The Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice: Don’t Look Back!

According to a popular myth, a person was tasked with whispering “Memento Mori” (“Remember you will die“) to Roman generals during their triumphal processions. Even though we all know that everyone dies in the end (spoiler alert), this does not make it easier to accept that we or those close to us will. This is the central theme in the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. According to the story, Orpheus, a legendary poet and musician, goes to the Underworld to reclaim the soul of his recently deceased wife, Eurydice. Orpheus faces a series of challenges and ultimately arrives in front of the King and Queen of the Underworld, Hades and Persephone. With his music, he convinces them to allow Eurydice to return to the world of the living but there is one condition: Orpheus must not look back until he has left the Underworld. Orpheus almost succeeds, but in the end he looks back and loses her forever.

Orpheus is one of the most fascinating figures in Greek mythology. He was said to be the son of the Thracian King Oeagrus or, as Pindar wrote, of the sun-god Apollo. The muse Calliope was commonly referred to as his mother, although the ancient authors did not agree on the matter. His cult, known as Orphism, is related to that of the God Dionysus and goes back to the 6th century BCE. It included mystical rites and greatly influenced the development of other cults, such as the one of Pythagoras.

Orpheus was said to have learned the lyre from Apollo but to have surpassed his teacher. It was also said that his music could calm even the wildest beasts and control anything from animals to inanimate objects like rocks or rivers. Orpheus also appears in Mythology as one of the Argonauts using the sounds of his lyre to cover the voices of the deadly sirens in order to save his companions. His most popular myth by far, though, is that of his katabasis, i.e., his descent into the realm of the dead, the Underworld, to save his deceased wife, Eurydice. Orpheus successfully returned from the Underworld but failed to save his loved one. According to one version of the story, after he lost Eurydice, he stopped taking women as lovers, possibly because he was sworn to only one, Eurydice. Some Thracian maenads, female followers of Dionysus, enchanted by his music and enraged by his rejection, tore him to pieces with their bare hands. In another version of the story, the women killed Orpheus because he failed to acknowledge Dionysus as his god.

The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice although mentioned by Greek writers it is told in detail by two Romans, Virgil in his Georgics and Ovid in his Metamorphoses. The story begins with Orpheus falling in love with a nymph called Eurydice. The couple led a happy life. Orpheus played his lyre and Eurydice danced. The two of them were madly in love and soon they got married in the presence of Hymenaios, the god of marriage himself. However, at this moment of pure bliss, Hymenaios foretold that their happiness would soon end.

Eurydice Dies

Eurydice was a nymph of uncontested beauty. According to Virgil’s Georgics, this great beauty did not go unnoticed. A minor god named Aristaeus attacked Orpheus and attempted to snatch Eurydice right after the wedding. The nymph ran into the forest, where a venomous snake bit her. The prophecy had come true. In Ovid’s version, Eurydice was bit by the snake after recklessly dancing with other nymphs in the woods while celebrating her wedding.

In both versions, the result was the same, Eurydice lay dead as Orpheus sang in anguish.

“Orpheus himself, soothing the anguish of his
love with his concave shell [lyre], sang of you, sweet spouse, of
you on the lonely shore at the dawn of day, of you at
the day’s decline.” (Virgil, Georgics, 4.138)

The Katabasis of Orpheus Into the Underworld

After Eurydice’s death, Orpheus was devastated. Without her, life was meaningless. He was ready to do whatever was necessary to get back his beloved and so began his journey into the realm of the dead, the Underworld. Orpheus managed to find the entrance to the Underworld but had to go through its guardian, the three-headed hound known as Cerberus. With his lyre, the legendary musician enchanted the beast, which allowed him to pass.

Orpheus wandered among the souls of the dead until he reached the thrones of Hades (Pluto) and Persephone, the King and Queen of the Underworld. The gods asked Orpheus what he was seeking, and Orpheus replied with a song. Orpheus sang about his love for Eurydice and her tragic death. He then sang about his sorrow and how he wished to get his wife back. Ovid lyrically describes how Orpheus’ song caused the underworld to halt. Even the tortures of Ixion and Sisyphus stopped for a moment:

“While he sang all his heart said to the sound
of his sweet lyre, the bloodless ghosts themselves
were weeping, and the anxious Tantalus
stopped clutching at return-flow of the wave,
Ixion’s twisting wheel stood wonder-bound;
and Tityus’ liver for a while escaped
the vultures, and the listening Belides
forgot their sieve-like bowls and even you,
O Sisyphus! sat idly on your rock!”

The song of Orpheus was so beautiful and so sad that it convinced the Gods of the underworld to return him to his wife. However, there was one simple rule. Orpheus would lead the way out of Hades but he would not be allowed to look behind him until Euridice had completely left the underworld.

Ecstatic, Orpheus did not hesitate and accepted the proposition. Hades then brought Eurydice, and Orpheus began the long ascension to the world of the living.

