ORPHEUS, THE HERO OF THE LYRE
In the same land of Thrace in which Jason's family ruled, Orpheus, the
greatest musician of Greece, was born. It was said that his mother was
the Goddess of Song, and such was the power of his voice and his art
of playing on the lyre that he could move stones and trees. When the
wild beasts heard his music they left their dens and lay down at his
feet, the birds in the trees stopped singing, and the fishes came to
the surface of the sea to listen to him.
Orpheus had a wife, Eurydike, celebrated for her beauty and virtue,
and he loved her very dearly. One day when Eurydike was gathering
flowers on the bank of a lake a venomous snake bit her foot and she
died. Orpheus could not be consoled. He went off into the wildest
waste that he could find and there he mourned day and night till all
nature shared in his grief. At last he made up his mind to go down
into Hades and beg her back of King Pluto, for life was worthless
without her.
Orpheus took his lyre, and singing as he went, found his way down to
Hades through a dismal abyss. Grim Cerberus himself held his breath to
listen to the marvellous music. Not one bark did he give from any of
his three terrible heads, and when Orpheus passed him he crouched at
his feet. So Orpheus entered Hades unhindered, and standing before the
throne of Pluto and his pale queen Persephone, he said: "Oh, king and
queen, I have not come down into Hades to see the gloomy Tartaros,
nor in order to carry away the three-headed warder of your kingdom,
the dreadful Cerberus. I came down to implore you to give me back my
beloved wife, Eurydike. I cannot bear life without her. To me the
world is a desert, and life a burden. Why should she die, so young and
beautiful? Have pity on me! If I may not take her back, then I will
not again see the light of the sun, but I, too, will remain in the
gloomy Hades."
Pluto and Persephone listened in silence to the pleadings of Orpheus.
His pathetic voice and the sweet tones of his melodious lyre held them
like a charm. The shades of the dead came flocking around him and
mourned. Tantalos forgot his thirst and listened to the singer's
complaints. Sisyphos, who was compelled to roll a stone to the top of
a mountain whence it always dashed back again to the bottom, ceased
his dreadful labor to listen, and the Furies themselves first shed
tears.
[Illustration: ORPHEUS LEADING EURYDIKE OUT OF HADES.
(From the painting by Corot.)]
Persephone and Pluto were pitiless gods. Their hearts were long since
hardened to the cries of the living who prayed for the restoration of
their loved ones. But they could not resist the power of the
enchanting sounds that Orpheus made. They called the spirit of the
beautiful Eurydike to them and said to the musician: "Take thy wife
Eurydike and go up again to the light of the sun. Let her gaze on the
smiling sky and see the fields of the upper world. But beware of one
thing. Let her follow thee and do not turn around to look at her
before reaching the world of the living. If thou shouldst turn and
look upon her she will return at once to her place among the dead."
Orpheus left Hades in great haste and Eurydike followed him. In the
midst of deepest silence they ascended through dismal rocky places.
They neared their journey's end. They could almost see the green earth
when Orpheus was seized with a dreadful doubt. "I hear no sound
whatever behind me," he said to himself. "Is my beloved Eurydike
really following me?" He turned his head a little. He saw Eurydike,
who followed him like a shadow. But suddenly she began to be drawn
backward. She stretched out her arms toward Orpheus as if imploring
his help. Orpheus hurried to take her in his arms, but she vanished
from his sight and Orpheus was alone again.
Yet he did not despair. Again he descended into Hades and reached the
river which separates this world from that of the dead, but the
boatman, Charon, refused to ferry him across. Seven days and seven
nights Orpheus remained there without drink or food, weeping and
mourning. The decree of the gods was not to be changed. When Orpheus
found that he could effect nothing he returned to the earth. He
wandered alone over the mountains and glens of Thrace, which resounded
with his plaintive songs day and night.
One day as he sat upon a grassy spot and played his lyre a troop of
wild women who were celebrating a festival rushed upon him and tried
to make him play for them to dance. Orpheus indignantly refused, and
they grew angry and handled him so roughly that he died. Where he was
buried the nightingales sang more sweetly than elsewhere. And his
lyre, which was thrown into the sea, was caught by the waves, which
made sweet music upon it as they rose and fell.
Orpheus was honored by the gods, and after his death they brought him
to the Abode of the Blessed, where he found his beloved Eurydike and
was reunited to her.