The head of Orpheus, from an 1865 painting by Gustave Moreau.

Orpheus (Greek: Ορφεύς; pronounced in English as ['ɔ(ɹ).fi.əs] (ohr'-fee-uhs) or ['ɔ(ɹ).fjuːs] (ohr'-fews)) is a figure from Greek mythology, king of the Thracian tribe Cicones, called by Pindar "the father of songs". His name does not occur in Homer or Hesiod, but he was known by the time of Ibycus (c.530 BC). Orpheus may be: Orpheus, Greek legendary musician Orpheus Roye, professional football player // Orpheus, a 1947 ballet by Igor Stravinsky The Mask of Orpheus, a 1984 opera by Harrison Birtwistle Orpheus, American release of 1949 French film Orphée Orpheus (comics), a DC Comics character Lyra Orpheus, a silver saint from... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 369 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (697 × 1133 pixel, file size: 166 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Orphée (1865) From en:Image:Orph-moreau. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 369 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (697 × 1133 pixel, file size: 166 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Orphée (1865) From en:Image:Orph-moreau. ... 1865 (MDCCCLXV) is a common year starting on Sunday. ... Self portrait of Gustav Moreau, 1850 Gustave Moreau (April 6, 1826 – April 18, 1898) was a French Symbolist painter. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. ... The Thracians were an Indo-European people, inhabitants of Thrace and adjacent lands (present-day Bulgaria, Romania, northeastern Greece, European Turkey and northwestern asiatic Turkey, eastern Serbia and parts of Republic of Macedonia). ... The Cicones or Ciconians (Greek Κίκονες) were a Thracian tribe, whose stronghold in the time of Odysseus was the city of Ismara (or Ismarus), located at the foot of mount Ismara, on the south coast of Thrace. ... For the PINDAR military bunker in London, please see the PINDAR section of Military citadels under London Pindar (or Pindarus, Greek: ) (probably born 522 BC in Cynoscephalae, a village in Boeotia; died 443 BC in Argos), was a Greek lyric poet. ... For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... Roman bronze bust, the so-called Pseudo-Seneca, now identified by some as possibly Hesiod Hesiod (Hesiodos, ) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC. Hesiod and Homer, with whom Hesiod is often paired, have been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived... Ibycus (), of Rhegium in Italy, Greek lyric poet, contemporary of Anacreon, flourished in the 6th century BC. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 580s BC - 570s BC - 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC Events and Trends 538 BC - Babylon occupied by Jews transported to Babylon are allowed to return to...

Orpheus was believed to be one of the chief poets and musicians of antiquity, and the inventor or perfector of the lyre. With his music and singing, he could charm wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance and even divert the course of rivers. As one of the pioneers of civilization, he is said to have taught humanity the arts of medicine, writing and agriculture. Closely connected with religious life, Orpheus was an augur and seer; practised magical arts, especially astrology; founded or rendered accessible many important cults, such as those of Apollo and the Thracian god Dionysus; instituted mystic rites both public and private; and prescribed initiatory and purificatory rituals. In addition, Pindar describes Orpheus as the harpist and companion of Jason and the Argonauts.^[1] “Lyres” redirects here. ... For the chemical substances known as medicines, see medication. ... Write redirects here. ... The Augur was a priest or official in ancient Rome. ... Hand-coloured version of the anonymous Flammarion woodcut (1888). ... For other uses, see Apollo (disambiguation). ... The Thracians were an Indo-European people, inhabitants of Thrace and adjacent lands (present-day Bulgaria, Romania, northeastern Greece, European Turkey and northwestern asiatic Turkey, eastern Serbia and parts of Republic of Macedonia). ... God, as a male deity, contrasts with female deities, or goddesses while the term goddess specifically refers to a female deity, words like gods and deities can be applied to all gods collectively, regardless of gender. ... This article is about the ancient deity. ... Jason and the Argonauts may refer to: the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts Jason and the Argonauts (film), a 1963 film with animation by Ray Harryhausen Jason and the Argonauts (TV movie), a TV movie made in 2000 This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated...

Etymology

Several etymologies for the name Orpheus have been proposed. A probable suggestion is that it is derived from a hypothetical PIE verb *orbhao-, "to be deprived", from PIE *orbh-, "to put asunder, separate". Cognates would include Greek orphe, "darkness", and Greek orphanos, "fatherless, orphan", from which comes English "orphan" by way of Latin. Orpheus would therefore be semantically close to goao, "to lament, sing wildly, cast a spell", uniting his seemingly disparate roles as disappointed lover, transgressive musician and mystery-priest into a single lexical whole. The word "orphic" is defined as mystic, fascinating and entrancing, and, probably, because of the oracle of Orpheus, "orphic" can also signify "oracular". The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. ...

Orpheus means "Temple" - see http://www.institutet-science.com/en/orfArke.php

Mythology

Early life

Orpheus' father was Oeagrus (Οίαγρος) a Thracian king (or, according to another version of the story, the god Apollo); his mother was the muse Calliope. While living with his mother and his eight beautiful aunts on Parnassus, he met Apollo who was courting the laughing muse Thalia. Apollo became fond of Orpheus and gave him a little golden lyre, and taught him to play it. Orpheus's mother taught him to make verses for singing. In Greek mythology, Oeagrus was king of Thrace. ... Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak  Thrace (Bulgarian: , Greek: , Attic Greek: ThrāíkÄ“ or ThrēíkÄ“, Latin: , Turkish: ) is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. ... For other uses, see Apollo (disambiguation). ... In Greek mythology, the Muses (Greek , Mousai: perhaps from the Proto-Indo-European root *men- think[1]) are a number of goddesses or spirits who embody the arts and inspire the creation process with their graces through remembered and improvised song and stage, writing, traditional music and dance. ... This article is about the muse. ... Mount Parnassus (also Mount Parnassos) is a mountain in central Greece that towers above Delphi. ... For other uses, see Apollo (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Thalia (disambiguation). ... “Lyres” redirects here. ...

Argonautic expedition

For more details on this topic, see Argonautica.

Orpheus joined the expedition of the Argonauts. The centaur Chiron had warned the Argonaut leader Jason that only with the aid of Orpheus would they be able to navigate past the Sirens unscathed. The Sirens lived on three small, rocky islands called Sirenum scopuli and played irresistibly beautiful songs that enticed sailors and their ships to the islands' craggy shoals, where the ships would be wrecked and the sailors killed by the sirens. However, when Orpheus heard the sirens, he drew his lyre and played music more beautiful than theirs, drowning out their deadly yet alluring song. The Argonautica (Greek: ) is a Greek epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BC. The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the mythical land of Colchis. ... The Argo, by Lorenzo Costa In Greek mythology, the Argonauts (Ancient Greek: ) were a band of heroes who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest for the Golden Fleece. ... This article is about the mythological creatures. ... Chiron and Achilles In Greek mythology, Chiron (hand) — sometimes transliterated Cheiron or rarely Kiron — was held as the superlative centaur among his brethren. ... This article is about the hero from Greek mythology. ... This article is about the bird-women of Greek myth. ... In Greek mythology, the Sirenum scopuli were three small rocky islands where the Sirens lived and lured sailors to their deaths. ...

Death of Eurydice

Orpheus and Eurydice, by Federigo Cervelli

The most famous story in which Orpheus figures is that of his wife Eurydice (also known as Agriope). While fleeing from Aristaeus (son of Apollo), Eurydice ran into a nest of snakes which bit her fatally on her legs. Distraught, Orpheus played such sad songs and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus traveled to the underworld and by his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone (he was the only person ever to do so), who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. In his anxiety he forgot that both needed to be in the upper world, and he turned to look at her, and she vanished for the second time, but now forever. The story in this form belongs to the time of Virgil, who first introduces the name of Aristaeus. Other ancient writers, however, speak of Orpheus' visit to the underworld; according to Plato, the infernal gods only "presented an apparition" of Eurydice to him. Ovid says that Eurydice's death was not caused by fleeing from Aristaeus but by dancing with naiads on her wedding day. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Orpheus and Eurydice by Federigo Cervelli Federigo Cervelli (1625 —before 1700) was an Italian painter, born in Milan, who established his workshop in Venice at the age of about thirty. ... In Greek mythology, there were several characters named Eurydice (Eurydíkê, Ευρυδίκη). // The most famous was a woman — or a nymph — who was the wife of Orpheus. ... A minor god in Greek mythology, Aristaeus or Aristaios was the son of Apollo and the huntress Cyrene, who despised spinning and other womanly arts but spent her days hunting. ... In Greek mythology, a nymph is any member of a large class of female nature entities, either bound to a particular location or landform or joining the retinue of a god or goddess. ... For other uses, see Underworld (disambiguation). ... Hades, Greek god of the underworld, enthroned, with his bird-headed staff, on a red-figure Apulian vase made in the 4th century BC. For other uses, see Hades (disambiguation). ... Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1874) (Tate Gallery, London In Greek mythology, Persephone (Greek Περσεφόνη, Persephónē) was the Queen of the Underworld of epic literature. ... For other uses, see Virgil (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation) Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD) was a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid who wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... A Naiad by John William Waterhouse, 1893. ...

The story of Eurydice may actually be a late addition to the Orpheus myths. In particular, the name Eurudike ("she whose justice extends widely") recalls cult-titles attached to Persephone. The myth may have been mistakenly derived from another Orpheus legend in which he travels to Tartarus and charms the goddess Hecate. Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1874) (Tate Gallery, London In Greek mythology, Persephone (Greek Περσεφόνη, Persephónē) was the Queen of the Underworld of epic literature. ... This article is about the deity and the place in Greek mythology. ... For other uses, see Hecate (disambiguation). ...

