The road to death – the road to life. On "Alkestis" – a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke

The article is an attempt to interpret "Alkestis", a poem by a great German Symbolist R. M. Rilke from Neue Gedichte, viewed in connection with the preceding poem in the same collection Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes. Both works are linked by the Orphic myth of birth and death: β ο – θ νατο – β ο .The article also shows how big the influence of the sculptor A. Rodin was on the choice of the mythological topic and on the way it was literary rendered by Rilke.