In 1904, when Rilke wrote his poem “Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes,” he could have been but dimly aware that he was abetting a major revolution of consciousness. This had been in process for at least 10 years, and was making itself felt, albeit known only to a few initiates, in Einstein's physics and Freud's psychology. It was to affect the ideas and attitudes of masses of people, educated and uneducated alike, worldwide, rippling over the next century into virtually all fields of human endeavor. It was also to prove decisive in separating the past from the present, or in creating the modern illusion that they might have less to do with each other than most people wished to believe.

This first modernist revolution, so remarkable for its influence, had to do with concepts of energy, time, space and those who observe them, or with any human observer of motion. While arguments about the temperament of an era run serious risks of absurdity, few will object to the notion that fashions in ideas prevail at particular moments. Ectoplasmic and even ghostly as it then seemed, this was one of them, a fortuitous change, a tendril, perhaps, of a divine breath of inspiration. An arrow of insight had been loosed, and a number of daring artists and scientists were drawn to parallel speculations. It is only sensible to imagine that more than coincidence, an atmosphere of permission and acceptance, or at the very least a temperamental similarity stimulated by social and intellectual conditions, led to their success.

What these facts suggest is what is indeed the case, that Rilke's poem is far more than an eccentric and riveting recreation of the tragic Orpheus myth. This quickly becomes evident as one realizes that both the dullish egotism and recklessness of earlier versions have been eliminated. No doubt they were distractions from the poet's interest. Traditional dramatic aspects of the story as well have been deliberately collapsed into a special tone that may be described as coolish, while a deterministic fixity replaces the earlier versions’ histrionics and conflicts. Orpheus's legendary music is also crumpled, bizarrely, into a heightened silence. Communication between characters seems almost completely to vanish.