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

In Greek legend, Orpheus was the chief representative of the arts of song and the lyre, and of great importance in the religious history of Greece. The mythical figure of Orpheus was borrowed by the Greeks from their Thracian neighbours; the Thracian "Orphic Mysteries", rituals of unknown content, were named after him. Download high resolution version (697x1133, 166 KB)Orpheus by Gustave Moreau (1865) The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Download high resolution version (697x1133, 166 KB)Orpheus by Gustave Moreau (1865) The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... 1865 is a common year starting on Sunday. ... Orpheus by Gustave Moreau (1865) Gustave Moreau (April 6, 1826 - April 18, 1898) was a French Symbolist painter. ... A lyre is a stringed musical instrument well known for its use in Classical Antiquity. ... The Thracians were an Indo-European people, inhabitants of Thrace and adjacent lands (present-day Bulgaria, Romania, Republic of Moldova, northeastern Greece, European Turkey and northwestern asiatic Turkey, eastern Serbia and parts of Republic of Macedonia). ...

Overview

The name Orpheus does not occur in Homer or Hesiod, but he was known in the time of Ibycus (c. 530 BC). Pindar (522—442 BC) speaks of him as “the father of songs”. Bust of Homer in the British Museum For other uses, see Homer (disambiguation). ... Hesiod (Hesiodos, Ἡσιοδος) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, believed to have lived around 700 BC. Greek historians debated the priority of Hesiod or of Homer, and even brought them together in an imagined poetic contest; most modern scholars agree that Homer lived before Hesiod. ... 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... Pindar (or Pindarus) (522 BC – 443 BC), objectively the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece, was born at Cynoscephalae, a village in Thebes. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 570s BC - 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC Events 529 BC - Cambyses II succeeds his father Cyrus as ruler of Persia. ... Centuries: 6th century BC - 5th century BC - 4th century BC Decades: 490s BC 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC - 440s BC - 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC Years: 447 BC 446 BC 445 BC 444 BC 443 BC - 442 BC - 441 BC 440 BC...

From the 6th century BC onwards, Orpheus was considered one of the chief poets and musicians of antiquity, and the inventor or perfector of the lyre. By dint of his music and singing, he could charm the wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance, even arrest the course of rivers. As one of the pioneers of civilization, he is said to have taught mankind the arts of medicine, writing and agriculture. Closely connected with religious life, Orpheus was augur and seer; practiced 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. (7th century BC - 6th century BCE - 5th century BCE - other centuries) (600s BCE - 590s BCE - 580s BCE - 570s BCE - 560s BCE - 550s BCE - 540s BCE - 530s BCE - 520s BCE - 510s BCE - 500s BCE - other decades) (2nd millennium BCE - 1st millennium BCE - 1st millennium) The 5th and 6th centuries BCE were... Apollo (Greek: Απόλλων, Apóllōn; Απελλων) is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt), one of the most important and many-sided of the... 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). ... Bacchus by Caravaggio Dionysus or Dionysos (Ancient Greek: Διώνυσος or Διόνυσος; also known as Bacchus in both Greek and Roman mythology and associated with the Italic Liber), the Thracian god of wine, represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficent influences. ...

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-Europeans are the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language, a prehistoric people of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. ...

