How to Go to Hell and Back (3): Orpheus

Orpheus and Cerberus…….French School……..19th Century

Orpheus

(from Virgil, Georgics 4. 471 ff (trans. Fairclough) C1st B.C.)

Stirred by Orpheus’ song, up from the lowest realms of Erebus came the unsubstantial shades . . .

Still more: the very house of Death and deepest abysses of Tartarus were spellbound, and the Eumenides with livid snakes entwined in their hair; Cerberus stood agape and his triple jaws forgot to bark.

Orpheus, from Britannica

Orpheus, ancient Greek legendary hero endowed with superhuman musical skills.

He became the patron of a religious movement based on sacred writings said to be his own.

Traditionally, Orpheus was the son of a Muse, probably Calliope, the patron of epic poetry) and Oeagus Oeagrus, a king of Thrace. According to some legends, Apollo gave Orpheus his first lyre.

Orpheus’s singing and playing were so beautiful that animals and even trees and rocks moved about him in dance.

Orpheus joined the expedition of the Argonauts, saving them from the music of the Sirens by playing his own, more powerful music.

On his return, he married Eurydice, who was soon killed by a snakebite.

Overcome with grief, Orpheus ventured himself to the land of the dead to attempt to bring Eurydice back to life.

With his singing and playing he charmed the ferryman Charon and the dog Cerberus, guardians of the River Styx.

His music and grief so moved Hades, king of the underworld, that Orpheus was allowed to take Eurydice with him back to the world of life and light.

Hades set one condition, however: upon leaving the land of death, both Orpheus and Eurydice were forbidden to look back.

The couple climbed up toward the opening into the land of the living, and Orpheus, seeing the Sun again, turned back to share his delight with Eurydice.

In that moment, she disappeared.