BODY LIKE A GREEK GOD: A pair of neoclassical nudes of Apollo, the mythological god of music, poetry and art, after fragmentary Roman wall paintings discovered in Rome in 1709. These are late 18th Century color stipple engravings after drawings made by Francesco Bartoli.
From Ovid’s Metamorphosis: (-translated by Anthony S. Kline)
“The bloodless spirits wept as he spoke, accompanying his words with the music. Tantalus did not reach for the ever-retreating water: Ixion’s wheel was stilled: the vultures did not pluck at Tityus’s liver: the Belides, the daughters of Danaüs, left their water jars: and you, Sisyphus, perched there, on your rock. Then they say, for the first time, the faces of the Furies were wet with tears, won over by his song: the king of the deep, and his royal bride, could not bear to refuse his prayer, and called for Eurydice. She was among the recent ghosts, and walked haltingly from her wound. The poet of Rhodope (Orpheus) received her, and, at the same time, accepted this condition, that he must not turn his eyes behind him, until he emerged from the vale of Avernus, or the gift would be null and void.”
Let’s take a closer look at some of the secondary characters mentioned in Ovid’s passage. Tantalus (great-grandfather of Agamemnon) was a King who, after being admitted to dine with the gods, killed his own son (Pelops) to serve the gods to test their powers of perception. For this moral crime, he was cast into Hades where he endured the torment of everlasting hunger and thirst. When he bent to drink the waters at his feet- the water receded away, or when he reached for the fruit on the tree above- the wind blew the branches out of reach. Ixion was a corrupt mortal, who after killing his father in law and attempting to seduce Hera, was punished by Zeus to be strapped over a an ever spinning, solar flaming wheel. Tityus was a giant who attempted to rape Leto; the mother of Artemis and Apollo. After being slain by Apollo, the giant was punished in hades by being staked to the ground and having two vultures peck out his regenerating liver (similar to Zeus’ punishment for Prometheus with an eagle). The Belides (Daenaeds/water nymphs) were fifty daughters who were ordered by their father to murder their husbands on their wedding nights. In Tartarus they were cursed to carry water jars for eternity to fill an ever-emptying tub. Sisyphus was a trickster mortal who cheated death, and was cursed to roll a boulder uphill for eternity; another fruitless labor. The Furies (or Erinyes) were dark deities who punished mortals who spilled familial blood. The Furies were born from such an act, as when Uranus castrated his father, Cronos, they emerged from the blood. In the Greek tragedy; The Oresteia , they haunt Orestes for killing his mother, Clytemnestra.
“Chthonic Descent” by me, (image #4 in my Orpheus and Eurydice series)
part 4: The Roman poet Virgil, in his poem “Georgics”, gives a lush description of Orpheus descent into Hades;
“…entering the grove gloomy with black horror, he approached the Manes (dead spirits), and the tremendous king, and the hearts that know not how to relent at human prayers. But the thin shades being stirred up by his song from the lowest mansions of Erebus moved along, and the Ghosts deprived of light… mothers and husbands, and the departed bodies of magnanimous heroes, boys and unmarried girls, and youths laid on funeral pyres before the faces of their parents, whom the black mud and squalid reeds of Cocytus, and the lake hateful with stagnant water encloses around, and styx nine times interfused restrains.” (-translation from the Latin by John Martyn.)
The word Chthonic in my title is an adjective describing something belonging to the underworld. This would be an apt time to discuss the structure and details of the ancient Greek underworld; the realm of Hades. Our oldest literary source in Homer’s “Odyssey” (700 B.C.) portrays the realm as dark, gloomy, and frightening. A place where all souls go, and lacking skin and bone; have no physical form. The shades (spirits) wander mindless, and without memory.
In Virgil’s “Aeneid” (25 B.C.) we get a much more detailed account of the geography. Our hero Aeneas pays the boatman Charon to ferry him across the river styx, and after passing the three headed guard-hound Cerberus, they eventually come to a crossroad leading to two important realms; Tartarus (an invincible fortress guarded by one of the Furies, where sinners are punished) and Elysium (a sunny paradise where pure souls pursue leisure activities).