The descent to the Underworld of Orpheus is paralleled in other versions of a worldwide theme: the Japanese myth of Izanagi and Izanami, the Akkadian/Sumerian myth of Inanna's Descent to the Underworld, and Mayan myth of Ix Chel and Itzamna. The mytheme of not looking back is reflected in the story of Lot's wife when escaping from Sodom. The warning of not looking back is also found in the Grimms' folk tale "Hansel and Gretel." More directly, the story of Orpheus is similar to the ancient Greek tales of Persephone captured by Hades and similar stories of Adonis captive in the underworld. However, the developed form of the Orpheus myth was entwined with the Orphic mystery cults and, later in Rome, with the development of Mithraism and the cult of Sol Invictus; the predecessors of Orpheus. 天瓊を以て滄海を探るの図. Painting by Eitaku Kobayashi (Meiji period). ... In Japanese mythology, Izanami (Katakana: イザナミ; Kanji: 伊弉冉尊 or 伊邪那美命, meaning She who invites) is a goddess of both creation and death, as well as the former wife of the god Izanagi. ... For the Egyptian writer, see Abbas Al-Akkad. ... Sumer (or Shumer, Sumeria, Shinar, native ki-en-gir) formed the southern part of Mesopotamia from the time of settlement by the Sumerians until the time of Babylonia. ... Inanna was one of the most revered of goddesses among later Sumerian mythology. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In Maya mythology, Ixchel was an earth and moon goddess, patroness of weavers and pregnant women. ... In Yucatec Maya mythology, Itzamna was the name of an upper god and creator deity thought to be residing in the sky. ... Lot and his Daughters, Hendrik Goltzius, 1616. ... Sodom can refer to: Sodom and Gomorrah, Biblical cities Sodom (band), a German thrash metal band Sodom, an album by the band Sodom Sodom (Final Fight), a character from Street Fighter and Final Fight Il Sodoma, an Italian Mannerist painter (1477-1549) Sodom, South Georgia, a song by Iron & Wine... In Greek mythology Adonis (Greek: , also: Άδωνις) is an archetypal life-death-rebirth deity of Semitic origin, and a central cult figure in various mystery religions. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Coin of Emperor Probus, circa 280, with Sol Invictus riding a quadriga, with legend SOLI INVICTO, to the Unconquered Sun. Note how the Emperor (on the left) wears a radiated solar crown, worn also by the god (to the right). ...

Death

Albrecht Dürer envisioned the death of Orpheus in this pen and ink drawing, 1494 (Kunsthalle, Hamburg)

Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus, by John William Waterhouse

According to some versions of the story (notably Ovid's), Orpheus forswore the love of women after the death of Eurydice and took only youths as his lovers; he was reputed to be the one who introduced pederasty to the Thracians, teaching them to "love the young in the flower of their youth". Image File history File links Size of this preview: 557 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (704 × 758 pixel, file size: 146 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Cropped version of File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 557 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (704 × 758 pixel, file size: 146 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Cropped version of File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed... Albrecht Dürer (pronounced /al. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... John William Waterhouse. ... In the pederastic tradition of Classical Athens, the eromenos (Greek ἐρόμενος, pl. ... Pederastic courtship scene Athenian black-figure amphora, 5th c. ...

According to a Late Antique summary of Aeschylus's lost play Bassarids, Orpheus at the end of his life disdained the worship of all gods save the sun, whom he called Apollo. One early morning he went to the oracle of Dionysus (there are ongoing discussions whether this is Perperikon or Mount Pangaion) to salute his god at dawn, but was torn to death by Thracian Maenads for not honoring his previous patron, Dionysus. Here his death is analogous with the death of Pentheus. Late Antiquity is a rough periodization used by historians and other scholars to describe the interval between high Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages in Europe and the Mediterranean world - between the decline of the western Roman Empire from the 3rd century AD onward, to the resurgence of the West... This article is about the ancient Greek playwright. ... For other uses, see Apollo (disambiguation). ... This article is about the ancient deity. ... The ruins of the ancient city of Perperikon Perperikon The tombs of the rulers The ancient Thracian city of Perperikon is located in the Eastern Rhodopes, 15 km northeast of the present-day town of Kardzhali, Bulgaria, on a 470 m high rocky hill, which is thought to have been... Snow-covered Pangaion hills from the forests of Philippi The Pangaion Hills are a mountain range in Greece, approximately 40 km from Kavala. ... Maenad carrying a hind, fragment of an Attic red-figure cup, ca. ... In Greek mythology, Pentheus was a king of Thebes. ...

Ovid (Metamorphoses XI) also recounts that the Thracian Maenads, Dionysus' followers, angry for having been spurned by Orpheus in favor of "tender boys," first threw sticks and stones at him as he played, but his music was so beautiful even the rocks and branches refused to hit him. Enraged, the Maenads tore him to pieces during the frenzy of their Bacchic orgies. Later, the story would sometimes be seen from a Christian moralist angle: in Albrecht Dürer's drawing (illustration, right) the ribbon high in the tree is lettered Orfeus der erst puseran ("Orpheus, the first sodomite"). For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation) Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD) was a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid who wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... The Thracians were an Indo-European people, inhabitants of Thrace and adjacent lands (present-day Bulgaria, Romania, northeastern Greece, European Turkey and northwestern asiatic Turkey, eastern Serbia and parts of Republic of Macedonia). ... Maenad carrying a hind, fragment of an Attic red-figure cup, ca. ... Albrecht Dürer (pronounced /al. ... Sodomy is a term of religious origin to characterize certain sexual acts and behaviours as a perversion of the human capacity for union through sexuality. ...

His head and lyre, still singing mournful songs, floated down the swift Hebrus to the Mediterranean shore. There, the winds and waves carried them on to the Lesbos shore, where the inhabitants buried his head and a shrine was built in his honour near Antissa; there his oracle prophesied, until it was silenced by Apollo (Life of Apollonius of Tyana, book v.14). The lyre was carried to heaven by the Muses, and was placed among the stars. The Muses also gathered up the fragments of his body and buried them at Leibethra below Mount Olympus, where the nightingales sang over his grave. His soul returned to the underworld, where he was re-united at last with his beloved Eurydice. The Maritsa or Evros (Bulgarian: Марица, Greek: Εβρος, Romanized as Hebrus, Turkish: Meriç) river is ca . ... The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea positioned between Europe to the north, Africa to the south and Asia to the east, covering an approximate area of 2. ... Lesbos (Modern Greek: Lesvos (Λέσβος), Turkish: Midilli), is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. ... Antissa (Αντισσαιος) was a city of the island Lesbos (Lesvos), near to Cape Sigrium, the western point of Lesbos. ... Apollonius of Tyana (Greek: ; 16—ca. ... “Lyres” redirects here. ... For other uses see Muse (disambiguation). ... Mount Olympus (Greek: ; also transliterated as Mount Ólympos, and on modern maps, Óros Ólimbos) is the highest mountain in Greece at 2,919 meters high (9,576 feet)[1]. Since its base is located at sea level, it is one of the highest mountains in Europe, in real absolute altitude... Binomial name Luscinia megarhynchos (Brehm, 1831) This article is about the bird. ...

Bulgarian archeologists have discovered, near Tatul, an ancient Thracian tomb that some have described as "the tomb of Orpheus".^[2] The stone sarcophagus of an important Thracian ruler (presumably Orpheus) in Tatul Another view Tatul (Bulgarian: ) is a village in Momchilgrad municipality, Kardzhali Province located in the Eastern Rhodopes in southern Bulgaria. ...

Orphic poems and rites

Main article: Orphism (religion)

A number of Greek religious poems in hexameter were attributed to Orpheus, as they were to similar miracle-working figures, like Bakis, Musaeus, Abaris, Aristeas, Epimenides, and the Sybil. Of this vast literature, only two examples survive whole: a set of hymns composed at some point in the second or third century AD, and an Orphic Argonautica composed somewhere between the fourth and sixth centuries AD. Earlier Orphic literature, which may date back as far as the sixth century BC, survives only in papyrus fragments or in quotations. Orphism or (more rarely) Orphicism seems to have been a mystery religion in the ancient Greek world. ... Hexameter is a literary and poetic form, consisting of six metrical feet per line as in the Iliad. ... Bakis (Bacis in a Latinised spelling) was a semi-legendary ancient Greek seer of the 6th or 7th century BC, a native of Boeotia. ... Musaeus was the name of three Greek poets. ... Abaris the Hyperborean was a legendary or semi-legendary sage, healer and priest known to the ancient Greeks. ... Aristeas was a semi-legendary Greek poet and miracle-worker, a native of Proconnesus in Asia Minor, active ca. ... Epimenides of Knossos Epimenides of Knossos (Crete) (Greek: Επιμενίδης) was a semi-mythical 6th century BC Greek seer and philosopher-poet, who is said to have fallen asleep for fifty-seven years in a Cretian cave sacred to Zeus, after which he reportedly awoke with the gift of prophecy. ... In antiquity, the oracular seeresses of the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean were referred to by the Greek term sibyls. In modern times, when Sibyl is adopted for a womans name, the conventional spelling is Sybil 1976 Movie Shirley Ardell Mason: the true name of Sybil Isabel Dorsett... See also hymn - a program to decrypt iTunes music files. ... For other uses, see Papyrus (disambiguation). ...

In addition to serving as a storehouse of mythological data along the lines of Hesiod's Theogony, Orphic poetry was recited in mystery-rites and purification rituals. Plato in particular tells of a class of vagrant beggar-priests who would go about offering purifications to the rich, a clatter of books by Orpheus and Musaeus in tow (Republic 364c-d). Those who were especially devoted to these ritual and poems often practiced vegetarianism, abstention from sex, and refrained from eating eggs and beans — which came to be known as the Orphikos bios, or "Orphic way of life".^[3] Roman bronze bust, the so-called Pseudo-Seneca, now identified by some as possibly Hesiod Hesiod (Hesiodos, ) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC. Hesiod and Homer, with whom Hesiod is often paired, have been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived... Theogony (Greek: Θεογονία, theogonia = the birth of God(s)) is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies of the gods of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 BC. The title of the work comes from the Greek words for god and seed. // Hesiods Theogony is a large-scale... For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation). ... Musaeus was the name of three Greek poets. ... The Republic is an influential dialogue by Plato, written in the first half of the 4th century BC. This Socratic dialogue mainly is about political philosophy and ethics. ... A variety of vegetarian food ingredients Vegetarianism is the practice of a diet that excludes all animal flesh, including poultry, game, fish, shellfish or crustacea, and slaughter by-products. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

The Derveni papyrus, found in Derveni, Macedonia (Greece) in 1962, contains a philosophical treatise that is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem in hexameters, a theogony concerning the birth of the gods, produced in the circle of the philosopher Anaxagoras, written in the second half of the fifth century BC. Fragments of the poem are quoted making it "the most important new piece of evidence about Greek philosophy and religion to come to light since the Renaissance"^[4]. The papyrus dates to around 340 BC, during the reign of Philip II of Macedon, making it Europe's oldest surviving manuscript. The Derveni papyrus is an ancient Greek papyrus scroll which was found in 1962. ... There are places that have the name Derveni: In Albania Derveni, Albania In Greece Derveni, a village in the prefecture of Achaia Derveni, a village in the southwestern part of the prefecture of Arcadia Derveni, a town in the northwestern part of Corinthia Derveni Related Chani Derveni, a place located... This article is about the region of Greece. ... Anaxagoras Anaxagoras (Greek: Αναξαγόρας, c. ...

Orpheus with the lyre and surrounded by beasts, Museum Christian-Byzantine, Athens

The historian William Mitford wrote in 1784 that the very earliest form of a higher and cohesive ancient Greek religion was manifest in the Orphic poems.^[5] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 396 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (423 × 640 pixel, file size: 142 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 396 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (423 × 640 pixel, file size: 142 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... This article is about the capital of Greece. ... William Mitford (February 10, 1744 - February 10, 1827), English historian, was the elder of the two sons of John Mitford, a barrister, who lived near Beaulieu, at the edge of the New Forest. ...

W.K.C. Guthrie wrote that Orpheus was the founder of mystery religions and the first to reveal to men the meanings of the initiation rites.^[6]

Post-classical Orpheus

The Orpheus legend has remained a popular subject for writers, artists, musicians and filmmakers.

Poetry

• In the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, the tale of Orpheus was mixed with Celtic fairy lore in the Middle English metrical romance Sir Orfeo. In this version, Sir Orfeo rescues his wife Heurodis from the King of Fairy, whose realm contains both the dead, and people thought to be dead but merely taken by the fairies. This story lasted long enough to be collected in the Child ballads as King Orfeo (albeit in fragmentary form).
• In the Divine Comedy Dante sees the shade of Orpheus along with those of numerous other "virtuous pagans" in Limbo.
• The play Henry VIII by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher includes a song sung by a lady about Orpheus. It is not certain which author wrote the song.[1]
• The Czech-German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, sometimes called the last of the romantic authors, wrote the Sonnets to Orpheus immediately following the Duino Elegies.
• The English poet John Milton repeatedly made allusions to the figure of Orpheus in his work, most centrally in "Lycidas" (1637).
• The Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz wrote Orpheus and Euridice as an elegy to his late wife Carol in 2003.
• The American Poet John Ashbery wrote the poem "Syringa" about Orpheus' failed attempt to rescue Eurydice.
• W. H. Auden wrote a poem called "Orpheus" about the conflicting desires "to be bewildered and happy or most of all the knowledge of life".
• Orpheus appears as a member of Odysseus's last voyage from Ithaca in Nikos Kazantzakis' epic poem The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel.

This article is about the European people. ... by Sophie Anderson For other uses, see Fairy (disambiguation). ... Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion of 1066 and the mid-to-late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the... As a literary genre, romance refers to a style of heroic prose and verse narrative current in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. ... Sir Orfeo is an anonymous Middle English narrative poem. ... by Sophie Anderson For other uses, see Fairy (disambiguation). ... The Child Ballads are a collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, collected by Francis James Child. ... For other uses see The Divine Comedy (disambiguation), Dantes Inferno (disambiguation), and The Inferno (disambiguation) Dante shown holding a copy of The Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelino... This article is about the theological concept. ... Dame Ellen Terry as Katherine of Aragon The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth was one of the last plays written by the English playwright William Shakespeare, based on the life of Henry VIII of England. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... John Fletcher (playwright) (1579-1625) John Fletcher (Methodist) (1729-1785) ... Rainer Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926) is considered one of the German languages greatest 20th century poets. ... For other persons named John Milton, see John Milton (disambiguation). ... Lycidas is a major poem by John Milton, written in 1637 as a pastoral elegy, first appearing in a 1638 collection of elegies entitled Justa Edouardo King Naufrago dedicated to the memory of Edward King, a collegemate of Miltons at Cambridge who had been drowned when his ship sank... Czesław Miłosz in September 1999 Czesław Miłosz (pronounced [ʧεsȗav miȗɔʃ]; June 30, 1911–August 14, 2004) was a Polish poet and essayist. ... John Ashbery John Ashbery (born July 28, 1927) is an American poet. ... Wystan Hugh Auden (21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) IPA: ;[1], who signed his works W. H. Auden, was an Anglo-American poet, regarded by many as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. ... For other meanings, see Odysseus (disambiguation) Ulysses redirects here. ... For other places or objects named Ithaca, see Ithaca (disambiguation). ... Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek: Νίκος Καζαντζάκης) (February 18, 1883, Heraklion, Crete, Greece - October 26, 1957, Freiburg, Germany), author of poems, novels, essays, plays, and travel books, was arguably the most important and most translated Greek writer and philosopher of the 20th century. ... Odyssey, poem of Greek writer, poet and philosopher Nikos Kazantzakis, the largest of his works. ...

Classical music

The story of Orpheus and Eurydice has been the subject of operas, cantatas, ballets, and other works through the history of western classical music: For other uses, see Opera (disambiguation). ... Cantata (Italian for a song or story set to music), a vocal composition accompanied by instruments and generally containing more than one movement. ... A performance of The Nutcracker ballet Ballet is the name given to a specfic dance form and technique. ... Classical music is a broad, somewhat imprecise term, referring to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, European art, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly 1000 to the present day. ...

