Orpheus and Eurydice

I chose the story of Orpheus and Eurydice as the myth I will be analyzing. It is one of the earliest tales of a relationship ending tragically, and countless of modern stories have undoubtedly been inspired at least in part by it. There have been many artistic interpretations of the myth, and each lends its own unique perspective.

Ovid’s The Essential Metamorphosis is the first primary source I will analyze. It begins with the musician Orpheus discovering his beloved Eurydice’s dead body in the grass. In his grief, he traveled down to the River Styx where he sang out to Hades and the other spirits of the underworld pleading for a second chance for Eurydice. He even played on Hades’ own history with love and Persephone (Ovid, ln. 28), asking him for a ‘loan’ of life, rather than a resurrection. His song succeeded and even the Furies wept for him, and they retrieved Eurydice. One condition was given to Orpheus—he wasn’t to look back at his wife until they exited the Valley of Avernus. Right as they were about to make it, Orpheus turned around and watched Eurydice return to the underworld. He wept and waited on the banks of the River Styx for seven days, but for nothing (Ovid, ln. 76). Eventually he left and though many women threw themselves at him he refused all advances, and sat in a forest and played for the trees.

The Derveni Papyrus is my other primary source. It is an ancient Greek papyrus roll that contains commentary on a poem Orpheus wrote concerning the birth of the gods. Due to being written in several different Greek dialects, its translation is fairly rough but some interesting ideas can be drawn from it. The very fact that it exists is noteworthy—that Orpheus’ poems warranted such philosophical study even...

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...Orpheus as an ideal conglomerate everyman in a difficult to understand environment, watching something he cared about disappear for no apparent reason aside from randomness. In its most basic form, this story boils down to ‘in life bad stuff sometimes happens’, something that I tried to capture in my portrayal.

Works Cited

"A Translation of the Derveni Papyrus." Art of Wise. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2013. .

Corot, Jean-Baptiste Camille. Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld. 1861. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Ovid. "Book 10." Metamorphoses. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009. 128-31. Print.

Raoux, Jean. Orpheus and Eurydice. 1709. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Lo Angeles.

Rodin, Auguste. Orpheus and Eurydice. 1893. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.