Genealogy

According to the best-known tradition, Orpheus was the son of Oeagrus, king of Thrace, which in pre-historic period seems to describe a wider region from Olymbos to the Hellespontos Straits, as the Orphic texts (Argonautica) point out that Orpheus was born in Mount Elikon at Livithra (Piplan, Pieria), and that his mother was Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry. In other traditions, Calliope and Apollo were his parents. Orpheus learned music from Linus, or from Apollo, who gave him his own lyre (made by Hermes out of a turtle shell) as a gift. In Greek mythology, Oeagrus was king of Thrace. ... Thrace (Greek Θρᾴκη Thrákē, Bulgarian Тракия Trakija, Turkish Trakya) is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe spread over southern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece, and European Turkey. ... Hellespont (i. ... This article or section should be merged with Jason. ... Pieria (Πιερία) is one of the fifty-one prefectures of Greece. ... Detail of painting The Muses Urania and Calliope by Simon Vouet In Greek mythology, Calliope (Greek: Καλλιoπη, beautiful-voiced) was the muse of heroic poetry. ... In Greek mythology, the Muses (Greek Μουσαι, Mousai) are nine archaic goddesses who embody the right evocation of myth, inspired through remembered and improvised song and traditional music and dances. ... For other uses, see Apollo (disambiguation). ... In Greek mythology, Linus is any of three sons of Apollo; see Linus (mythology). ... Apollo (Greek: Απόλλων, Apóllōn; Απελλων) is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt), one of the most important and many-sided of the... Hermes bearing the infant Dionysus, by Praxiteles Hermēs (pronounced HUR-mees Greek: Έρμης: pile of marker stones), in Greek mythology, is the god of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of orators, literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures and invention and...

The Argonautic expedition

Despite Orpheus's Thracian origin, he joined the expedition of the Argonauts. Centaur Chiron had warned 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 sang irresistibly beautiful songs that enticed sailors and their ships to the islands' craggy shoals. Once shipwrecked on the rocks, the sailors became supper for the Sirens. However, when Orpheus heard the Sirens, he drew his lyre and played music more beautiful than that of the Sirens, thus drowning out their alluring but deadly song. The Black Sea near the shore of Colchis. ... In Greek mythology, Chiron (hand) — sometimes spelled Cheiron or Kiron — was held as the superlative centaur over his brethren. ... Jason (Greek: Ίασων, Etruscan: Easun) is a hero of Greek mythology. ... A Greek amphora depicting Odysseus encounter with the sirens. ... In Greek mythology, the Sirenum scopuli were three small rocky islands where the Sirens lived and lured sailors to their deaths. ...

Death of Eurydice

But the most famous story in which he figures is that of his wife Eurydice. Eurydice is sometimes known as Agriope. While fleeing from Aristaeus, she was bitten by a serpent which brought her to her death. Distraught, Orpheus played such sad songs and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept and gave him advice. Orpheus went down to the lower world and by his music softened the heart of Hades and Persephone (the only person to ever do so), who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth. But the condition was attached that he should walk in front of her and not look back until he had reached the upper world. In his anxiety he broke his promise, and Eurydice vanished again from his sight. 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 dancing with Naiads on her wedding day. In Greek mythology, there were two characters named Eurydice, or Eurydíkê. The more famous was a woman - or a nymph - named Eurydice 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. ... Hades (Greek: - HadÄ“s or - HáidÄ“s) (unseen) means both the ancient Greek abode of the dead and the god of that underworld. ... In Greek mythology, Persephone (Greek Περσεφόνη, Classical Greek PersephónÄ“, Modern Greek Persefóni) was the queen of the Underworld, the Kore or young maiden, and the daughter of Demeter. ... A sculpture of Virgil, probably from the 1st century AD. Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70 BC–19 BC), known in English as Virgil or Vergil, is a Latin poet, the author of the Eclogues, the Georgics and the Aeneid, the last being an epic poem of twelve books that... Plato (Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn) (ca. ... Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... Naiad by John William Waterhouse, 1893 In Greek mythology, the Naiads (from the Greek νάειν, to flow, and νἃμα, running water) were a type of nymph who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, and brooks, as river gods embodied rivers, and some very ancient spirits inhabited the still waters of...

The famous 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. In Greek mythology, Persephone (Greek Περσεφόνη, Classical Greek Persephónē, Modern Greek Persefóni) was the queen of the Underworld, the Kore or young maiden, and the daughter of Demeter. ... In Greek mythology, Tartarus, or Tartaros, is both a deity and a place in the underworld — even lower than Hades. ... Hecate, Hekate (Hekátē), or Hekat was originally a goddess of the wilderness and childbirth originating from Thrace, or among the Carians of Anatolia (Burkert 1985 p171). ...

