Orpheus and Eurydice

Plot of Ovid (Pt. 1)

• wedding
• Hymen acted differently
• Eurydice killed
• Orpheus journeyed to the Underworld
• sang for Persephone (Proserpina) and Hades (Pluto)

Plot of Ovid (Pt. 2)

• begins to return to the upper world
• one catch: Orpheus must not look back
• looks back
• loses Eurydice
• sings to the animals of his loss
• promises never to love a woman again
• Source: Ovid's Metamorphoses (ancient source)

Hymen

• Greek god of weddings and feasts
• same Roman name
• symbol is the torch
• Source: Encyclopedia Britannica (print source)

Orpheus' Parentage

• son of either Calliope and a Thracian prince, Apollo and Calliope, or Apollo and a mortal woman
• Sources: Mythology by Bulfinch (print source); Mythology by Hamilton (print source)

Orpheus' Homeland

• From Thrace
• thus he's Greek
• Source: Mythology by Hamilton (print source) and my amazing geography skills

Orpheus' Accomplishments

• priest and auger
• greatest musician (perfected the lyre)
• poet
• prophet
• "image of the self-conscious artist"
• Source: Review "Orpheus: The Metamorphoses of a Myth by John Warden", Ronnie H. Terpening, American Association of Teachers of Italian

Orpheus and the Argonauts

• was an Argonaut
• played the harp for Jason on the Argo
• Source: Argonautica Orphica by Orpheus (ancient source); Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius (ancient souce)

After the Underworld

• promised never to love another woman
• Greek versions: sang to the beasts
• Ovid (a Roman) says: began to molest young boys
• Ovid's is the only source that says this
• Sources: Ovid's Metamorphoses (ancient source); Vergil's Georgics (ancient source)

Orpheus' Death

• some say Ciconian women cut off his head
• head continues to weep as it flows down a river
• Source: Vergil's Georgics (ancient source)

Underworld References

• Tantalus: stands in water but cannot drink, fruits above his head but cannot eat
• Ixion: chained to a fiery wheel
• Tityus: vultures eat his liver
• Belides: fill a bottomless cistern
• Sisyphus: roll stone to the top of a hill but it rolls back
• Source: virginia.edu

Variations on the Story

• some say he turned while still in the Underworld to see if Eurydice was actually there
• some say he made it out, but Eurydice hadn't yet
• Source: I just kind of knew this

Turning Back

• common theme
• Lot's wife in the Bible
• Merlin-- never look back when in the spirit world
• Source: Poetry and the Backward Glance in Vergil's "Georgics" and "Aeneid", Monica R. Gale, The John Hopkins University Press

Orphic Poems

• poems about religion
• describe the origins of the world and the gods
• basis of Orphism
• Source: Review "The Orphic Poems by M. L. West", N. J. Richardson, Cambridge University Press

Modern Connections

• plays
• Orpheum Theatre
• Orpheus the Lyrical
• http://ereadinggames.com/orpheus/
• Source: Orpheus and Eurydice: Some Modern Versions, M. Owen Lee, The Classical Association of the Middle West and South

Sources: Journal Articles

• Orpheus and Eurydice: Some Modern Versions, M. Owen Lee, The Classical Association of the Middle West and South
• Review "The Orphic Poems by M. L. West", N. J. Richardson, Cambridge University Press

Sources: Journal Articles (con't)

• Poetry and the Backward Glance in Vergil's "Georgics" and "Aeneid", Monica R. Gale, The John Hopkins University Press
• Review "Orpheus: The Metamorphoses of a Myth by John Warden", Ronnie H. Terpening, American Association of Teachers of Italian

Sources: Books

• Mythology by Hamilton
• Mythology by Bulfinch
• Encyclopedia Britannica

Source: Ancient Sources

• Vergil's Georgics
• Ovid's Metamorphoses
• Argonautica Orphica by Orpheus
• Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius

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