A Greek narrative, most fully told by Ovid and Virgil, of the musician Orpheus's descent into the underworld to win back his dead wife Eurydice, granted her return by Hades and Persephone on the single condition that he not look back until reaching the surface, a condition he breaks, losing her a second and final time.
Facts
Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly NoteA marble relief showing Hermes leading Eurydice by the hand back toward Hades while Orpheus turns to look at her, a Roman copy of a Greek original of the later fifth century BC, is the earliest surviving visual telling of the parting; classicists have long read it as a calm farewell rather than a chase, though at least one modern art historian has argued the figures should instead be read as Eurydice returning to her husband. 1 Scholarly NoteClassicists note that the earliest Greek references to Orpheus's underworld journey, predating the surviving Roman versions, are ambiguous about whether he succeeded, and that the tragic backward glance may be a later literary refinement rather than the original ending. 2 Text
Source TextOvid, Metamorphoses Book X, and Virgil, Georgics Book IV 1 History
Historical NoteThe earliest surviving literary tellings are Roman, Virgil's Georgics from the first century BC and Ovid's Metamorphoses from the early first century AD, though Orpheus is attested as a figure in Greek sources centuries earlier. 1 Historical NoteVirgil's Georgics tells the story as a secondary narrative inside the separate tale of the beekeeper Aristaeus: Eurydice dies of a snakebite suffered while fleeing his unwanted advances, and Orpheus's descent is recounted there to explain the ruin and eventual restoration of Aristaeus's bees, a frame absent from Ovid's fuller retelling. 1 Meaning
Central MotifA descent to reclaim the dead undone by a forbidden backward glance 1 Controversy
Point in DisputeScholars are divided on whether the earliest Orphic tradition told a story in which Orpheus successfully retrieved Eurydice, since Plato's Symposium describes the gods as denying him full success in a way that differs from the later canonical tragedy. 2 Sources
Primary SourceOvid's Metamorphoses and Virgil's Georgics are the two principal surviving witnesses, collated against earlier fragmentary and vase painting evidence. 1 Connections
Associated With
Belongs to Tradition
Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)
Related To
Sources
1. The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition
Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2012View the Source 2. Greek Religion
Orpheus (Wikipedia)
In Group: Journeys to the Underworld and Return, Introduction, sentence 2Quote, In Group: Journeys to the Underworld and Return, Introduction, sentence 2
He was also a renowned poet and, according to legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, and descended into the underworld to recover his lost wife, Eurydice.
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