The story of Orpheus and Eurydice has interesting similarities to the Japanese myth of Izanagi and Izanami. Izanagi is a deity in Japanese mythology and in Shintoism. ... In Japanese mythology, Izanami (J:イザナミ meaning She who invites) is a goddess of both creation and death, as well as the former wife of the god Izanagi. ...

After the death of Eurydice, Orpheus swore off the love of women and took only youths as his lovers. He is reputed to be the one who introduced male love to the Thracians, teaching them to love the young in the flower of their youth. Pederasty, as idealized by the ancient Greeks, was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and an adult man outside of his immediate family. ...

Death of Orpheus

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

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 ascended Mount Pangaion (where Dionysus had an oracle) 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 Dionysus, to whom therefore he functioned as both priest and avatar. Download high resolution version (801x1037, 140 KB)Albrecht Durer, The Death of Orpheus, pan and ink drawing 1494 (Kunsthall, Hamburg The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of... Download high resolution version (801x1037, 140 KB)Albrecht Durer, The Death of Orpheus, pan and ink drawing 1494 (Kunsthall, Hamburg The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of... Self-Portrait, 1493, Oil on Canvas Albrecht Dürer (May 21, 1471 - April 6, 1528) was a German painter, wood carver, engraver, and mathematician. ... 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... Aeschylus (525 BC—456 BC; Greek: Αισχυλος) was a playwright of ancient Greece. ... Apollo (Greek: Απόλλων, Apóllōn; Απελλων) is a god in Greek and Roman mythology, the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Artemis (goddess of the hunt), one of the most important and many-sided of the... Snow-covered Pangaion hills from the forests of Philippi The Pangaion Hills are a mountain range in Greece, approximately 40 km from Kavala. ... Bacchus by Caravaggio Dionysus or Dionysos (Ancient Greek: Διώνυσος or Διόνυσος; also known as Bacchus in both Greek and Roman mythology and associated with the Italic Liber), the Thracian god of wine, represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficent influences. ... In Greek mythology, Maenads [MEE-nads] were female worshippers of Dionysus, the Greek god of mystery, wine and intoxication. ... The 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu In Hinduism, an avatar or avatara (Sanskrit अवतार), is the incarnation (bodily manifestation) of an Immortal Being, or of the Ultimate Supreme Being. ...

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. Medieval folkore puts a Christian spin on the story: in Albrecht Dürer's drawing (illustration, left) the ribbon high in the tree is lettered Orfeus der erst puseran ("Orpheus, the first sodomite"). Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, 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). ... In Greek mythology, Maenads [MEE-nads] were female worshippers of Dionysus, the Greek god of mystery, wine and intoxication. ... Self-Portrait, 1493, Oil on Canvas Albrecht Dürer (May 21, 1471 - April 6, 1528) was a German painter, wood carver, engraver, and mathematician. ... 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 Lesbian shore, where the inhabitants buried his head and a shrine was built in his honour near Antissa. The lyre was carried to heaven by the Muses, and was placed amongst 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 (Greek: Λέσβος - Lésvos; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is an island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. ... A lyre is a stringed musical instrument well known for its use in Classical Antiquity. ... For other uses see Muse (disambiguation). ... Mount Olympus Mount Olympus (also transliterated as Mount Olýmpos, and on modern maps, Óros Ólimbos) is the highest mountain in Greece, at 2,919 [1] meters high; it is situated at 40°05′ N 22°21′ E, on the mainland Balkan peninsula. ... Binomial name Luscinia megarhynchos (Brehm, 1831) The Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae. ...

