Hell. Thisis thespotwhereOrpheus ignored theterms imposed uponhimandlookedoverhisshoulder at thewifehehad justwonbackfrom deathwitha song.Thosewhotellthe story expandtheinstant inwhichEurydice vanishes intoa brief chaosoffutile grasps andfleeting words, justenough tomakethis point intime visible tous.Andintothis vertiginousmoment they mixonly therudest beginnings ofananswerto thequestion sheand we havebarely timeto ask: why?In theintervening eons,whichcomprise nothing less than thewholeofliterary history - for Orpheus wasthefirst poet,we aretold - thiscataclysm hasso often beenrememberedthatit has acquireda tragicinevitability: Orpheus mustlookback,elsethisis nothisstory. Thesameis true notonlyofhisinitial descent intoHellbutalsoofhiseventualdismemberment . Butthestory ofthefirst poetsurely seekstotellussomething aboutallpoets, andindeed, itsbeginning andendare boundup infamiliar ifcomplicated themes abouttherelationship between poetry anddeath, bodyandsong, tradition andimmortality. Nevertheless, themidpoint ofthemyth has remained elusive: why must thepoetlookback?Letusbegin withwhatwe are told by poetsthemselves, specifically Vergil andOvid,theformer inhisGeorgics, thelatter inhis Metamorphoses, ourtwomainsources for themyth. A suddendementia, writes Vergil (Georgics 4.485-503), "seized[Orpheus], careless evenas heloved."He wasfora ARION 17.2 FALL 2OO9 6o THE BACKWARD GLANCE moment immemor, "forgetful," presumably ofProserpina's injunction nottolookbackuntil free oftheUnderworld. Or perhaps hewassimply unabletoremember Eurydice 'sface? Yictusanimi,something like"mentally undone,"respexit, "helookedback."Weareas puzzled as Eurydice, whowith herlastwords begins toask,"Whohasruined youandpoor me,Orpheus?" Quisetmemiser ametteperdidit, Orpheu? andthislastvocative rings likean unfinished answer toher ownquestion, forthesameOrpheus whowonherrelease from deathnowsendsherback.Butherquis?turns outto benota "who"buta "what":quistantus furor, shecontinues ,"whatmadness so great ... ?" Andwith that, sheslips away.Stretching outherarmsandcrying a last"farewell," shevanishes, "likesmokedissolved in insubstantial air," leaving himstill"wanting tosaymany things." Anyone hoping for clarification from Ovid(10.53-63)finds instead only amplified uncertainty. Orpheus "fears that strength isfailing" - hers? his?TheLatinisunclear. He is "anxious to see,"avidusvidendi, butsignificantly, Ovidprovides no objecthere , as ifthatdesired vision werean endinitself: Orpheus doesnotwanthiswife; hesimply wants tosee."What complaint couldsheoffer except thatshehadbeenloved?" Thus,at thevery moment whenOrpheus makesEurydice vanish, Ovidsilences her, andsotoothereader, towhom the rhetorical question isaddressed, andlikewise, finally, himself. Weareall still quietly wondering "Why?" evenas Eurydice utters, again,the"farewell" (echoedfrom Vergil butnow barelyaudible)withwhichshe seemsto mockus: Vale, "goodbye, goodluck, havea nicelife." Andthere Vergil andOvidleaveus,with nothing likea real answer. To do better, we needto lookbeyond thepassages thatpurport to tellus theOrpheus story. Butwhere? Orpheus , torn finally tobitsbymaenads, hisheadandlyre still sounding as theyfloated downtheHebrusriver, is everywhere andnowhere, an ever-fainter butnever-ending echo, allbutinaudible beneath theendless linesofverse produced bypoetsinhiswake.To hearhim, weneeda moment ofsi- ShaneButler6τ lence, a tearinthevery fabric oftheartheinvented, a way through, a waybacktosomething elemental (darewe say?) aboutpoetry from which wehavelearned tobedistracted. In fifty-nine placesin thecourseofalmosttenthousand hexameters, thetextofVergil's Aeneid breaks off intonothingness , half-lines that yield totheblank page, where this generally fairly noisypoemfallssuddenly silent, ifonlyfora second ortwo.Manyofthese pausesseemso appropriate to their context, so eloquent intheir speechlessness, thatsome readers havesuggested that Vergil meant toleavethem empty. ("Likeanorator, heended when hehadmadehispoint," oratorie finivit ubivisargumenti constitua as the"DanielScholiast "putsit,commenting onthehalf-line at4.361.)Butmost haveconnected them instead toassertions byVergil's ancient biographers thathefell fatally illbefore completing hisrevisions , that, when noonewouldbring hisdraft tohisdeathbed sothat hecouldburn theimperfect poem, heleft instructions forbidding itspublication, butthat hisliterary executors, underhigher orders from Augustus, released theworkwithout attempting tofill itslacunae. Itisthrough oneofthese gaps, nearthemiddle ofbook9,that wemust nowdescend. Atline467, Vergil offers justtwonamesinthegenitive caseandthen stops: Euryali etNisi,"OfEuryalus andNisus ..." Thishalf-line actually endstheir story, which hadbegunalmost three hundred linesearlier; itthusoffers a kind ofbelated title: thiswasthetaleofEuryalus andNisus.Indeed ,theentire episode,amongVergil's mostdaringand beautiful, has sometimes beenthought to havebegunas a separate work, perhaps a youthful epyllion later integrated, imperfectly, intothepoet'smagnum opus. Euryali etNisiinline467 modifies capitainline466thus ,"theheadsofEuryalus andNisus."Andsincethese are,infact, thesevered headsofthetwolovers, mounted on pikesand paradedbefore theirhorrified Trojancomrades ,thegenitive maybe saidto assert, withgrim irony, possession ofwhatNisusandEuryalus mostemphatically possessno longer: 62 THE BACKWARD GLANCE Quin ipsaarrectis, visu miserabile, inhastis praefigunt capita etmulto clamore sequuntur Euryali etNisi. Indeed, shouting alltheway, they follow thevery heads - stuck (gruesome sight!) onspears - ofEuryalus andNisus. Or to putthings another way,thestory endsbynaming twopeoplewhono longer exist;thisvery finalgenitive is thusthatofa Romanepitaph, Dis Manibus Euryali etMs/, "to thesacredshadesofEuryalus andNisus."Andthesilencethat follows ismostchillingly thatofthetomb. Butwehavebegun attheend;letusnowreview thewhole story from thetop.Atthebeginning ofbook9, Aeneasis still farfrom theTrojan camp,seeking Italian allies.Turnus, advised ofthisabsence bythegoddess Iris, tries todrawthe Trojans outoftheir campfora fight, andwhenthis fails, he setsfire totheir ships, which, however, aretransformed into sea-nymphs. Frustrated, Turnusand his troopsretire to drink andgamelateintothenight. TheTrojanswatchall from their ramparts; among them isNisus...