The Tragic End of Orpheus and Eurydice

Orpheus managed to remain calm and did not look back throughout the whole trip. However, the closer they were getting to the light of the world of the living, the more enthusiastic and impatient he was getting. When the first light touched his face, Orpheus immediately turned around to hug his beloved. At that moment he realized his terrible mistake. He was standing in the world of the living but Eurydice was still standing in the dark world of the dead. In horror he took a final look at Eurydice:

“Her last word spoken was, “Farewell!” which he could barely hear, and with no further sound she fell from him again to Hades.” (Ovid, Met.)

Hermes, the soul guide and messenger of the gods, took Eurydice back to the underworld, but this time, there was no saving her. Orpheus could not return. No mortal could enter the Underworld twice.

In some alternative versions of the story, Orpheus successfully saves Eurydice, and the two lead a happy life together. Nevertheless, the canonical and most famous version of the story is the one with the tragic ending.

“Orpheus implored in vain the ferryman
to help him cross the River Styx again,
but was denied the very hope of death.
Seven days he sat upon Death’s river bank,
in squalid misery and without all food—
nourished by grief, anxiety, and tears—
complaining that the Gods of Erebus
were pitiless, at last he wandered back,
until he came to lofty Rhodope
and Haemus, beaten by the strong north wind.” (Ovid, Met.)

Pausanias (9.30.6) presents a version in which Orpheus committed suicide right after losing Eurydice. However, the most popular narrative is that Orpheus went on with his life but never forgot his one true love. It is even said that he stayed true to his word and never got with another woman. However, this does not mean that he gave up on love. As Ovid writes, “the only friendship he enjoyed was given to the young men of Thrace”.

Even though the story seems tragic, the end is happy. After singing everywhere and to everyone about his lost love, Orpheus dies and is reunited with Eurydice in the underworld. However, the death of Orpheus is certainly not a pleasant one as he ends up being teared apart by the Thracian maenads, women followers of Dionysus, after he either proclaimed that only Apollo is his god (thus excluding Dionysus) or because he did not succumb to the meanads’ charms.

The Myth’s Reception in Antiquity

Generally, Orpheus has been considered a heroic figure carrying out a noble, romantic deed in the name of love. However, Plato, known for his negative stance on art, did not view Orpheus’ myth in the same light. In Plato’s Symposium, Phaedrus talking to Socrates says that Orpheus was a coward who was afraid of dying and instead tried to bring Eurydice back to life:

“But Orpheus, the son of Oeagrus, the harper, they (the gods) sent empty away, and presented to him an apparition only of her whom he sought, but herself they would not give up, because he showed no spirit; he was only a harp-player, and did not-dare like Alcestis to die for love, but was contriving how he might enter hades alive; moreover, they afterwards caused him to suffer death at the hands of women, as the punishment of his cowardliness.” (Plato, Symposium)

Others see a clear link between the myths of Orpheus and Eurydice and a mystical, chthonic tradition. Besides, Orpheus was said to have founded the mysteries of Dionysus, and Orpheus’ cult was closely linked with religious mysticism, as evident from the Orphic hymns. This interpretation would also help decipher the meaning of the descent to the underworld, a common theme in ancient mythology and surely a central aspect of the Orphic rites. An interesting aspect of the Orphic religion is the Gold Tablets, also known as the Orphic Gold Tablets. These were tablets found in Hellenistic burials and contain instructions helping the deceased navigate the Underworld to free themselves from the circle of their incarnations or earn better treatment in the other life. Interestingly, the theme of not looking back is not unique to this story. In the Bible, Lot’s wife turns into a pillar of salt after looking back at Sodom.

It is almost impossible to list all the artworks inspired by the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. In antiquity, Orpheus was commonly depicted playing his lyre or attacked by maenads and Thracian women. However, Eurydice is rarely depicted. The earliest depiction of the myth is a Roman reproduction of a relief which is thought to have been part of the altar of the twelve gods of the agora of Athens. The original relief is now lost but survives through later Roman reproductions.

In antiquity, the myth was more influential in literature and must have surely been interwoven with the mystical religiosity that the Orphic cult encouraged. The first literary mention to the story belongs to the Roman poet Virgil. Ovid’s version followed the original a few decades later.

In post-classical times the story has been adapted and retold multiple times. It inspired artists from all over Europe interested in the classical world like Peter Paul Rubens, Titian, Guido Reni, Auguste Rodin, Nicolas Poussin, and many more.

Famous is also Claudio Monteverdi’s 1607 opera L’Orfeo, as well as Raine Maria Rilke’s 1904 poem Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes. Overall the myth has exerted a strong influence in the arts. The descent into the underworld, the songs of Orpheus, the romantic love of Orpheus and Eurydice have all been subjects that have inspired artists to create new artworks in every form. Maybe that is where the myth’s contemporary value lies today, in its ability to let us travel to a reality where love may not finally win but can certainly inspire.

The story is retold in the TV series Kaos (2024-) with Orpheus as a modern pop-rock musician and Eurydice (Riddy) as his unhappy wife who dies in a car crash. Even though Orpheus enters Hades to save Eurydice, the story deviates in many ways from the original but that is to be expected from a modern and playful take.