Properly speaking, ORPHEU is an exile of artistic temperaments seeking art as secrecy or torment... Our intent is to materialize, as a group or idea, a determined number of revelations in thought or art, that, based on this aristocratic principle, find in ORPHEU, their esoteric ideal, ingrained in the way we feel and know ourselves. Luis de Montalvôr (from the "Introduction" to
Orpheu Literary Quarterly Volume 1
,
1915) The generation of
Orpheu
, despite the diversity of its expressions, from the most conservative to the most radical, represents one of the most profound revolutions in the language and themes of Portuguese literature, with traces that extended into the 20th century and which remain both alive and unmatched up until this day. Nuno Júdice