Clowning around

First thing I should mention is that there is no single source entirely about the myth of Orpheus (and Eurydice). Like most myth, we have to search through many accounts.

The first accounts of Orpheus don't mention Eurydice at all. All we know about him is that he's venerated as the greatest musician that ever lived, able to charm the birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance, and divert the course of rivers just with his music.

These are the core element of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. But before we venture, I wanna take a second to talk about Orpheus role as an epic hero.

Euripides and Plato both refer to the story of his descent to recover a woman but it's not clear that it's his wife and they do not mention her name.

Plato is the first to give a singular version of the story of his descent into Hades: the gods (he writes in the Symposium) showed the poet only a ghost of his wife*, because he had not the courage to die for her, like Alcestis, but forced the law of nature to enter Hades alive, and, as a further punishment for his cowardice, he met his death at the hands of women.

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He plays a very important role in The Argonautica, a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius.

Jason, the MC, is told by Chiron that without the aid of Orpheus, the Argonauts would never be able to pass the Sirens (the same Sirens encountered by Odysseus). When the argonauts came across them, Orpheus played music that was louder and more beautiful, drowning out the Sirens' bewitching songs (most accounts also mention that after being defeated by Orpheus, the sirens actually killed themselves, not withstanding being defeated by a man).

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Going back to his descent in the Underworld, the concept of him failing to retrieve the woman he loved because he turned around, dooming her, is actually first mentioned by a *Latin* poet, Vergil (it's unclear if it's his invention or it just was never mentioned bf), who is also the first to give Eurydice her name.

Vergil introduces also the figure of Aristeus, a beekeeper that violently pursues Eurydice chasing her until she was bit by a serpent.

The central part of the myth plays out the same in most versions: Orpheus, grief-struck, decides to go to the Underworld, plays music so beautiful that it moves EVERYONE in the Underworld (monster and damned souls alike) and it softens the hearts of Hades and Persephone, who agree to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he has to walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. Orpheus turns around and he loses Eurydice a second time, this time for good.

The reason why Orpheus turns around is a whole thing itself that it could take days to talk about. I'll summarize.

• In some versions, like in Vergil's, when the upper world comes into Orpheus's view, he thinks his journey is over. In this moment, he's so ecstatic and so eager to finally see Eurydice that he unthinkingly turns around an instant too soon, either just before he reaches the threshold or when he's already crossed it but Eurydice is still a few steps behind him.

• In other versions, concern for Eurydice makes him look back: he hears her stumble, and he finally can't resist turning around to help her.

•Ovid, in the Metamorphosis, writes "Afraid she was no longer there, and eager to see her, the lover turned his eyes. [...] Dying a second time, now, there was no complaint to her husband (what, then, could she complain of, except that she had been loved?)." So, it was a moment of passion-fueled carelessness to make him turn.

•Then there are the versions where his flaw is his lack of faith, because he looks back out of doubt that Eurydice is really. Hadestown draws from this.

And this is it about Orpheus and Eurydice

But wait, you say! What was that all about Orpheus dying at the hands of women? I'm glad you asked! The women in this story are traditionally recognise as the Maenads followers of Dionysus.

According to a summary of Aeschylus's lost play Bassarids, Orpheus, towards the end of his life, disdained the worship of all gods except Apollo. One early morning he went to mount Pangaionto salute his god at dawn, but was ripped to shreds by Maenads for not honoring Dionysus, his previous patron.

But Latin poets give a different version.

Vergil says that, after losing his wife for good, Orpheus rejected the company of women, out of faithfulness to her memory ("no love, no marriage"). The Ciconian women (followers of Dionysus), enraged by his rejection, tore him apart limb from limb.

Ovid, in the Metamorphosis, goes even further. Not only Orpheus rejects the love of women, but goes to Thrace and encourages homosexual love ("he was the first of the Thracian people to transfer his affection to young boys and enjoy their brief springtime, and early flowering this side of manhood").

Same outcome: the Ciconian women throw sticks and stones at him as he played, but his music was so beautiful even the rocks and branches refuse to hit him. Enraged, the women (say it with me) tore him to pieces.

Ovid also ends his recount on a very interesting note with Orpheus so defending to the underworld and finally reuniting with Eurydice: "he finds Eurydice and holds her in a passionate embrace. Now the two of them walk together, side by side: sometimes he follows her, sometimes he leads her, and now Orpheus turns fearlessly toward his Eurydice"