ORPHEUS AND HIS MUSIC
The beguiling beauty of Orpheus’s music was
famous. It was said that when he played his lyre
or sang, rivers changed their courses and trees
uprooted themselves to move closer so that they
could hear the beautiful sounds more clearly. For
the culture-loving Greeks, this musical ability gave
Orpheus a special place in their mythology. But the
beauty of his music was not always art for its own
sake. For example, when Orpheus accompanied
the Argonauts on their journey, his music
saved his fellow adventurers by distracting
them from the entrancing song of the Sirens.
ORPHEUS‘S DEATH
Later in his life, Orpheus retired to a cave and
gave up the company of women. He attracted
many male followers, who were worshippers of
Apollo like him. He taught them musical skills
and the hidden mysteries that he had learned
as a result of his trip to the Underworld.
Eurydice’s fellow nymphs, worshippers
of Dionysus, were already angry with
Orpheus because of the way he had
looked back in the Underworld and
lost his wife. They were further enraged
over his decision to forsake women and
because of his devotion to Apollo. When
they came upon Orpheus teaching his
male followers, the nymphs attacked him
and tore his body apart.
LATER INTERPRETATIONS
Orpheus’s story is a popular Classical myth that has been
retold many times, inspiring musicians, poets, and writers.
Its musical content has also made it popular with composers
of opera – Jacopo Peri’s Euridice (1600), Monteverdi’s
Orfeo (1607), and
Gluck’s Orfeo Ed Euridice
(1762) were all based on
the story. Ofenbach’s
comic opera, Orphée aux
Enfers (1858), was also
inspired by the myth,
and was followed by a
stage version and the
film adaptation, Orphée
(1949), by Jean Cocteau.Poster for Orphée aux EnfersORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLDTHE CULT OF ORPHEUS
The wisdom and songs of Orpheus lived on
after his death. He became the object of a cult
that began on Lesbos, where a shrine was built
at a place called Antissa for people to consult
an oracle that supposedly relayed Orpheus’s
wisdom. The followers of the cult believed that
they could cheat death by freely passing in and
out of the Underworld. Orpheus’s spirit was said
to have inspired many famous poets who lived
in Lesbos, notably Alcaeus and Sappho, who
both flourished in the late 7th century BCE.
Sappho
The lyric poet Sappho was the greatest female writer
in antiquity. Her love poems, addressed to other
women, have inspired poets and are still read today.The head of Orpheus
After Orpheus’s death, his head floated down the
River Hebros in Thrace and out to sea. When it
reached Lesbos, still singing, it gave its musical
and poetic gifts to the people of that island.The death of Orpheus
The nymphs who killed Orpheus were Maenads,
worshippers of Dionysus, acting in
a frenzy of drunken violence.Greek lyre
Musicians like Orpheus may
have played a seven-stringed
lyre (also called a kithara) with
a wooden sounding board.Apollo
Orpheus was devoted to
Apollo, who was the god
of music, poetry, and the
arts, and the rival and polar
opposite of Dionysus.33