Early life According to
Apollodorus and a fragment of Pindar, Orpheus' father was
Oeagrus, a
Thracian king. His mother was (1) the
muse Calliope, (2) her sister
Polymnia, (3) a daughter of
Pierus, son of
Makednos or (4) lastly of
Menippe, daughter of
Thamyris. Pindar, however, seems to call Orpheus the son of
Apollo in his
Pythian Odes, and a scholium on this passage adds that the mythographer
Asclepiades of Tragilus considered Orpheus to be the son of Apollo and Calliope. According to
Tzetzes, he was from
Bisaltia. His birthplace and place of residence was
Pimpleia close to the
Olympus.
Strabo mentions that he lived in Pimpleia. While living with his mother and her eight beautiful sisters in
Parnassus, he met
Apollo, who was courting the laughing muse
Thalia. Apollo, as the god of music, gave Orpheus a golden
lyre and taught him to play it. Orpheus' mother taught him to make verses for singing. He is also said to have studied in Egypt. Orpheus is said to have established the worship of
Hecate in
Aegina. In
Laconia Orpheus is said to have brought the worship of
Demeter Chthonia and that of the (; 'Saviour Maidens'). Also in
Taygetos a wooden image of Orpheus was said to have been kept by
Pelasgians in the sanctuary of the Eleusinian Demeter. According to
Diodorus Siculus,
Musaeus of Athens was the son of Orpheus.
Adventure as an Argonaut The
Argonautica () is a
Greek epic poem written by
Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. Orpheus took part in this adventure and used his skills to aid his companions.
Chiron told Jason that without the aid of Orpheus, the
Argonauts would never be able to pass the
Sirens—the same Sirens encountered by
Odysseus in
Homer's epic poem the
Odyssey. The Sirens lived on three small, rocky islands called
Sirenum scopuli and sang beautiful songs that enticed sailors to come to them, which resulted in the crashing of their ships into the islands. When Orpheus heard their voices, he drew his
lyre and played music that was louder and more beautiful, drowning out the Sirens' bewitching songs. According to 3rd century BC
Hellenistic elegiac poet
Phanocles, Orpheus loved the young Argonaut
Calais, "the son of Boreas, with all his heart, and went often in shaded groves still singing of his desire, nor was his heart at rest. But always, sleepless cares wasted his spirits as he looked at fresh Calais."
Death of Eurydice , Athens) The most famous story in which Orpheus figures is that of his wife
Eurydice (sometimes referred to as Euridice and also known as Argiope). While walking among her people, the
Cicones, in tall grass at her wedding, Eurydice was set upon by a
satyr. In her efforts to escape the satyr, Eurydice fell into a nest of
vipers and suffered a fatal bite on her heel. Her body was discovered by Orpheus who, overcome with grief, played such sad and mournful songs that all the
nymphs and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus traveled to the
underworld. His music softened the hearts of
Hades and
Persephone, who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and
not look back until they both had reached the upper world. Orpheus set off with Eurydice following; however, as soon as he had reached the upper world, he immediately turned to look at her, forgetting in his eagerness that both of them needed to be in the upper world for the condition to be met. As Eurydice had not yet crossed into the upper world, she vanished for the second time, this time forever. The story in this form belongs to the time of
Virgil, who first introduces the name of
Aristaeus (by the time of Virgil's
Georgics, the myth has Aristaeus chasing Eurydice when she was bitten by a serpent) and the tragic outcome. Other ancient writers, however, speak of Orpheus' visit to the underworld in a more negative light; according to
Phaedrus in
Plato's
Symposium, the infernal gods only "presented an apparition" of Eurydice to him. In fact, Plato's representation of Orpheus is that of a coward, as instead of choosing to die in order to be with the one he loved, he instead mocked the gods by trying to go to
Hades to bring her back alive. Since his love was not "true"—he did not want to die for love—he was actually punished by the gods, first by giving him only the apparition of his former wife in the underworld, and then by being killed by women. In
Ovid's account, however, Eurydice's death by a snake bite is incurred while she was dancing with
naiads on her wedding day.
