Orpheus

Also known as: Thracian Orpheus · Family: Thracians · Role: bard · First appears: Fable 83

Orpheus, also known as Thracian Orpheus, was a Thracian bard married to Eurydice. While sporting in the fields with other Nymphs, Eurydice was bitten by a serpent and died, and Hymenæus was invoked in vain. Orpheus descended to Styx through the Tænarian gate and went to Persephone and Pluto, asking for her return: “he dared to descend to Styx by the Tænarian gate”. They summoned Eurydice and granted her return on the condition that he not look back before leaving the underworld.

At the Avernian valleys, Orpheus turned his eyes toward Eurydice, and she sank back into the underworld. Later, the raving women overcame his music and murdered him. His severed head and lyre were carried down the Hebrus to Lesbos, while Bacchus, grieving for the loss of the bard of his sacred rites, punished the Thracian women and left Thrace.

Orpheus’s ghost descended beneath the earth, where he found Eurydice in the fields of the blessed and enfolded her in his arms. He was associated with Apollo as his bard, and had entrusted the mysterious orgies of Bacchus to Midas and Eumolpus.