Ovid's Orpheus & Eurydice
Literary Context: Comparing the tales of Roman Poets
Proteus, an old man of the sea, recounts Virgil’s version of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice whithin another tale. Aristaeus, the Greek god of bee-keeping, having recently lost his swarm, captures the prophetic sea god in hopes of learning how to get them back. Proteus explains how the god has fallen out of divine favor due to the death of Eurydice, who died trying to flee his pursuit (he suggests that she was running away from bees). He tells how her lover, Orpheus, went to the “jaws of Taenarus [and] the high gates / of Dis” to retrieve her. After briefly poetically persuading the dread king, the king of the underworld, the two embark on their journey back to the surface under the condition he does not look back at her. However, after being seized by a “sudden madness,” he breaks his one rule. Although one would assume her fall back into the underworld would be quick and jolting, Virgil makes a narrative choice to allow the lovers to exchange several last words. Following her death, the poem dwells on Orpheus’ depressed life and ends with him screaming her name down a riverbank.
Ettore Ferrari (1887)
Tito Angelini, "Busto di Virgilio" (1930)
Completed around 8 BCE, Ovid’s Metamorphoses is an anthology of folk tales, each detailing how the hero, in some way, metamorphosizes. He opens the tenth book with the tale of the poet Orpheus and his wife Eurydice. Proceeding the story of Iphis, in which the hero transforms her gender to become a man and beloved the beloved, this story does not end on the same positive note. Unlike Virgil’s rendition of the tale, Ovid opts to focus more on the narrative of the two lovers and the drama that ensues Orpheus’ descent and ascent into the underworld; moreover, he more deeply explores the character’s conversation and indomitable human spirit whereas Proteus (Virgil) simply recounts the plot. It sets the tone for the following entries, introducing to the reader to the hero Orpheus. In his rendition, shortly after the wedding of the two lovers in the Ciconian country, in a meadow, a snake bites Eurydice. The venomous bite proves fatal, and she quickly descends into the underworld. Orpheus, filled with mournful rage, follows his wife to Hades and pleads with Pluto, beseeching him to free her. There, he plays his lyre—his signature instrument—and sings to convince the god of the underworld and his wife Proserpina (known in Greek mythology as Persephone) to free her. His performance persuades him to free Eurydice, but only under the condition that he does not look back at her during their ascent to the land of the living. The lines this project examines (48-83) depict the events that ensue.