• Angelo Poliziano's Orfeo, a musical Renaissance considered by some scholars an important forerunner of the opera genre.
• Jacopo Peri's opera Euridice (1600)
• Giulio Caccini's opera Euridice (written 1600 / first performance 1602)
• Claudio Monteverdi's opera Orfeo (1607)
• Stefano Landi's opera La morte d'Orfeo (1619)
• Luigi Rossi's opera Orfeo (1647)
• Marc-Antoine Charpentier's unfinished opera La descente d'Orphée aux enfers (date unknown: mid-1680s?)
• Louis-Nicolas Clerambault's cantata "Orphee" (1710)
• Georg Philipp Telemann's opera "Orpheus" (1726)
• Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer's Musikalischer Parnassus (c. 1738) comprises nine dance suites dedicated to the Muses; it is thought the final dance of the Uranie suite tells the story of Orpheus & Eurydice.
• Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice (1762)
• Johann Gottlieb Naumann's opera Orfeo ed Euridice (1785)
• Joseph Haydn's opera L'anima del filosofo, ossia Orfeo ed Euridice (composed 1791)
• Friedrich August Kanne's Orpheus (1807)
• In a 1985 article in 19th Century Music musicologist Owen Jander controversially argued that the 2nd movement (Andante con moto) of Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto was programmatically modelled after the Orpheus myth.
• Franz Liszt's Symphonic poem Orpheus (1853-54)
• Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld (1858)
• Darius Milhaud's opera Les malheurs d'Orphée (1924)
• Ernst Krenek's opera Orpheus und Eurydike (1926)
• Stravinsky's ballet Orpheus (1948).
• Orphee 53, Opera in Musique Concrete style by Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer (1953)
• Mark Alburger's "Orpheus Cycle" (1982), six art songs to lipogrammatic texts of Matthew Kiell
• Harrison Birtwistle's opera The Mask of Orpheus (1986)
• Philip Glass's opera Orphée (1993).
• Leslie Burrs and John A. Williams, Vanqui (2000), a retelling of the Orpheus legend set during the time of the Underground Railroad.
• Ingram Marshall, imagined how Orpheus would recall his trip to the Underworld and back to Earth: Orphic Memories (2006), a piece for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Politian (also known as Angelo Poliziano or Angelo Ambrogini) (1454 - 1494) was an Italian classical scholar and poet. ... This article is about the European Renaissance of the 14th-17th centuries. ... Jacopo Peri Jacopo Peri (August 20, 1561 – August 12, 1633) was an Italian composer and singer of the transitional period between the Renaissance and Baroque styles, and is often called the inventor of opera. ... Jacopo Peri, in costume for the performance of the first opera, Dafne. ... Caccini, Le Nuove musiche, 1601, title page Giulio Caccini (October 8, 1551 – December 10, 1618) was an Italian composer, teacher, singer, instrumentalist and writer of the very late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. ... Jacopo Peri, in costume for the performance of the first opera, Dafne. ... This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... Orfeo (LOrfeo, favola in musica) is one of the earliest works recognized as an opera, composed by Claudio Monteverdi with text by Alessandro Striggio for the annual carnival of Mantua. ... 1634 publication of Il SantAlessio with woodcut illustration showing a scene from the opera. ... Luigi de Rossi (ca. ... Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643 - February 24, 1704) was a French composer of the Baroque era. ... Louis-Nicolas Clérambault was a French musician, born and died in Paris (December 19, 1676 - October 26, 1749), best known as an organist and composer. ... A cantata (Italian, sung) is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment and generally containing more than one movement. ... Georg Philipp Telemann. ... Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer (some authorities use the spelling Johann Kasper Ferdinand Fischer) (died 1746) was a German Baroque composer. ... Gluck redirects here. ... Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck. ... Johann Gottlieb Naumann (April 17, 1741‚ - October 23, 1801) was a German composer, conductor and Kapellmeister. ... “Haydn” redirects here. ... “Beethoven” redirects here. ... A piano concerto is a concerto for solo piano and orchestra. ... Liszt redirects here. ... A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, in one movement, in which some extra-musical programme provides a narrative or illustrative element. ... Jacques Offenbach (20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880) was a French composer and cellist of the Romantic era with German-Jewish descent and one of the originators of the operetta form. ... Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. ... Orpheus in the Underworld (in French: Orphée aux enfers) is an opéra bouffe (or opéra féerie in its revised version) in two acts by Jacques Offenbach. ... Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (IPA: ) (September 4, 1892 – June 22, 1974) was a French composer and teacher. ... Ernst Krenek Ernst Krenek (August 23, 1900 – December 22, 1991) was an Austrian-born composer of Czech ancestry; throughout his life he insisted that his name be written Krenek rather than Křenek, and that it should be pronounced as a German word. ... Igor Stravinsky. ... Pierre Henry (born December 9, 1927 in Paris, France) is a French composer, considered a pioneer of the musique concrète genre of electronic music. ... Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer (August 14, 1910–August 19, 1995) was a French composer, noted as the inventor of musique concrète. ... An art song is a vocal music composition, usually written for one singer and often with piano accompaniment. ... A lipogram (from Greek lipagrammatos, missing letter) is a kind of writing with constraints or word game consisting of writing paragraphs or longer works in which a particular letter or group of letters is missing, usually a common vowel, the most common in English being e (McArthur, 1992). ... Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle, CH (born July 15, 1934) is a British composer, widely seen as one of the most significant modern composers from that country. ... The Mask of Orpheus is an opera with music by Harrison Birtwistle and a libretto by Peter Zinovieff. ... Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is a three-times Academy Award-nominated American composer. ... This article is about a 19th-century slave escape route. ... Ingram Marshall in his Hamden, CT studio. ... The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a small classical music orchestra which has made many recordings. ...

