Up: [[Mythology and Fairy Tales]] Created: 2022-06-15 ![[Orpheus and Eurydice.webp#outline|400]] Orpheus and Eurydice returning from the underworld, artist is unknown Orpheus was a musician, poet and prophet in Greek mythology. His mother was the muse Calliope. His lyre-playing and singing could charm anything — animals, trees, rocks. Orpheus’s wife, Eurydice, was a nymph. She was bitten by a snake and she died. Orpheus went down to the underworld to bring her back. His music charmed Hades, god of the underworld, who allowed Orpheus to take his wife as long as he vowed not to look back at her until they’d arrived back in the land of the living. They almost made it, but Orpheus looked back, and Eurydice was lost again. Hades obviously didn’t believe in second chances. Those Greek gods were tough! And it gets worse. One day in the woods a tribe of mad women, the maenads, went into a frenzy and tore him into bits. A mystery religion was created around Orpheus. He was worshipped as a god of rebirth and as one who could mediate between life and death. The word Orphean is an adjective meaning melodious, enchanting, or referring to the manner of Orpheus’s journey to the underworld. An example of the last would be > [!Orbit] Robin Jenkins in *Childish Things* > I have already made not one but several Orphean journeys. I had not yet accepted her loss.