Orpheus and Eurydice


Orpheus was a gifted mortal. His mother, Muse Calliope, gave him the gift of music. When it came to music, mortals could not compare to Orpheus’s talent. His enchanting music had the power to control animated and inanimate objects. No one could resist his musical talents. Not even Eurydice.
Eurydice and Orpheus fallen in love with one look. They were meant to be in the eyes of the Gods. They decided to settle down and raise a family in the savage Cicones of Thrace. But fate had a plan for Eurydice already.
Following their wedding, Eurydice walked in a meadow with her bridesmaids. The sound of wedding bells still rung in the air and rice still clung to their robes. Eurydice talked to her bridesmaids of happiness and spoke of the many children she could see running around. Upon this stroll through the meadow, a serpent crept up and stung her. A soundless death slowly trekked through this meadow. The grief of Orpheus was so great that he vowed to venture down to the Underworld and try to bring Eurydice back. A task few have been able to manage.
Orpheus used the passage which opens at Aornum. Boldly, he descended into the realm of Hades. He charmed the ferryman with his song and gained the other side, even though he wasn't dead.
As he played his lyre, Cerberus, the three-headed dog, relaxed his guard and the three Judges of the Dead were mesmerized by the sound. Even the tortures of the damned were temporarily suspended. Light was brought to the dark shadows of Hades, but it was not enough to shine bright on the tortured souls. No one under his spell could refuse him. Hades and his queen summoned Eurydice and gave her to him, but upon one single condition: that he would not look back at her as she followed him, until they reached the upper world and were safely back under the light of the sun. And so he agreed, and played all the way to the warm touch of the sun joyfully danced on his skin.
He turned back with a massive grin, but it was too soon. Eurydice still hadn’t exited the cavern and was still in the shadows of Hades. Slowly his grin faded, and slowly his love fallen back into the darkness.
She left him with one last word: "Farewell."