About the Myth

Orpheus is a gifted musician and wooed his girl friend Eurydice by playing the lyre. They got married but shortly after Eurydice is bitten by a poisonous snake and dies.

Orpheus is devastated by the death and vows to go to the underworld and bring her back.

He climbs down into the cave of the underworld but when he reaches the river Styx, Caron, the ferry boat captain, refuses to take him across since only the dead can do so.

Orpheus plays his lyre to enchant Caron who is overwhelmed by the music and permits him to cross.

When he reaches the other side he asks permission of the king of the underworld to bring Eurydice back to the land of the living. Like Caron, the king refuses until he hears Orpheus play his lyre. The king relents and lets Eurydice go but on one condition -- during the journey Orpheus must not look back.

The couple make it all the way to the entrance of the cave when Orpheus forgets and looks back at his love following him. In an instant she is drawn back into the depths and he never sees her again.

Orpheus spent the rest of his days in mourning, playing sad songs with his lyre in the meadows of his homeland.

Love Story: Orpheus and Eurydice (after Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein, 1806) by GJ Gillespie. Collage made with Fred Meyers ads, tissue, cheese cloth, acrylic, watercolor, pencil and pen. 22 x 20. 2020.

Love Story: Orpheus and Eurydice 

                                                          Reference:

Orpheus and Eurydice, Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein, 1806