Other music

• Former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett composed in 2005 an opera for guitar and orchestra named Metamorpheus on the classical Orpheus myth
• Orpheus is a single by the band Ash from their album Meltdown
• A modernised version of the myth of Orpheus is told in Nick Cave's song The Lyre Of Orpheus from the double album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
• Orpheus is a song on David Sylvian's album Secrets of the Beehive; complementarily, a later remaster of the album has the song Promise (The Cult of Eurydice)
• On his 2007 album Nightmoves, jazz artist Kurt Elling references Orpheus and Eurydice in his vocalese (lyric written for a previous instrumental solo) of Dexter Gordon's famous version of Body and Soul
• Several Rufus Wainwright songs reference Orpheus.
• Orpheus in Red Velvet is a song on Marc Almond's album Enchanted
• Orpheus is mentioned in the Wallflowers song "Nearly Beloved"
• "The playmate sings/ Like Orphée in some thunder world" appears as a lyric in Peter Murphy's 1988 "Indigo Eyes" (Orphée, the French spelling of "Orpheus," is also the title of Jean Cocteau's famous 1950 film, referenced below, which reinterpreted the Orphic myth in then-contemporary postwar France)
• Orpheus is also mentioned in the Cruxshadows song "Cassandra"
• Eurydice, a lament for the woman of the title, is a song by Sleepthief on their album The Dawnseeker
• "Hey! Orpheus" is a song on The Make Up's collection of 7" singles entitled "I Want Some"
• Italian Progressive Rock band La Maschera Di Cera's album Lux Ade contains a track entitled Orpheus
• Orpheus - The Lowdown is a multimedia collaboration by Peter Blegvad and Andy Partridge (of XTC), available as a CD in an oversize package with a lyric book illustrated by rayographs
• The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is the inspiration for the Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia song "Reuben and Cerise"
• Singer songwriter Warwick Lobban recounts the story of Orpheus & Eurydice in his song Pluto's Toy.

For other uses, see Genesis (disambiguation). ... Steve Hackett (born Stephen Richard Hackett on February 12, 1950, in Pimlico, England) is a writer and guitarist. ... Orpheus was the first single released in a physical format from the Meltdown album by the band Ash on May 3, 2004. ... Ash are an alternative rock band that formed in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland in 1992. ... Meltdown is an album by Ash, which was initially released on May 17, 2004 through Infectious Records. ... Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional actor. ... This article refers to the Nick Cave album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. ... David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958, in Beckenham, Kent, UK) is an English singer, musician and composer who first gained attention as the lead vocalist and main songwriter in the band Japan. ... David Sylvians third solo album. ... Kurt Elling Kurt Elling (born November 2, 1967) is an American jazz vocalist. ... Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923–April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, and an Academy Award-nominated actor. ... Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter known for his powerful voice. ... Marc Almond (born Peter Mark Sinclair Almond on 9 July 1957 in Southport, Lancashire, England) is a popular English singer, songwriter and recording artist, who originally found fame as half of the seminal synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell. ... Peter John Murphy (born July 11, 1957, near Northampton, England) was the singer of the British rock group Bauhaus who later went on to release a number of solo albums, such as Deep and Love Hysteria. ... Orphée (also known as Orpheus) is a 1949 movie directed by Jean Cocteau starring Jean Marais. ... Sleepthief is an American electronic music recording project formed by producer and composer Justin Elswick. ... For the Swedish political music movement, see progg. ... Peter Blegvad (born 14 August 1951) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and cartoonist. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... XTC are an influential new wave band from Swindon, England. ... A colour photogram of lemons and tomato stems. ...

Drama

• The Tennessee Williams play Orpheus Descending is a modern retelling of the Orpheus myth set in 1950s America.
• Sarah Ruhl's play Eurydice is an interpretive retelling of the myth of Orpheus from the point of view of his wife, Eurydice.
• Jean Anouilh's Eurydice (1941) sets the story among a troupe of performers in 1930s France.
• Wildworks' promenade performance Souterrain is based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), better known by the nickname Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright of the twentieth century who received many of the top theatrical awards for his work. ... Orpheus Descending is a play by Tennessee Williams. ... Eurydice is a play by Sarah Ruhl which retells the myth Orpheus from the perspective of Eurydice, his wife. ... Eurydice is a play by Sarah Ruhl which retells the myth Orpheus from the perspective of Eurydice, his wife. ...