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Part3: But Orpheus is not satisfied to sit in solitary mourning. There was a great injustice in the death of his love Eurydice. If the beasts and rocks of the wild woods of Olympia bow before his song, what is to stop him for persuading the spirits of the underworld? Perhaps he can even persuade the King Hades to take pity on him and his lost love. With this determination, he receives directions to the dark gate from the forest nymphs and sets out. Many days later, standing before that gaping black maw, Orpheus shivers. He might never return to the land of the living. He steps forward. He has nothing left to lose.
In Greek literary sources we have varying references to the location of the entrance to underworld. In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus must travel to Hades to perform a “Nekyia” ceremony to commune with the dead to receive prophecies. Circe gives Odysseus the vaguest of directions; “…once your ship has crossed flowing Ocean, drag it ashore at Persephone’s groves, on the level beach where tall poplars grow, willows shed their fruit, right beside deep swirling Oceanus. Then you must go to Hades’ murky home, where Periphlegethon and Cocytus, a stream which branches off the river Styx, flow into Acheron.” – translation by Ian Johnston.
Some scholars believe Homer’s description of the location is based on the real-world temple of the “Nekromanteion” (oracle of the dead) in Ancient Epirus (Northwest Greece). This was a temple of necromancy dedicated to Hades and Persephone where devotees could commune with dead spirits, and was believed to be the entrance to Hades. The temple was located at the meeting point of three rivers; the Acheron (river of woe), Pyriphlegethon (river of fire), and Cocytus (river of lamentation).
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“The Death of Eurydice” (#2 in my Orpheus and Eurydice series)
part 2:
But the three Moirai (fates) weave and cut their strings of mortal’s destinies, and this love was not destined to last. Dancing barefoot upon the forest floor with the nymphs, Eurydice was bitten by a venomous snake and tragically died. Orpheus played such music of melancholy mourning as to make the trees bow and weep.
The Latin poet Virgil gives a lush description of lament from his poem, “Georgicks:”…“But the choir of sister Dryads filled the tops of the mountains with their cries: the rooks of Rhodope wept, and high Pangaea, and the martial land of Rhesus, and the Getae, and Hebrus, and Attic Orithyia. He assuaging his love-sick mind with his hollow lyre, lamented thee, sweet wife, thee on the solitary shore, thee when day approached, thee when it disappeared.” (-translated by John Martyn.)
We have multiple sources giving variations recounting Eurydice’s death. According to Ovid, she was walking along the riverside with her sister dryad nymphs, while Vergil has her escaping a rape attempt by another son of Apollo; a pastoral god named Aristaeus. But the authors agree that her death results from the bite of a poisonous viper.
“A New Love” (part 1 in my Orpheus and Eurydice series)
On a crisp, spring day, deep in the forests of Olympus, a wood nymph by the name of Eurydice (yu-ri-di-see) catches a precious sound upon the wind. Stretching from her oak tree, she spies a musician upon a rock, playing his lyre to a group of wild animals. Even the very trees and rocks stand at attention to hear his sacred song. She knows this musician. It is Orpheus; known to be the greatest song poet to ever live. And as she listens, she falls entranced, betwitched; in love. Orpheus too, sees this quiet nymph approach, and is taken aback by her beauty. A great love is kindled and the two and are married in a joyous celebration shortly after.
Some say Orpheus was the son of a Thracian king, others, the demi-god son of Apollo, playing music upon his father’s gifted Lyre. His mother was the muse of epic poetry and song; Calliope.
As Euryidice is a “dryad” or tree nymph, I have placed her emerging from the giant oak. These powerful forest spirits originated within trees, and typically took the forms of beautiful young maidens.
Can you all think of other characters in world myths who use their musicianship skills and the power of song in their stories?
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