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Orpheus and Eurydice
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Character Analysis
Orpheus
Orpheus is a renowned minstrel and poet from Thrace. Some mythological sources say he was taught to play the lyre by the god Apollo (who is sometimes named as Orpheus’s father). Orpheus is renowned for his music, which has the power to charm all of nature, including wild beasts, trees, and stones. In a different myth, when Orpheus joined Jason and the Argonauts on their quest across the seas to retrieve the Golden Fleece, his music was of such beauty that he helped to keep the peace among the rough-and-ready crew. Orpheus once saved the ship from the Sirens by playing his lyre so the crew could not hear the seductive Sirens’ songs.
Orpheus’s attempt to retrieve his dead wife Eurydice from the underworld forms a major part of his story, as related by Virgil and Ovid. His actions reveal both his grief at losing Eurydice and the depths of his love. They also show his boldness in descending to Hades and his confidence that he can accomplish this seemingly impossible task. Keeping his nerve, even in the intimidating presence of Hades, Persephone, and the assortment of hellish creatures, Orpheus makes an eloquent, well-thought-out, and moving appeal to the gods (as presented in Ovid). When Orpheus and Eurydice are almost out of the underworld, Orpheus, disobeying the instructions of the gods, glances back at her. In this tragic moment, Virgil emphasizes Orpheus’s lack of self-control, while Ovid focuses on how Orpheus’s backward glance is motivated by love.
After his brave but doomed failure to reclaim Eurydice, Orpheus abjures heterosexual relationships for seven years (in Ovid’s telling), instead having relationships with young men. In some versions of the myth, he is the first man to do so (a detail that Virgil omits). Virgil describes Orpheus’s death in a mere eight lines, while Ovid develops it at much greater length. In the first 59 lines of Book 11, Ovid describes the “frenzied band / of Thracian women, wearing skins of beasts” (Lines 4-5) who attack Orpheus. At first Orpheus fends off their attacks, thanks to the music he plays on his lyre, but then their screaming drowns out the music and he is left defenseless. For the first time in his life, his music cannot protect him. After they kill him, the women tear his body to pieces; his severed head, as well as his lyre, floats down the river.
Virgil creates a poignant effect in the final two lines of his version, with Orpheus’s tongue twice calling out Eurydice’s name—“Eurydice, O poor Eurydice” (Line 74)—and the river banks repeating it in a “dolorous refrain” (Line 75). Ovid offers a different ending, in which Orpheus is reunited with Eurydice in Hades. He thus softens Virgil’s stark, irreversible tragedy, allowing Orpheus to love and to sing another day.
Eurydice
Despite the lasting fame of the Orpheus myth, Eurydice is otherwise a minor figure in Greek mythology. She is a nymph, or minor female divinity (the word nymph means “young woman”). She lives in Thrace, but nothing is recorded of her parentage. She is ostensibly beautiful, inspiring Orpheus to fall in love and marry her. In both Virgil and Ovid’s version of the story, Eurydice is a passive figure, acted upon rather than acting: In Virgil, she is pursued by Aristaeus, who intends to sexually assault her; of course in both versions of the story, she is the serendipitous victim of the venomous serpent. She becomes a passive victim for a third time when Orpheus makes the fatal backward glance. Ovid presents her as accepting what has happened and not complaining about it. In the corresponding lines in Virgil, however, Eurydice gets to respond more actively, with five lines of direct speech in which she expresses her dismay at the sudden reversal of fate. In Virgil, it is Eurydice who reaches out for Orpheus after the backward glance; Ovid reverses this; in his version, it is Orpheus who tries to touch Eurydice, rather than the other way round, further emphasizing her more passive role.
Hades
Hades, the god of the underworld that is named after him, appears directly only in Ovid’s version, although Ovid does not actually name him. Virgil refers to him as the “scaresome lord” (Line 17). The normally unfeeling Hades is moved by Orpheus’s plea and allows Eurydice to return to the upper world with him. This merciful action is out of character, although he returns to type after Orpheus’s backward glance, strictly enforcing the pact Orpheus made with him and Persephone.
The Greeks also referred to Hades as Pluto, a word derived from the Greek word for wealth. This is because Pluto ruled beneath the earth, from where sprang up the wealth of crops. The Romans also called this god Pluto, as well as Dis, a contraction of the Latin adjective “dives,” meaning wealthy or rich. In Virgil’s version of the Orpheus and Eurydice story, Virgil refers to Hades twice as Ditis, a shortened form of Dis Patris, the genitive form of Dis Pater, although translations into English often render this as Pluto.
In Greek mythology, Hades is the brother of Poseidon, god of the sea, and Zeus, ruler of the universe. Hades rarely leaves his underworld domain, but on one occasion he falls in love with Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of the harvest. Zeus approves of the match but knows Demeter would not, so he advises Hades to seize Persephone by force. (Ovid’s version alludes to this story.) After ravishing her, Hades takes her back to the underworld. A grieving Demeter persuades Zeus to insist that Hades bring her back. Hades complies, but tricks Persephone into eating six pomegranate seeds in his domain. This means that each year Persephone has to spend six months with Hades, and six above ground (this myth explains seasonality, as the months that Persephone is in the underworld are fall and winter).
Persephone
Persephone is the goddess of the underworld. She is the child of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. Persephone was known by the Romans as Proserpina, and is so named in Virgil’s version, while Ovid refers to her as Persephone. After Hades abducted Persephone, she was forced to spend part of each year with him in the underworld. Her return to earth in the spring, and the consequent growth of the crops, was celebrated in rites such as the Eleusinian mysteries. According to tradition, Persephone accepts her role as wife of Hades, becoming as powerful a force in the underworld as he is. Thus, she has great control over the spirits of the dead. Virgil does not say this explicitly, but the passage “Eurydice, restored to him and trailing close behind (as Proserpina / had decreed)” (Lines 34-35) implies that Persephone is responsible for issuing the command that Orpheus must not look back at Eurydice as they make their way out of Hades. However, there is no suggestion of this in Ovid; his version depicts Hades and Persephone as being in perfect agreement on everything relating to the departure, just as both of them—Ovid states this specifically—grant Orpheus’s request.
Aristaeus
Aristaeus is shepherd and an expert at agriculture, including the art of beekeeping. He features only in Virgil’s version of the story, which opens with the framing narrative of Aristaeus coming to Proteus, desperate to know why his bees have all died. Proteus then relates the story of Orpheus and Eurydice directly to Aristaeus. Virgil reveals that one day Aristaeus caught sight of a beautiful nymph and attempted to sexually assault her; as she ran away, she failed to see the snake that bit and killed her. Proteus tells him that the nymph was Eurydice. Orpheus knew the role Aristaeus played in Eurydice’s death, and after his own death wanted revenge on him. Some nymphs and dryads thus caused Aristaeus’s bees to die.
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