In Attic vase painting, however, the women who attack Orpheus appear to be normal Thracian women, who are irritated that the bard's songs have stolen their husbands away from them. Meanings for the term include: Attic (always capitalised) is an adjective for something or someone coming from Attica or Athens. ...

Orphic poems and rites

A large number of Greek religious poems in hexameter were attributed to Orpheus, as they were to similar miracle-man 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 2nd or 3rd century AD, and an Orphic Argonautica composed somewhere between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. Earlier Orphic literature, which may date back as far as the 6th century BC, survives only in papyrus scraps or in quotations by later authors. Hexameter is a literary and poetic form, consisting of six metrical feet per line as in the Iliad. ... Bakis 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 (Crete) 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 Cretan 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. ... See also hymn - a program to decrypt iTunes music files. ... // Events Roman Empire governed by the Five Good Emperors (96–180) – Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius. ... // Events The Sassanid dynasty of Persia launches a war to reconquer lost lands in the Roman east. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... This Buddhist stela from China, Northern Wei period, was built in the early 6th century. ... (7th century BC - 6th century BCE - 5th century BCE - other centuries) (600s BCE - 590s BCE - 580s BCE - 570s BCE - 560s BCE - 550s BCE - 540s BCE - 530s BCE - 520s BCE - 510s BCE - 500s BCE - other decades) (2nd millennium BCE - 1st millennium BCE - 1st millennium) The 5th and 6th centuries BCE were... Papyrus plant Cyperus papyrus at Kew Gardens, London Papyrus is an early form of paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that grows to 5 meters (15 ft) in height and was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt. ...

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 — which came to be known as the Orphikos bios, or "Orphic way of life". Hesiod (Hesiodos, Ἡσιοδος) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, believed to have lived around 700 BC. Greek historians debated the priority of Hesiod or of Homer, and even brought them together in an imagined poetic contest; most modern scholars agree that Homer lived before Hesiod. ... Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins of the gods of Greek mythology. ... Plato (Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn) (ca. ... 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. ... Vegetarianism is the practice of not eating meat, poultry, fish or their by-products, with or without the use of dairy products or eggs [2]. The exclusion may also extend to products derived from animal carcasses, such as lard, tallow, gelatin, rennet and cochineal and fungi, such as mushrooms. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sex positions Inter. ...

The post-classical Orpheus

In the Divine Comedy Dante sees the shade of Orpheus along with those of numerous other "virtuous pagans" in Limbo. 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, in Michelinos fresco. ... In some Roman Catholic circles, limbo describes the temporary status of the souls of good persons who died before the resurrection of Jesus, and the permanent status of the unbaptised who die in infancy (without having committed any personal sins, but without having been freed from original sin). ...

This story of Orpheus and Eurydice has been the subject of operas and cantatas through the history of western classical music: The foyer of Charles Garniers Opéra, Paris, opened 1875 Opera refers to a dramatic art form, originating in Europe, in which the emotional content is conveyed to the audience as much through music, both vocal and instrumental as it is through the lyrics. ... Classical musicis a broad, somewhat imprecise term, referring to musicproduced in, or rooted in the traditions of, Europeanart, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly 1000 to the present day. ...

• Jacopo Peri's "Euridice" (1600)
• Claudio Monteverdi's Orfeo (1609)
• Louis-Nicolas Clerambault's "Orphee" (1710)
• Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (1762)
• Johann Gottlieb Naumann's Orfeo ed Euridice (1785)
• Friedrich August Kanne's Orpheus (1807)
• Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld (1858)
• Darius Milhaud's Les malheurs d'Orphée (1924)
• Harrison Birtwistle's The Mask of Orpheus (1986)
• Philip Glass' "Orphee" (1993).

