Joydeep Bagchee

From Poetic Immortality to Salvation: Ruru and Orpheus in Indic and Greek Myth

Can poetry save us or do we need philosophy? In this article, we suggest that the Greek myth of Orpheus and its Indian version, the myth of Ruru, are structured according to a distinction between poetic immortality and salvation. In highlighting the problem of partial or failed resurrection, themyths of Orpheus and Ruru demonstrate that, in these myths, true salvation is an abidance in being rather than relating to the phenomena of becoming. The Orpheus and Ruru myths distinguish two levels of immortality: one, a poetic transcendence that grants a limited immortality, and, two, the unconditioned immortality of salvation. In ancient Greece, poetry served as one way to confront the oblivion of death. The poet, in singing of the hero, grants him immortal fame (kleos