Eurydice

File:Dying Eurydice Louvre CC7.jpg, Dying Eurydice (1822), marble]]

Several meanings for the name Eurydice have been proposed such as "true judgment"{{Cite book|last= Stevens|first= John |url= https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12724249|title= Words and Music in the Middle Ages: Song, Narrative, Dance and Drama, 1050-1350|date=1986|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-24507-9|location=Cambridge [Cambridgeshire]|pages= 397|oclc= 12724249}} or "profound judgment" from the Greek: eur dike.{{Cite book|last= Friedman|first=John Block|url= https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/42690124|title= Orpheus in the Middle Ages|date= 2000|publisher= Syracuse University Press|isbn= 0-8156-2825-0|edition= 1st|location= Syracuse, N.Y.|pages= 89|oclc= 42690124|quote= Fulgentius provided the first and most widely imitated etymological interpretation of the legend in his Mitologiae, a reference work which undertook to describe and explain the chief figures of Greco-Roman myth. He derived the name Orpheus from oraia phone, "that is, best voice," and Eurydice from eur dice, or "profound judgement." [...] By seeing in the names of his characters certain abstract qualities, Fulgentius was able to make Orpheus and Eurydice stand for those qualities.}} Fulgentius, a mythographer of the late 5th to early 6th century AD, gave the latter etymological meaning. Adriana Cavarero, in the book Relating Narratives: Storytelling and Selfhood, wrote that "the etymology of Eurydice seems rather to indicate, in the term eurus, a vastness of space or power, which, joining to dike [and thus deiknumi, to show], designates her as 'the one who judges with breadth' or, perhaps, 'she who shows herself amply.'"{{Cite book|last=Cavarero|first=Adriana|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/871224431|title=Relating Narratives : Storytelling and Selfhood.|date=2014|publisher=Taylor and Francis|isbn=978-1-317-83528-8|location=Hoboken|pages=104|oclc=871224431}}

{{Main|Orpheus and Eurydice}}

File:Kratzenstein orpheus.jpg, Orpheus and Eurydice, 1806, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen|left]]

Eurydice was the wife of musician Orpheus, who loved her dearly; on their wedding day, he played joyful songs as his bride danced through the meadow. One day, Aristaeus saw and pursued Eurydice, who stepped on a viper, was bitten, and died thereafter. Distraught, Orpheus played and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and deities wept and told him to travel to the Underworld to retrieve her, which he gladly did. After his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone, his singing so sweet that even the Erinyes wept, he was allowed to take her back to the world of the living. In another version, Orpheus played his lyre to put Cerberus, the guardian of Hades, to sleep, after which Eurydice was allowed to return with Orpheus to the world of the living. Either way, the condition was attached that he must walk in front of her and not look back until both had reached the upper world. Soon, he began to doubt that she was there, suspecting that Hades had deceived him. Just as he reached the portals of Hades and daylight, he turned around to gaze on her face, and because Eurydice had not yet crossed the threshold, she vanished back into the Underworld. When Orpheus was later killed by the Maenads at the orders of Dionysus, his soul ended up in the Underworld, where he was reunited with Eurydice.Virgil, Georgica, 4.453ff{{Cite book|last=Impelluso|first=Lucia|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/50447697|title=Gods and heroes in art|date=2002|publisher=J. Paul Getty Museum|others=Stefano Zuffi, Thomas Michael Hartmann|isbn=0-89236-702-4|location=Los Angeles|pages=91–92|oclc=50447697}}

The story in this form belongs to the time of Virgil, who first introduces the name of Aristaeus and the tragic outcome.Lee, M. Owen. 1996. Virgil as Orpheus: A Study of the Georgics. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 9. Other ancient sources, however, speak of Orpheus's visit to the underworld in a more negative light; according to Phaedrus in Plato's Symposium,[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0174:text=Sym.:section=179d Symposium 179d-e]. the infernal deities only "presented an apparition" of Eurydice to him. Plato's representation of Orpheus is that of a coward; instead of choosing to die to be with the one he loved, he mocked the deities by trying to go to Hades to get her back alive. Since his love was not "true"—meaning he was not willing to die for it—he was punished by the deities, first by giving him only the apparition of his former wife in the underworld and then by being killed by women.