bell-krater (c. 440 BC) Virgil wrote in his poem that
Dryads wept from
Epirus and
Hebrus up to the land of the
Getae (north east
Danube valley) and even describes him wandering into
Hyperborea and
Tanais (ancient Greek city in the
Don river delta) due to his grief. The story of Eurydice may actually be a late addition to the Orpheus myths. In particular, the name
Eurudike ("she whose justice extends widely") recalls cult-titles attached to
Persephone. According to the theories of poet
Robert Graves, the myth may have been derived from another Orpheus legend, in which he travels to
Tartarus and charms the goddess
Hecate. The myth theme of not looking back, an essential precaution in
Jason's raising of
chthonic Brimo Hekate under
Medea's guidance, is reflected in the Biblical story of
Lot's wife when escaping from
Sodom. More directly, the story of Orpheus is similar to the ancient Greek tales of Persephone captured by Hades and similar stories of
Adonis captive in the underworld. However, the developed form of the Orpheus myth was entwined with the Orphic mystery cults and, later in Rome, with the development of
Mithraism and the cult of
Sol Invictus.
Death , 420–410 BC, part of the Vassil Bojkov collection,
Sofia,
Bulgaria According to a
Late Antique summary of
Aeschylus's lost play
Bassarids, Orpheus, towards the end of his life, disdained the worship of all gods except
Apollo. One early morning he went to the oracle of
Dionysus at
Mount Pangaion to salute his god at dawn, but was ripped to shreds by Thracian
Maenads for not honoring his previous patron (Dionysus) and was buried in
Pieria. Here his death is analogous with that of
Pentheus, who was also torn to pieces by Maenads; and it has been speculated that the Orphic mystery cult regarded Orpheus as a parallel figure to or even an incarnation of Dionysus. Both made similar journeys into Hades, and
Dionysus-Zagreus suffered an identical death.
Pausanias writes that Orpheus was buried in
Dion and that he met his death there. He writes that the river
Helicon sank underground when the women that killed Orpheus tried to wash off their blood-stained hands in its waters. Other legends claim that Orpheus became a follower of
Dionysus and spread his cult across the land. In this version of the legend, it is said that Orpheus was torn to shreds by the women of
Thrace for his inattention.
Ovid recounts that Orpheus Feeling spurned by Orpheus for taking only male lovers (), the
Ciconian women, followers of
Dionysus, first threw sticks and stones at him as he played, but his music was so beautiful even the rocks and branches refused to hit him. Enraged, the women tore him to pieces during the frenzy of their Bacchic orgies. In
Albrecht Dürer's drawing of Orpheus' death, based on an original, now lost, by
Andrea Mantegna, a ribbon high in the tree above him is lettered ("Orpheus, the first
pederast"). His head, still singing mournful songs, floated along with his lyre down the River
Hebrus into the sea, after which the winds and waves carried them to the island of
Lesbos, at the city of
Methymna; there, the inhabitants buried his head and a shrine was built in his honour near
Antissa; there his oracle prophesied, until it was silenced by Apollo. In addition to the people of Lesbos, Greeks from
Ionia and
Aetolia consulted the oracle, and his reputation spread as far as
Babylon. Orpheus'
lyre was carried to heaven by the
Muses, and was placed
among the stars. The Muses also gathered up the fragments of his body and buried them at
Leibethra below
Mount Olympus, where the
nightingales sang over his grave. After the river
Sys flooded Leibethra, the Macedonians took his bones to
Dion. Orpheus' soul returned to the underworld, to the fields of the Blessed, where he was reunited at last with his beloved Eurydice. Another legend places his tomb at Dion, "Others said that he was the victim of a thunderbolt." == Orphic poems and rites==