Orpheus and Eurydice

Cultural  

1. In classical mythology, Orpheus was a great musician, and Eurydice was his wife. The music of Orpheus was so beautiful that it could calm the wildest animal and even make stones rise up and follow. When Eurydice died, Orpheus went to the underworld, played his lyre for Hades, ruler of the dead, and asked that Eurydice be sent back to Earth. The god was so moved that he agreed to let her return, on one condition: that Orpheus go ahead of her and not look back until they had reached the Earth again. Orpheus led Eurydice up, but at the last moment, when he had come out of the underworld and she was about to leave it, he could resist no longer and turned to look at her. She vanished, and he had lost her forever. He spent the rest of his days wandering about, playing his lyre, and singing. In the end, he was torn to pieces by crazed followers of Bacchus, the god of wine.

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Example Sentences

The opera offers a modern twist on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which Diego seeks to summon his late wife on Mexico’s Day of the Dead.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 19, 2026

We may know their story’s ending, but that doesn’t make this tale of young lovers Orpheus and Eurydice any less heartbreaking.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 5, 2023

The eight-time Tony-winning musical creatively reimagines the Greek tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice with an industrial setting, poetic lyrics and howling jazz-blues music.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 24, 2023

And yet “Hadestown” bravely, if self-consciously, resolves that way, announcing that the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice is an “old song” and “a sad song, but we sing it anyway.”

From New York Times • Jan. 12, 2022

Neither has the Quest of the Golden Fleece, nor Orpheus and Eurydice, nor many another.

From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton