Ovid's poetic persona is very unique in that he is a prolific, versatile writer. He takes his time and writes sexy love poems. He pokes fun at serious matters and has an attitude of a "this is me, deal with it". The four main features of his poetic style are Urbanitas, Air of detachment, Technical mastery and Doctina. Urbanitas is mostly sophisticated and refined. Air of detachment is a know-it-all on love and sex. He analyzes love and sex and thinks he is the only professional. Technical mastery has elegant structure, smooth language and expressions of love taken to the limits. Doctrina is learning or erudition with a mythical and humorous touch. .
Apollo's son Orpheus is a wonderful musician. His elegant lyre playing could touch anything on earth. He marries his love Eurydice, but she is bitten by a poisonous serpent and dies. A heart broken Orpheus goes to the Underworld to try and get her back. He begs Persephone and charms the creatures of the Underworld with his beautiful music. They allow Orpheus to take Eurydice back to the land above on one condition that he does not look back at her until they get there. Right before reaching the land above, Orpheus gets scared that she might not be there and looks back. Eurydice this is drawn back to the Underworld and is lost forever. Orpheus is later killed and his body is torn to pieces, his severed head still singing of his love for Eurydice.
The film Moulin Rouge is similar to the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in that is a story of love and the death of one of the lovers. Christian is the Orpheus of the film, enveloped in a great love for a dying Satine. After Satine dies, Christian continues to write of his love for Satine, just as Orpheus continued to sing of his love for Eurydice. The look back scene is critical in both the myth and the play. Orpheus had Eurydice and looked back and lost her out of panic. Christian panics out of jealousy of losing Satine to the Duke and returns to "pay his whore".