In addition, the story served as a basis for Angelo Poliziano's "Orfeo", a musical renaissance play which is considered by some scholars to be an important forerunner of the opera genre. Jacopo Peri (August 20, 1561 – August 12, 1633) was an Italian composer and singer, often called the inventor of opera. ... Claudio_Monteverdi (May 15,1567; November 29,1643) was an italian composer, violinist and singer. ... 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. ... Gluck, detail of a portrait by Joseph Duplessis, dated 1775 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) Christoph Willibald Gluck (July 2, 1714 – November 15, 1787) was a German composer. ... Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck. ... Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck. ... Jacques Offenbach (20 June 1819 – 5 October 1880), composer and cellist, was one of the originators of the operetta form, a precursor of the modern musical comedy. ... Operetta (literally, little opera) is a performance art-form similar to opera, though it generally deals with less serious topics. ... Orphée aux enfers is an operetta in two acts by Jacques Offenbach. ... Darius Milhaud (September 4, 1892 - June 22, 1974) was a French-Jewish composer and teacher. ... 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 looks upon sheet music in a portrait taken by Annie Leibovitz. ... Politian (also known as Angelo Poliziano or Angelo Ambrogini) (1454 - 1494) was an Italian classical scholar and poet. ... By region Italian Renaissance Spanish Renaissance Northern Renaissance French Renaissance German Renaissance English Renaissance The Renaissance, also known as Il Rinascimento (in Italian), was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. ...

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 programatically modelled after the Orpheus myth. Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17, 1770 – March 26, 1827) was a German composer of Classical music, the predominant musical figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras. ... A piano concerto is a concerto for solo piano and orchestra. ...

The Tennessee Williams play Orpheus Descending is a modern retelling of the Orpheus myth set in 1950's 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. Thomas Lanier Williams (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), better known by the pen name Tennessee Williams, was a noted playwright. ... 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 retellings and reinterpretations include:

• Orphée, directed by Jean Cocteau (1949)
• Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro), directed by Marcel Camus (1959)
• Orfeu, directed by Carlos Diegues (1999), essentially a remake of Black Orpheus.

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. Orphée (also known as Orpheus) is a 1949 movie directed by Jean Cocteau starring Jean Marais. ... Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (July 5, 1889 – October 11, 1963) was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, and filmmaker. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday. ... Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro) is a 1959 Brazilian film by French director Marcel Camus. ... Marcel Camus (April 21, 1912 - January 13, 1982) was a French film director. ... 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) is a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Rainer Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926) is generally considered the German languages greatest 20th century poet. ...

The tale of Orpheus was mixed with Celtic fairy lore in the Middle English metrical romance Sir Orfeo. The myth of Orpheus was also retold in The Sandman comic books by Neil Gaiman, and in the Hugo Award-winning novella, Goat Song by Poul Anderson. A Celtic cross. ... by Sophie Anderson A fairy is a spirit (supernatural being) found in the legends, folklore, and mythology of many cultures. ... Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman invasion in 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. ... Cover of The Sandman #1, by Dave McKean. ... Neil Gaiman (November 2004) Neil Richard Gaiman () (born November 10, 1960 in Portchester, England) is an English Jewish author of numerous science fiction and fantasy works, including many comic books. ... The Hugo Award is given every year for the best science fiction or fantasy stories of the previous year, and for related areas in fandom, art and dramatic presentation. ... Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was a prolific science fiction author of the genres Golden Age; some of his short stories were first published using the pseudonyms A. A. Craig, Michael Karageorge, and Winston P. Sanders. Poul Anderson also wrote fantasy such as the King...

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... Russell Conwell Hoban (born February 4, 1925) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, mainstream fiction, magic realism, poetry, and childrens books. ...

