Orpheus
Orpheus was the hero-singer of the Thracians, who in the ancient times
dwelt at the foot of the mountains Olympus, Parnassus, and Helicon. He
was the son of Apollo[9] and the muse Calliope[10] and the husband of
Eurydice. His name became so celebrated among later poets that his power
of song was said to have produced most marvellous effects. When he
struck his lute, the fable says, the lions of the forest fawned upon him
like dogs, rivers halted in their course, and the trees and rocks
listened to him. He accompanied the Argonauts on their expedition and
accomplished by his music many marvellous escapes for them. When he
returned from the expedition his young wife, Eurydice, and her
companions danced upon a beautiful grass plat one day. While engaged in
their sports a snake stung her in the foot and she died in the very
bloom of her youth.[11] The inconsolable husband poured out his grief in
tones that filled all hearts with sorrow. Taking his lute, he ventured
to the entrance of the underworld, Tartarus, and entreated Persephone,
spouse of Hades, god of the underworld, to give him back Eurydice. The
bars of the gate flew back as he sang. With ever tenderer tones he
approached the place where departed spirits wander. Cerberus, the
three-headed dog who guards the entrance, quietly wagged his tail as he
passed, Ixion's wheel stood still,[12] and Sisyphus stopped his
fruitless task to listen to him.[13]
Persephone graciously heard Orpheus' entreaty and said: "Go back whence
you came. Eurydice shall silently follow. But have a care that you do
not look at her until you have reached the upper world. If you gaze at
her but an instant she will be lost to you forever."
Orpheus turned back. He had not yet seen her. Would she follow him or
not? A goddess surely would not deceive him. But he heard no step behind
him. Singing, he went his way for a time, and when in the distance he
saw the gleam of the upper world, he cried "Eurydice" in tender, eager
tones. No answer was made. Overcome by grief and anxiety, he forgot the
warning of the goddess. An irresistible desire to see her caused him to
turn his head, and behold his wife was quietly and lightly following
him. He stretched out his arms to her and in an instant the goddess's
warning was realized. Eurydice suddenly went back and was never again
seen by him.
His soul was rent with anguish. He wandered despairingly with his lute
in the Thracian forest, where he found among the rocks a swarm of
Mænades, those creatures who foregather at the festivals of Bacchus and,
excited with wine and wild debauches, go through the woods inciting
everyone to attend the revels which are given in honor of that divinity.
They made a loud clamor by clashing their cymbals together and blowing
trumpets and horns and swung their wands, wound with vine leaves and
ivy, called the thyrsus, crying, "Evoe, Evoe, Bacchus."
These Mænades who found Orpheus lamenting for Eurydice, snatched his
lute away and ordered him to entertain them. With horror he turned from
them and rejected their importunities. That was too much for a horde of
mad women. They stoned him, tore him to pieces, and threw his bleeding
limbs into the forest.