Did you know that Orpheus was considered the founder of Orphism,
an ancient Greek mystery cult that believed in reincarnation?
Hello and welcome to World History Encyclopedia! My name is Kelly, and today's video is all about
the figure from Greek mythology who made the gods of the underworld cry with his music. Today,
we are looking at the tragic story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Don't forget,
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Orpheus is a famous figure from Greek mythology well known for both his talents with the lyre and
kithara and the tragic story of his wife, the wood nymph, Eurydice. His musical talents could charm
wild animals, it could stop streams, and trees would move closer to hear his beautiful singing.
It makes sense that Orpheus would be so blessed in musical talent as his mother was the Muse Calliope
and his father was Apollo, the god of music, and it was from Apollo that he learnt this
incredible musical skills. As with most Greek myths, Orpheus had numerous tales associated
with him from different authors in the Greek and Roman world, so he is also considered the
son of the mortal king Oeagrus of Thrace, the region the Greeks believed the lyre came from.
Orpheus is mentioned in numerous texts and was a popular figure in ancient art from
mosaics to pottery, but despite being one of the heroic Argonauts on Jason's quest to
find the Golden Fleece, he isn't mentioned in either of the epic works featuring many heroes,
the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" of Homer which led to Aristotle to claim he must not have existed.
On the Argo, Orpheus made himself very useful not only by keeping the crew entertained but by
keeping time for the rowers, calming the seas with their singing and charming the terrible
Sirens who were known to tempt Sailors to a watery death. Unsurprisingly, in art,
Orpheus is often depicted with his lyre or Kithara and is sometimes depicted in Thracian dress.
Unlike most figures from myth who are very solidly mythological, the ancient Greeks were
quite divided over the figure of Orpheus; whether he existed or not, mainly due to Aristotle's
claim. He is though central to the religious movement of Orphism, a mystery cult informed
by the god Dionysos and said to be founded by Orpheus, and there are surviving texts,
including the well-known "Orphic Hymns" that adherence of Orphism recited or sung to purify
their souls and find release from the cycle of reincarnation. These works tell a different story
for the origins of humanity than the one from Hesiod's "Theogony". According to Orphism, Hera
convinces the Titans to kill and eat Dionysos, the son of Zeus, and for this, they're punished,
and Zeus strikes them down, bringing Dionysos back to life. When Dionysos is reborn, humans spring
from the ashes of the Titans. Orphism claimed that humans were divine entities from the spark
of Dionysos trapped in material form from the ashes of the Titans and needed to free themselves
of material entrapment through purification rites known only to the initiated. Through these rites,
they were freed from the cycle of death and rebirth. They identified with Orpheus because he,
like Dionysos, had descended to the underworld and returned to life. The "Orphic Hymns" seem to
have been thought to help one in that same sort of transformation from material death
to spiritual life, and as Orpheus composed the hymns, he was regarded as the founder of Orphism.
Orpheus is better known today for the story of his descent and return from the underworld.
In Pseudo-Apollodorus' the "Library of Greek Mythology", we get a very condensed version of
the life of Orpheus and another version in the Roman Virgil's "Georgics" but the most
detailed survives to us from the Roman poet Ovid who lived during the reign of the first
Roman Emperor Augustus. Ovid begins his tale of the marriage of Orpheus and Eurydice, sometimes
referred to as Agriope, both very much in love with Orpheus calling for the god of marriage,
Hymenaeus, to bless his wedding. This proved of no use, however, for the wedding was ill-omened.
After they were married, Eurydice took a stroll with her Naiad attendants, and she was bitten on
the ankle by a poisonous snake and died. Orpheus was distraught, unable to live without her and was
determined to bring her back from the underworld. He passed the River Styx by charming the boatman
Charon, then he charmed the three-headed dog Cerberus until he came to the king and queen of
the underworld. Before the rulers of the shadowy realm, Orpheus plucked the strings of his lyre
and sang. He sang for his love for Eurydice, her premature death and his desire to get her back,
declaring that if Eurydice couldn't be released, then he would stay in the Underworld.
His music did what had never been done before - it stopped the torture in Tartarus,
even just for one moment. Tantalus stopped clutching at the food just out of his reach,
Ixion's wheel stopped turning, Sisyphus sat on his boulder, and the Danaïdes dropped their
urns. Even the Furies wept real tears for the very first time; such was the power of Orpheus' song.
The king and queen of the Underworld, Hades and Persephone, knew they couldn't refuse him
after such a moving appeal and so they summoned Eurydice. Orpheus was told he could take her back
to the land of the living, but on one condition, that he walk in front of her and never look back
until he had returned to the world above. Orpheus, of course, agreed, and so the two began their walk
up to Earth. They walked up and up until they were so close that Orpheus could see a light, but he
worried that Eurydice had fallen behind or that Hades had tricked him, and in his desperation,
he turned and looked at her. As he looked at her, she sank back into the dark stretching
her arms out to him, grasping at only air. Orpheus tried to return to the Underworld for her, but he
was denied entrance, and Charon pushed him away from the banks of the Styx. In despair, Orpheus
sat there for weeks without eating anything, being kept alive by his tears and his grief.
When he finally got up, he roamed the forests and mountains of Thrace, swearing off the love of
women despite the many women wanting Orpheus, even after they were rejected by him. Orpheus played
his music in the forests, which attracted birds and beasts to him, rocks followed behind him,
and he sang of boys loved by the gods and girls driven to a frenzy by love, but the Maenads,
the female followers of the god Dionysos, were unhappy that Orpheus rejected them.
They threw things at him, including an ivy-tipped spear which caused Orpheus to bruise but didn't
draw blood. The maenads moved to stones and threw them at the singer, but the music was
enough to stop the stones, and so they fell at his feet. The women were relentless, though, and
continued in their frenzied assault. Eventually, the cacophony being made by the maenads drowned
out the sound of Orpheus' music, and at last, the stone struck home and became stained with blood.
The crazed followers of Dionysos attacked the animals under the spell of Orpheus'
music before turning to the singer with blood-stained hands and murdered him. His
followers mourned the loss of Orpheus; the trees shed their leaves, the birds were full of sorrow,
and the rivers were swollen with tears. The limbs of Orpheus lay scattered, and his head and lyre
were thrown into the river Hebrus. In one version of the tale, his head ended up in Lesbos where
the Muses buried it and built a shrine on top. In others, his head became an oracle of Apollo
but was buried by Apollo after he got tired of the competition between his other oracles. Ovid
ends this sad tale with Orpheus' shade in the Underworld reunited in the Elysium Fields with
his wife where they strolled together, either side by side or one before the other, but now Orpheus
knew it was safe to turn and look back. What do you think the story of Orpheus and Eurydice
means? Let us know in the comments below! If you enjoyed this video, make sure to give it a thumbs
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