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). Salman Rushdie Salman Rushdie (born Ahmed Salman Rushdie Arabic: أحمد سلمان رشدی on June 19, 1947, in Bombay, India) is an Indian-born British essayist and author of fiction, most of which is set on the Indian subcontinent. ... In Greek mythology, there were two characters named Eurydice, or Eurydíkê. The more famous was a woman - or a nymph - named Eurydice who was the wife of Orpheus. ... Magic realism (or magical realism) is a literary genre in which magical elements appear in an otherwise realistic setting. ... DeFoes Robinson Crusoe, Newspaper edition published in 1719 A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... U2 can mean: The Irish rock band U2 The Lockheed U-2 spy plane The U-2 Spy Plane Crisis of 1960 Unterseeboot 2, German submarine The Polikarpov U-2 (Po-2) biplane The U2 electric guitar by Danelectro, a 1956 twenty-two fret single-cutaway with two single-coil...

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. Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian rock musician, songwriter, poet, author, actor and screenwriter, best known for his work in rock and roll band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and his fascination with American music and its roots. ... Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus is the 13th studio album released by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. ...

Orpheus appears as a member of Odysseus's last voyage from Ithaca in Nikos Kazantzakis' epic poem The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel. Odysseus and the Sirens. ... For other places named Ithaca, see Ithaca (disambiguation). ... Nikos Kazantzakis Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek Νίκος Καζαντζάκης February 18, 1883, Heraklion, Crete - October 26, 1957, Freiburg, Germany) was a Greek novelist, poet, playwriter and thinker. ... Odyssey, poem of Greek writer, poet and philosopher Nikos Kazantzakis, the largest of his works. ...

XTC's Andy Partridge and Slapp Happy's Peter Blegvad spend 13 years, on and off, creating the album Orpheus: The Lowdown, a dense mix of music, poetry and spoken word. XTC is an influential pop rock band from Swindon, England. ... Andy Partridge (born November 11, 1953 in Malta) is a founding member, guitarist and chief songwriter of the new wave rock/pop group XTC. In addition to his work with XTC, Partridge has released demos of his songs under his own name in the Fuzzy Warbles album series. ... Slapp Happy: Anthony Moore, Dagmar and Peter Blegvad. ... Peter Blegvad (born 14 August 1951) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and cartoonist. ...

Spoken-word myths - audio files

Pindar (or Pindarus) (522 BC – 443 BC), objectively the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece, was born at Cynoscephalae, a village in Thebes. ... Bust of Aristophanes Aristophanes (c. ... Phanocles, Greek elegiac poet, probably flourished about the time of Alexander the Great. ... Apollodorus was a popular name in the ancient world. ... Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian, born at Agyrium in Sicily (now called Agira, in the Province of Enna). ... Conon was an Athenian general at the end of the Peloponnesian War, in charge during the decisive loss of the navy at the battle of Aegospotami. ... A sculpture of Virgil, probably from the 1st century AD. Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70 BC–19 BC), known in English as Virgil or Vergil, is a Latin poet, the author of the Eclogues, the Georgics and the Aeneid, the last being an epic poem of twelve books that... Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading lyric poet in Latin, the son of a freedman, but himself born free. ... Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger) (ca. ... Hyginus can refer to: Gaius Julius Hyginus (c. ... Pausanias was Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... Joannes Stobaeus, so called from his native place Stobi in Macedonia, was the compiler of a valuable series of extracts from Greek authors. ...

References

Ovid, Metamorphoses X, 1-105; XI, 1-66; Apollodorus, Bibliotheke I, iii, 2; ix, 16 & 25; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica I, 23- 34; IV, 891-909. Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... Cover of George Sandyss 1632 edition of The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a poem in 15 books that describes the creation and history of the world in terms of Greek and Roman mythology. ... Apollodorus was a popular name in the ancient world. ... The Bibliotheke was renowned as the chief work of Greek historian and scholar. ... Apollonius of Rhodes (Apollonius Rhodius), librarian at Alexandria, was a poet, the author of Argonautica, a literary epic retelling of ancient material concerning Jason and the Argonauts quest for the Golden Fleece in the mythic land of Colchis. ... This article or section should be merged with Jason. ...

External links

• Greek Mythology resource.
• The Story of Orpheus.
• "Orpheus", a narrative poem by Michael J. Farrand.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Orpheus