Orpheus and Eurydice

Orpheus (Ὀρφεύς) was the greatest mortal musician in Greek myths. Orpheus was the son of the Muse Calliope. His father was either the god Apollo or Oeagrus, the king of Thrace.

Even though he may have been the son of the Thracian king, Apollo, who was the greatest musician of the gods, taught him how to play the lyre. Like Apollo, Orpheus' favourite instrument was the lyre. Calliope and her sisters taught her son a song. His music and voice were so enchanting that wild animals would become tame and the trees and rocks would follow him.

Orpheus was one of the Argonauts who had accompanied Jason in the quest of the Golden Fleece. His music helped to soothe his wearied comrades in their long journey. Orpheus' most vital role in the Argonautica was that he saved his comrades from the songs of the Sirens. Such was the power of his music and voice that he drowned out the songs of the Sirens, allowing their ship to pass the island.

His love was tragically short. Orpheus fell in love with a nymph named Eurydice (Εὐρυδίκη). According to Ovid, she was a naiad (water nymph), but to Virgil, Eurydice was a dryad (tree nymph). Their marriage was cut short when a minor pastoral god named Aristaeüs (Aristaeus) lustfully pursued after the nymph. A snake bit Eurydice's ankle when she stepped on the snake. Eurydice died from the venom.

Orpheus mourned over the loss of his wife. The hero was determined to win back his wife from Hades. With his lyre he descended down towards the Underworld. His music made all the spirits to come and listen. Even those condemned to eternal punishment (like Sisyphus and Tantalus) forgot their torments. Orpheus crossed the Styx without paying Charon for toll on the ferry. The three-headed hound Cerberus allowed Orpheus to pass through the gates without challenge. His song even moved Hades, the lord of the dead, who listened to the music with his wife Persephone.

When Hades heard why Orpheus had come to the world of the dead, the sombre god agreed that Orpheus could have his wife back, on the condition that Orpheus could not look back until they reached the earth surface. According to Virgil, in Georgics, it was Proserpina, the Roman Persephone, who returned Eurydice to Orpheus with this condition.

Orpheus was both joyful and anxious if his wife was following him to his surface. His anxiety made him look back too soon, when he reached the surface. Eurydice was just inside of the cavern entrance, when he turned back to look at his wife. Eurydice was instantly returned to the Underworld.

Orpheus was barred from entering the Underworld for a second time while he was still alive. Orpheus had no choice but to return home. According to Apollodorus, it was at this time that Orpheus founded the mysteries of Dionysus. This could only mean the Orphic Mysteries.

In Thrace, Orpheus would sit on a rock in the meadow, playing mournful tunes over the loss of his wife. The maenads, the women followers of the wine god Dionysus, wanted the musician to play music of revelry. Orpheus continued to play of music of sorrow. The angry women violently tore him to pieces with their bare hands. The alternative ending was that he was torn apart by the maenads when Orpheus rejected their love.

According to myth about Adonis, Aphrodite stirred up the maenads because she was furious with the decision of Calliope, Orpheus' mother, in the dispute between her and Persephone. See Adonis.

However the story ended, the Muses mourned over the death of Orpheus. The Muses gathered the pieces of his body and buried them in Piera, Macedonia. The constellation of the Kneeler or Engonasin (the constellation is now called Hercules) probably represented Orpheus kneeling while the Thracian women attacked him. Most likely the Muses placed his lyre in the sky as the constellation Lyra.

There are many variations on Orpheus' death, including in artwork. According to some representations in Greek art, the maenads didn't kill the bard by rending; the women instead used spears, swords and stones to kill him.

The Greek geographer mentioned several possible deaths of Orpheus. In one unusual account, a thunderbolt killed Orpheus because he knew too much about the secrets of the Underworld, which Orpheus revealed in his cultic mysteries. In another, he was in Aornos in Thesprotia, and the loss of his wife caused him to commit suicide. In yet another version, his death took place in Dion, a city on Macedonian side of Mount Pieria. The women of Dion murdered him. When the women went to wash their bloody hands in the river Helikon, the stream drained itself underground. The river god Helikon didn't want his water used to purify murderers.

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According to the late classical and Hellenistic legends, the religion known as the "Orphic" cult was based on the poems and songs of Orpheus. His poems and songs were supposed to have formed the foundation of the Orphic texts and beliefs, though these texts are definitely pseudepigraphical.

Unlike the cults of Dionysus, the Orphic cult required individual abstinence from eating meat, drinking wine and from sexual intercourse. The main objective of this cult was for believers to live a righteous life so they could enter Elysium. Yet the text on the Orphic cult revealed the importance of the god Dionysus in part of the creation.

According to the Argonautica, Apollonius wrote that Orpheus sang a song about the Creation that was different from the one told by Hesiod in the Theogony and Works and Days.

One of the most ritual practices in the Orphic cult was mimed dismemberment of limbs; just as the Thracian women had torn off the limbs of Orpheus. However, there have been some reports of actual dismemberment occurring during such rites.

See Orphic Mysteries and Orphic Creation.