The story of Eurydice may 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 derived from another Orpheus legend in which he travels to Tartarus and charms the goddess Hecate.Graves, Robert. 1955. "Orpheus." Ch. 28 in The Greek Myths 1. London: Penguin Books Ltd. p. 115.{{Clarify|date=January 2010}}

Eurydice's story has many strong universal cultural parallels, from the Japanese myth of Izanagi and Izanami, the Mayan myth of Itzamna and Ixchel, and the Indian myth of Savitri and Satyavan. While often compared to the Akkadian/Sumerian myth of Inanna's descent to the underworld, that tale is actually a parallel for Persephone's kidnapping by Hades because both "Inanna's Descent" and Persephone's kidnapping are cultural explanations for the changing seasons.{{Cite web|url=https://interestingliterature.com/2018/05/the-first-epic-poem-the-descent-of-inanna/|title=The First Epic Poem: The Descent of Inanna|date=May 11, 2018|website=Interesting Literature}} The biblical story of Lot's wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt because she looked back at the town she was fleeing, is "often compared to the story of Orpheus and his wife Eurydice."Clark, Matthew. 2012. "The Judgment of Paris." Pp. 97–111 in Exploring Greek Myths. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2gtmbI-v35sC&pg=PA106 p. 106].

File:Eurydice-Schönbrunn.jpg; note the snake biting her foot]]

The story of Orpheus and Eurydice has been depicted in a number of works by artists, including Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, Nicolas Poussin, and Corot.Corot, Jean-Baptiste-Camille. 1861. "Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld" (painting). MFAH, Houston. More recently, the story has been depicted by Bracha Ettinger, whose series, Eurydice, was exhibited in the Pompidou Centre (Face à l'Histoire, 1996); the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (Kabinet, 1997), and The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp (Gorge(l), 2007). The story has inspired ample writings in the fields of ethics, aesthetics, art, and feminist theory. In the game Hades (2020), the aftermath of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice is told throughout a playthrough of the game.

• Sir Orfeo, a Middle English Romance poem from the late 13th or early 14th century, inspired by the Orpheus and Eurydice tale.
• Orpheus and Eurydice, a Middle Scots poem by Robert Henryson.
• "Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes." (1904), a poem retelling the journey from the underworld by Rainer Maria Rilke
• "Eurydice" (1917), a feminist retelling of the myth from the perspective of Eurydice, written by modernist poet H.D.
• Orphée (1950), directed by Jean Cocteau
• Orfeu Negro (1959), an adaptation of the classic myth filmed in Brazil by Marcel Camus
• "Eurydice" (1999), a poem that retells the traditional myth through a feminist lens by British poet Carol Ann Duffy in her book The World's Wife
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) written and directed by Céline Sciamma uses the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as an allegory for the relationship depicted in the film, and proposes an alternate explanation for why Orpheus turned to look{{Cite journal |last=Knoblauch |first=Tom |date=2022 |title="This is How You See Me?": Collisions of Influence and Feminocentric Canon Building in Celine Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/flm.2022.0016 |journal=Film & History|volume=52 |issue=2 |pages=24–34 |doi=10.1353/flm.2022.0016 |s2cid=255149298 |issn=1548-9922|url-access=subscription }}

{{See also|List of Orphean operas}}

The myth has been retold in operas by Jacopo Peri, Monteverdi, Charpentier, Gluck, Yevstigney Fomin, Harrison Birtwistle, and Matthew Aucoin.

