|
|
Orpheus, king of the Ciconians,
is counted among the ARGONAUTS.
Orpheus practised minstrelsy and by his songs moved stones and
trees, holding also a spell over the wild beasts. He descended to
the Underworld
in order to fetch his dead wife, but had to return without her.
|
|
|
|
|
Mystic minstrel loses his wife |
Orpheus, whom Apollo
taught to play the lyre, travelled to Egypt where he increased his
knowledge about the gods and their initiatory rites, bringing from
that country most of his mystic ceremonies, orgiastic rites, and his
extraordinary account of his descent to the Underworld.
Orpheus became famous because of his poems and his songs,
excelling everyone in the beauty of his verse and music. He also
reached a high degree of influence because he was believed to have
discovered mysteries, purification from sins, cures of diseases, and
means of averting divine wrath.
Some say that Orpheus introduced a cult of Dionysus
2 that was very similar to the cult of Osiris, and that of Isis, which
resembles the cult of Demeter.
But others affirm that he praised all the gods except Dionysus
2.
The Aeginetans worshiped Hecate,
and in her honor celebrated every year mystic rites which, they
said, had been taught to them by Orpheus. And the Lacedaemonians
asserted that it was Orpheus who had taught them the cult of Demeter
Chthonia (of the Lower World).
Orpheus married Eurydice 5, but she, while strolling through the
grass with a group of naiads, was smitten in the ankle by a serpent,
which shot its poison into her body and killed her.
Having mourned her to the full in the upper world, Orpheus
decided to fetch her, and for that purpose he descended to Hades
through the gate of Taenarus.
Having descended to the Underworld,
Orpheus accompanied his words with the music of the lyre, and it is
told that not only the spirits wept but that also the ERINYES
were wet with tears. He also entranced Persephone
by his songs, and persuaded her to help him in his desire to bring
back to life his dead wife. And so even Hades
himself was persuaded to let her go.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
The serpent bites Eurydice
5 | |
|
Orpheus loses his wife again |
However, the god promised to do so only if on the way up Orpheus
would not turn round until he came to his own house. But thoughtless
Orpheus forgot, and when he turned round and looked at his wife, she
instantly slipped into the depths again. In this manner Orpheus lost
her a second time.
Some read the story thus:
"To you this tale refers,
Who seek to lead
your mind
Into the upper day;
For he who overcome should turn
back his gaze
Towards the Tartarean cave,
Whatever excellence
he takes with him
He loses when he looks on those
below."
[Boethius, Consolation
of Philosophy 3.52]
Some have thought that through his descent to the Underworld,
Orpheus performed a deed full of courage inspired by love.
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Orpheus loses his wife
while leaving the Underworld
| |
|
Not willing to die |
But others point out that Orpheus did not receive his wife back,
because his attempt was the quest of a coward, who was not willing
to die for her but entered the Underworld
alive, and alive he left both Underworld
and wife, who in that way died twice. And as they reason thus, they
have in mind Alcestis,
who was allowed to return from the Underworld
for having willingly died for love of her husband. |
|
Death of Orpheus |
Some affirm that Orpheus was torn in pieces by the MAENADS,
but others say that he committed suicide out of grief for the death
of his wife. Still others assert that Orpheus came to his end by
being struck by a thunderbolt, hurled at him by god because he
revealed sayings in the mysteries to men who had not heard them
before. Yet others say that because Orpheus first favoured love for
youths, he seemed to insult women, and for this reason the latter
killed him. |
|
Aphrodite,
Calliope, Dionysus
2, Apollo
|
Concerning the MAENADS
or women who killed him, some say that when Aphrodite
and Persephone
were both in love with Adonis,
Orpheus' mother Calliope was then appointed judge by Zeus, and
she decided that each should possess him half the year. Aphrodite
then, angry at the decision, stirred all the women in Thrace with
love, each to seek Orpheus for herself, so that they tore him limb
from limb. But some affirm that these women were instigated by Dionysus
2, who was angry against Orpheus because he had looked into the
rites of the god.
His head fell into the sea and was cast by the waves upon the
island of Lesbos where the Lesbians buried it, and for having done
this the Lesbians have the reputation of being skilled in music.
In the island of Lesbos, they say, Orpheus had a shrine where
oracles were given until Apollo,
the god of prophecy, rebuked him:
"Cease to meddle with my affairs, for I
have already put up long enough with your vaticinations."
[Flavius Philostratus, Life
of Apollonius of Tyana 4.14] |
|
Women and wine
|
It is also told that the Thracian women plotted Orpheus' death,
because he had persuaded their husbands to follow him in his
wanderings, and that first after having drinking much wine, they
dared to kill him. This is the reason why their husbands hereafter
adopted the custom to march to battle drunk. |
|
River remembered him |
Some believe he was killed near Mount Pieria, and close to this
place an urn was preserved, which was said to contain the bones of
Orpheus. It is also told that when the women who killed Orpheus
wished to wash off in a river the blood-stains, the river sank
underground, not wishing to lend its waters to cleanse manslaughter.
|
|
Bones and nightingales |
It is told that the city of Libethra had received an oracle
concerning the bones of Orpheus, which stated that when the sun
should see his bones the city would be destroyed by a boar. Nobody
believed a boar able to cause such a huge destruction, but when one
day by accident the urn fell and broke exposing the bones, that same
night came a heavy rain, and the river Sys (Boar), one of the
torrents about Olympus, destroyed the walls of Libethra, overturning
sanctuaries and houses, and drowning the inhabitants and all the
animals in the city.
The Thracians used to say that the nightingales that build their
nests on the grave of Orpheus sing more sweetly than others.
|
|
Constellation Lyra |
It has also been said that Orpheus' scattered limbs were gathered
by the MUSES, who
buried them and put the Lyre among the constellations as a memorial.
|
|
|
| |