Everything about Eurydike totally explained
In
Greek mythology,
Eurydice (
Eurydíkê, Ευρυδίκη) was an oak nymph or a sweet maiden. She was the wife of
Orpheus. Orpheus loved her dearly; on their wedding day, Orpheus played songs filled with happiness as his bride danced through the meadow. Eurydice stepped on a snake and fell to the ground. The
venomous snake had bitten her, leaving Eurydice dead. Distraught, Orpheus played and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept. In their saddened states, they told him to travel to the
Underworld and retrieve her. Orpheus did so, and by his music softened the hearts of
Hades and
Persephone, his singing so sweet that even the
Furies wept. 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'd reached the upper world. In his anxiety, he broke his promise, and Eurydice vanished again from his sight - this time forever.
The story in this form belongs to the time of
Virgil, who first introduces the name of Aristaeus in his work
Georgics (29BC). 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,
Nicolas Poussin, and, in
Contemporary Art,
Bracha L. Ettinger whose "Eurydice" Series, exhibited in Pompidou Centre; Paris (Face à l'Histore, 1996), the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam ("Kabinet", 1997) and The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerpen ("Gorge(l)", 2007), has inspired ample writings in the fields of ethics, aesthetics, art and
feminist theory. 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.
Further Information
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