Oedipus-Rex, The Testament of Orpheus, The Blood of a Poet, The Infernal Machine… So many references. When reading a poem, seeing a film or looking at a drawing from Cocteau’s vast body of work, it is not rare to come across mythological figures. Literary references, but more particularly, a transition towards a creative process…
More than a simple passion, mythology was a vital artistic driver for Cocteau: a window to the imagination, a transition to a creative world, a source of inspiration, of identification, which drove him from his childhood until his death in 1963. Eternal, mythology examines the great themes of humanity, mankind and society, and enabled Cocteau to pick and choose from its symbols to develop his work and enhance his reflections.
Poetry in Motion
An autodidact, he enjoyed a classical education, enthralled by theatre and cinema thanks to his mother’s influence. Throwing himself heart and soul into poetry, he was enraptured with its authors, with a particular affection for Raymond Radiguet whom he met in 1918 at the age of 29. Great masters like Pablo Picasso and Erik Satie were amongst his entourage and played a part in conveying his thoughts into poetry and the creation of his life’s work (the ballet Parade in 1917). While his work took many forms – artwork, theatre, cinema – poetry encompassed it all in Cocteau’s mind. “It is the writing that matters at first , but it is poetry that transcends all the various mediums”, explains Françoise Leonelli, Curator for the Jean Cocteau Museum in Menton. “He goes as far as talking about ‘the ink running in his veins’”.
Double Id
His mythological double – his alter ego – appeared very quickly. Cocteau soon became entranced with Orpheus, a renowned bard and poet who charmed all living things with his verses and his lyre. This Greek hero is also famous for his doomed love for Eurydice, whom he attempted to save from the underworld, which makes him one of the rare characters to have succeeded in entering and escaping from Hades. While travelling from world to world, that of the living and the dead, Orpheus becomes an intermediary. He embodies the ability to transition from one state to another. It is this capability that would haunt Cocteau and that he would reproduce in several of his works (particularly of the tragedy Orpheus from 1926 and the film The Blood of a Poet in 1930). Creating belonged to a different universe for Cocteau, one to be attained only through certain transitions, with the help of intermediaries – whether that be a myth, a symbol, or a mirror, like opium.
An overriding notion that Cocteau would also find in Oedipus. While the literary man may have lost his father at a very young age, and developed an intense relationship with his mother, Cocteau focused not on the Freudian interpretation of the myth but rather on the ability of Oedipus to see the world although blind at the end of his life. Once again, the ambivalence between the visible and invisible world re-emerges. “Oedipus has the sight of an initiate, a connoisseur, someone versed in mystery”, as Françoise Leonelli describes. He “outlines the invisible” as Cocteau liked to say of himself, and unveils the imperceptible to us common mortals.
A constant back-and-forth between these worlds would enable Cocteau to explore his reflection on artistic creation. The coexistence of contrary realities enhances the intermediary’s role, that of the artist, the creator. He used various media to convey this idea. Myths were his way to help us visualise his hypotheses, to access this alternative world. He literally created his own mythology, his contemporary tale, and, as he liked to say, “refreshed the myths”.