Film

• Orphée, directed by Jean Cocteau (1949)
• Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro), directed by Marcel Camus (1959), from the play Orfeu da Conceição by Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moraes; retells the story during the Rio de Janeiro carnival
• Orfeu, directed by Carlos Diegues (1999), essentially a remake of Black Orpheus.
• Moulin Rouge!, the film directed by Baz Luhrmann (2001), is, among other things, a take on the idea of the power of music. It draws on the Orpheus myth via the operetta Orpheus in the Underworld by Jacques Offenbach, at least according to the writer's/director's DVD commentary.
• Orpheus directed byJoel T. Rose, 2005.

Orphée (also known as Orpheus) is a 1949 movie directed by Jean Cocteau starring Jean Marais. ... Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker. ... Year 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro in Portuguese) is a 1959 film made in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus. ... Marcel Camus (April 21, 1912 - January 13, 1982) was a French film director. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Vinicius de Moraes (October 19, 1913 - July 9, 1980), born Marcus Vinícius da Cruz de Melo Morais in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was a seminal figure in contemporary Brazilian music. ... This article is about the Brazilian city. ... Orfeu is a 1999 Brazilian film by direct by Carlos Diegues based on the play Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes. ... Carlos Diegues, also known as Cacá Diegues, (born 19 May 1940 in Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil) is a Brazilian film director. ... This article is about the year. ... Moulin Rouge is a 2001 Academy Award-winning jukebox musical film directed by Baz Luhrmann. ... Baz Luhrmann (born Mark Anthony Luhrmann on September 17, 1962) is an Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated Australian film director, screenwriter, and producer. ... Orpheus in the Underworld (in French: Orphée aux enfers) is an opéra bouffe (or opéra féerie in its revised version) in two acts by Jacques Offenbach. ... Jacques Offenbach (20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880) was a French composer and cellist of the Romantic era with German-Jewish descent and one of the originators of the operetta form. ...

Novels

• The myth of Orpheus was retold in The Sandman comic books by Neil Gaiman, where he is recast as the son of the titular character.
• It is retold in the Hugo and Nebula-winning novella, Goat Song by Poul Anderson.
• Russell Hoban's "The Medusa Frequency" alludes heavily to the Orpheus myth. In fact, the head of Orpheus is a central character, albeit inside another character's mind.
• Thomas Pynchon's novel "Gravity's Rainbow" uses the Orpheus myth as one structure, with Slothrop as Orpheus and postwar Germany as Hades. There are many references to the afterlife in Slothrop's "descent" into the continent, the yacht the Anubis being one example.
• The King Must Die, the first of Mary Renault's novelizations of the life of Theseus, features a unnamed master-bard who performs at the court in Troizen. He regales his audience with stories of wide travels, including reference to great stone structures in Britain. Later, Theseus hears he has been killed in Thrace, and a tomb erected to his honor.
• Salman Rushdie used the Orpheus and Eurydice narrative as a mythic underpinning to the magical realist novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet (see also the song of the same name recorded by U2 with lyrics provided by Rushdie).
• In Fred Saberhagen's short story "Stardust", part of his Berserkers collection of science-fiction shorts, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is retold through his setting of war-torn galactic future.
• Janette Turner Hospital uses the Orpheus myth, and refers to Orpheus inspired music by Gluck and Beethoven, in her 2007 novel, Orpheus lost.
• Grace Andreacchi uses the Orpheus myth as the centre of her novel Poetry and Fear (2001).
• The British novelist Jonathan Coe employs the Orpheus myth in his 1994 novel What A Carve-Up! whose principal character, the struggling writer Michael Owen, is obsessed by the myth in the form of the film Orphee by Jean Cocteau. Owen is also obsessed by a single scene in the British film comedy that gives Coe's novel its title, in which a timid male character attempts to resist the temptation to glance at the body of a naked woman in a mirror. This scene is deemed to have an Orphean character in terms of the character's desire to gaze openly at that which is forbidden. Owen's obsession with mirrors and screens, that are derived more from Cocteau than from the original myth, are important to the novel's political themes.

The Sandman was a comic book series written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics for 75 issues from 1988 until 1996. ... Neil Richard Gaiman (IPA: ) (born November 10, 1960[2]) is an English author of science fiction and fantasy short stories and novels, graphic novels, comics, and films. ... The 2005 Hugo Award with base designed by Deb Kosiba. ... The Nebula is an award given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the two previous years (see rolling eligibility below). ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926–July 31, 2001) was an American science fiction author of the genres Golden Age. ... Russell Hoban in 2005 Russell Conwell Hoban (born February 4, 1925) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, mainstream fiction, magic realism, poetry, and childrens books. ... Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. ... Gravitys Rainbow is an epic postmodern novel written by Thomas Pynchon and first published on February 28, 1973. ... For other uses, see Anubis (disambiguation). ... The King Must Die is a 1958 Bildungsroman and historical novel by Mary Renault that traces the early life and adventures of Theseus, a hero in Greek mythology. ... Mary Renault (pronounced Ren-olt[1]) (4 September 1905 – 13 December 1983) born Mary Challans, was an English writer best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece. ... Theseus (Greek ) was a legendary king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, with whom Aethra lay in one night (By some accounts, this was presented as a rape). ... Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (Devanagari : अहमद सलमान रश्दी Nastaliq:; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-British novelist and essayist. ... Magic realism (or magical realism) is a literary genre in which magical elements appear in an otherwise realistic setting. ... This article is about the literary concept. ... The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a novel written by Salman Rushdie. ...