Orpheus

Music that moved the world

Orpheus was the son of Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry, and received a lyre from Apollo. When he played and sang, wild animals gathered round, trees bent to listen and rivers paused in their flow. Aboard the Argo he played so beautifully that he drowned out the deadly song of the Sirens and saved his shipmates.

The descent for Eurydice

Soon after their wedding, his wife Eurydice was bitten by a snake and died. Overwhelmed by grief, Orpheus went down into the underworld itself. His music softened Charon, Cerberus and finally Hades and Persephone, who agreed to let Eurydice follow him back to the world of the living on one condition: he must not look back at her until they had both reached the sunlight. At the very threshold, anxious that she was still there, Orpheus turned, and Eurydice slipped back into the shadows forever.

His death

Inconsolable, Orpheus wandered the wilds of Thrace, shunning all company. He was torn apart by a band of maenads, the followers of Dionysus. His head, still singing, floated down the river Hebrus and across the sea to the island of Lesbos, later famous for its poets, and his lyre was placed among the stars.