The Singer

Orpheus lived in Thrace, a land to the north of Greece. His mother was Calliope, one of the nine Muses. The Muses give people their songs. His lyre was a gift from the god Apollo.

When Orpheus played his lyre, everyone listened. Wild animals came out of the forest to hear him. Birds sat quiet in the trees. Even the trees moved closer. Even the rocks on the hills followed him. People say he once led a line of oak trees down from the mountains to the sea. They still stand there in a row, on the shore of Thrace.

Jason asked him to come on the ship Argo. He sailed east with Jason and the Argonauts to find the Golden Fleece. On the way home, they passed an island. The Sirens lived there. They were half birds and half women, and they sang. Their mother was a Muse, like his. They sat on the rocks above the water and watched for ships. Sailors heard their song and turned their ships to the shore. No sailor ever came home again.

The men on the Argo heard the song. They were already throwing the ropes to the shore. Then Orpheus took his lyre. He played fast, and he played with all his strength. The men's ears were full of his music. The lyre was stronger than the Sirens. The wind took the ship on. Behind it, the Sirens were still singing.

Later, Orpheus loved a young woman called Eurydice, and he married her.

The god of marriage came to the wedding. He came through the air in his yellow clothes. He did not say the holy words, and he did not smile. His torch did not burn. It only smoked, and the smoke hurt people's eyes.

Soon after the wedding, Eurydice was walking by the river. A man called Aristaeus was there. He kept bees in the hills. He ran after her, and she ran from him along the river. The grass was long there. A water snake was hiding in it, and she did not see it. It bit her on the ankle, and she died.

Her friends cried for her. The mountains of Thrace cried with them, and the river Hebrus.

Orpheus sat alone on the shore with his lyre. He sang to her when the sun came up. He sang to her when the sun went down. He sang his pain to the sky. Then he decided that the dead must hear him too.

The Land of the Dead

The way down was in the south, at a place called Taenarus. It was a cave, and the road went down into the dark. Orpheus went in. He came into the underworld, the land of the dead. He came to the dark river Styx. Pale ghosts moved all around him. He walked through them. At last he stood before Hades and Persephone, the king and queen of the dead.

The king of the dead never listens to people's prayers. But Orpheus took his lyre and began to sing.

"I have not come to see your dark kingdom," he sang. "I have not come to fight your dog with three heads. I have come because of my wife. A snake took her years from her. I tried to live with it. I could not. Love was too strong for me. You know the god Love. They say that you, King Hades, took your queen because of love, too. Everything comes to you in the end. We live a short time, and then we all come down here. Eurydice will be yours again when she is old. Give me her few years. I ask it as a gift. If you say no, I will not go back. Then you will have two of us."

While he sang, the dead came up from the deep to listen. In the evening, when a storm is coming, birds fly to the trees. The dead came to him like that. There were mothers and men, boys and girls, and young men who died before their fathers. All of them were crying.

Tantalus, who was always thirsty, stopped reaching for the water. Sisyphus stopped pushing his rock. He sat down on it and listened. The dog with three heads opened its mouths and made no sound. The Furies stood there with snakes in their hair. Even the Furies cried. People say it was the first time.

Hades and Persephone could not say no. They called Eurydice. She was with the new dead, and she came slowly. Her foot still hurt from the bite.

"Take her up to the light," said Hades. "She will walk behind you. But do not look back at her before you reach the light. If you look back, you lose her."

They climbed in silence. The path was steep and dark. Then the light was close. Only a few more steps. Orpheus was afraid of losing her. And he wanted to see her face. He turned and looked.

She slipped away at once. He reached out with both arms. He held only air. Far below, there was a sound like thunder. It came three times.

She died a second time. But she did not say one angry word to him. What could she say? Only that he loved her. She said only, "Farewell." He could hardly hear it. Then she was gone, back into the dark.

Orpheus stood like a stone.

Then he went back down to the river. He begged Charon, the ferryman, to take him across again. Charon said no.

The Trees

For seven days, Orpheus sat on the bank of the river. He did not eat. Grief and tears were his only food. Then he went back to the mountains of Thrace.

Three years passed. He lived alone. He wanted no other woman. Many women wanted him. He turned away from all of them. Some say it was because of what happened to him. Some say he made a promise.

There was a hill above the river. Green grass grew on the top, but no trees. There was no shade from the sun. One day Orpheus sat down on the grass and played.

The trees heard him. They came up the hill. The oak came, and the tall pine. The willow came up from the river. The laurel came, Apollo's tree. The ivy came along the ground, and the vine came with it. They stood around him, and there was shade on the hill. Birds sat on the branches. Animals lay in the grass. Snakes lay still and listened. He played to them all day, and he sang about love.

The women of Thrace saw him from the next hill. They followed Bacchus, the god of wine. They wore animal skins. They did not forgive him.

"Look!" one of them shouted. "There is the man who does not want us!"

She threw her spear at his mouth. The spear was covered in leaves. It hit him, but it did not hurt him. Another woman threw a stone. The stone heard his music in the air. It lost its strength, and it fell to the ground in front of him.

Then the women made noise. They blew their horns. They hit their drums. They shouted the name of Bacchus, and they screamed. The noise grew and grew. Soon nobody could hear the lyre. The stones could not hear it. The stones began to hit him.

The women killed the birds and the animals around him. Then they ran at him like dogs. He held out his hands to them and spoke. For the first time in his life, nobody listened. They killed him and tore his body to pieces. His head fell into the river Hebrus, and his lyre fell with it.

The birds cried for him, and the animals. The stones cried, and the woods. The trees dropped their leaves. People say the rivers rose with their own tears.

The River

The Hebrus carried the head and the lyre away. The lyre made a sad sound in the water. And the head still called her name: "Eurydice. Eurydice." The banks of the river answered: "Eurydice."

The river took them to the sea. The sea took them to the island of Lesbos. The head lay on the beach, and the hair was still wet. A snake came across the beach. It opened its mouth to bite. But Apollo was watching. He turned the snake to stone, with its mouth still open.

Bacchus was sad for his singer, and he did not forgive the women of Thrace. Roots came up from the ground and held their legs. The women tried to run. A bird in a net fights the net, and the net holds it tighter. It was like that with the women. Their toes grew long and went down into the earth. They pulled, and the roots only held harder. Then they looked down. Wood was growing up their legs. One woman hit her leg with her hand, and her hand hit oak. Her chest was oak. Her shoulders were oak. Her arms were long branches. The women of Thrace were trees.

And Orpheus? His ghost went down under the earth. He knew the way now. He remembered all the places. He looked for Eurydice in the fields where the happy dead walk. He found her. He took her in his arms.

Now they walk together, side by side. Some days she goes first, and he follows her. Some days he goes first. Then he turns and looks back at her. She is still there.