‘His inspired and forbidden gaze dooms Orpheus to lose everything — not only himself, not only the gravity of the day, but also the essence of the night: this much is certain, inevitable. Inspiration means the ruin of Orpheus and the certainty of his ruin, and it does not promise the success of the work as compensation, anymore than in the work it affirms Orpheus’ ideal triumph or Eurydice’s survival.’
—Maurice Blanchot, ‘The Gaze Of Orpheus’