Eurydice
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In Greek mythology, Eurydice (Eurydíkê, Ευρυδίκη) was a woman or nymph, and was the wife of Orpheus. While fleeing from Aristaeus, she was bitten by a serpent and died. Distraught, Orpheus played such sad songs and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept and gave him advice. Orpheus traveled to the underworld and by his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone, and even made the Furies weep. In another version Orpheus played his lyre to put the guardian of Hades, Cerberus, to sleep. It was then granted that Eurydice be allowed to return with him to the world of the living. But the condition was attached that he should walk in front of her and not look back until he had reached the upper world. In his anxiety, he broke his promise, and Eurydice vanished again from his sight. The story in this form belongs to the time of Virgil, who first introduces the name of Aristaeus. Other ancient writers, however, speak of Orpheus' visit to the underworld; according to Plato, the infernal gods only "presented an apparition" of Eurydice to him.
The story of Orpheus and Eurydice has been depicted in a number of works by famous artists, including Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, and Nicolas Poussin. It has also been retold as an opera by Jacopo Peri, C W Gluck and Yevstigney Fomin, a play by Sarah Ruhl, and in the comic book The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. It also forms the basis for the 1967 song "From the Underworld" by The Herd.
See also
- List of characters in Metamorphoses
- Euridice, an opera by Jacopo Peri
- Orfeo ed Euridice, an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck
- Eurydice, a play by Sarah Ruhl
References
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 10
- Apollodorus, The Library 1.3.2
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.30
- Virgil, Georgics 4.453
- Plato, Symposium