• Euridice (1600), an opera by Jacopo Peri, the first genuine opera whose music survives to this dayRosand, Ellen. "Opera: III. Early opera, 1600–90." Grove Music Online, edited by L. Macy.
• Orfeo ed Euridice, an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck{{Cite journal |last=Rutherford |first=Susan |date=2016 |title=Living, Loving and Dying in Song Gluck, 'Che farò senza Euridice' (Orfeo), Orfeo ed Euridice , Act III |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0954586716000100/type/journal_article |journal=Cambridge Opera Journal |language=en |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=133–136 |doi=10.1017/S0954586716000100 |s2cid=193655162 |issn=0954-5867|url-access=subscription }}
• L'Orfeo (1607), by Claudio Monteverdi, widely regarded as the first operatic masterworkWhenham, John. 1986. [https://books.google.com/books?id=MYsRKxqUC9cC&q=Orfeo Claudio Monteverdi, Orfeo]. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-28477-5}}. p. xi.
• La Descente d'Orphée aux enfers H.488 (1686), opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier
• Orphée descendant aux enfers H.471 (1683), cantata by Marc-Antoine Charpentier
• Le Retour d’Euridice aux enfers (1717) by Charles Piroye
• Orfeo ed Euridice (1996), a new production of Gluck's opera by choreographer Mark Morris and the Handel and Haydn Society conducted by Christopher Hogwood.{{cite news|last=Cariaga|first=Daniel|author-link=Daniel Cariaga|date=February 12, 1995|title=MUSIC AND DANCE NEWS : Morris and Hogwood Collaborate on Gluck's 'Orfeo'|work=Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-02-12-ca-30934-story.html|access-date=17 August 2022}}
• Eurydice (2003), a play by Sarah Ruhl, later made into an opera by Matthew Aucoin in 2020.{{cite news|last=Tommasini|first=Anthony|author-link=Anthony Tommasini|date=February 3, 2020|title=Review: Eurydice, a New Opera, Looks Back All Too Tamely|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/03/arts/music/eurydice-la-opera-review.html|access-date=4 February 2020}}{{Cite journal |last=Coronis |first=Athena |date=2013 |title=Sarah Ruhl's "Eurydice": A Dramatic Study of the Orpheus Myth in Reverse |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44215423 |journal=Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Supplement |issue=126 |pages=299–315 |jstor=44215423 |issn=2398-3264}}
• Orpheus and Eurydice: A Myth Underground (2011), a theatre production written by Molly Davies with music by James Johnston, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds for the National Youth Theatre at the Old Vic Tunnels, directed by James Dacre
• Hadestown (2010), an ensemble album by Anaïs Mitchell, featuring Mitchell as Eurydice, Justin Vernon as Orpheus and Ani DiFranco among others, retelling the myth as a 'folk opera' in a post-apocalyptic Depression era America. The album inspired a Broadway musical of the same name, which opened in 2019. Featuring Eva Noblezada as Eurydice and Reeve Carney as Orpheus {{Cite web|last=Read|first=Bridget|date=2019-06-06|title=The Liberating, Radical Politics of Hadestown|url=https://www.vogue.com/article/hadestown-radical-politics-labor-review|access-date=2021-09-11|website=Vogue}}{{cite web | title=Hadestown cast| website=Broadway.com | url=https://www.broadway.com/shows/hadestown/cast/ | access-date=26 June 2023}}

• Eurydice Peninsula in Antarctica is named after Eurydice.
• A species of Australian lizard, Ctenotus eurydice, is named after Eurydice.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Eurydice", p. 86).
• A species of snake native to Papua New Guinea, Gerrhopilus eurydice, is named after Eurydice.{{EMBL species|genus=Gerrhopilus|species=eurydice}} www.reptile-database.org.
• An asteroid 75 Eurydike is named after Eurydice.

• In Hades, a rogue-like game developed by Supergiant Games, Eurydice is a character who resides in Asphodel.{{Cite web|date=2021-08-19|title=Hades: All Voice Actors From The Game & Who They Play|url=https://www.thegamer.com/hades-all-voice-actors-characters-played/|access-date=2021-09-07|website=TheGamer|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|date=2021-01-25|title=Hades: How to Reunite Orpheus & Eurydice|url=https://www.cbr.com/hades-reunite-orpheus-eurydice/|access-date=2021-09-07|website=CBR|language=en-US}} Her appearance is that of an oak nymph, and she has an afro composed of tree branches".{{Cite web |last=Lunning |first=Just |title=2020's most beautiful video game makes diversity divine |url=https://www.inverse.com/gaming/best-video-games-2020-hades-best-art-music |access-date=2021-09-11 |website=Inverse |date=10 December 2020 |language=en}} The player, Zagreus, is given the option of reuniting Eurydice and Orpheus after meeting them.{{Cite web|last=Dhanesha|first=Neel|date=2022-02-12|title=Hades tells a love story through song and side quest|url=https://www.vox.com/22925860/hades-supergiant-game-eurydice-orpheus-love|access-date=2022-02-12|website=Vox|language=en}}

{{Reflist}}

• Ovid, Metamorphoses 10
• The Library 1.3.2
• Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.30
• Virgil, Georgics 4.453
• Plato, Symposium

• Buci-Glucksmann, Christine. 2000. "Eurydice and her Doubles: Painting after Auschwitz." In Artworking 1985-1999. Amsterdam: Ludion. {{ISBN|90-5544-283-6}}.
• Butler, Judith. [2001] 2004. "Bracha's Eurydice." Theory, Culture & Society 21(1).
• Originally in de Zegher, Catherine, and B. Massumi, eds. 2001. Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger: Eurydice Series, Drawing Papers 24. NY: Drawing Center.
• Duffy, Carol Ann. 1999. "Eurydice." In The World's Wife. {{ISBN|978-0-330-37222-0}}.
• Ettinger, Bracha L., and Emmanuel Levinas. [1997] 2006. "Qui Dirait Eurydice? What Would Eurydice say?: Brache Lichtenberg Ettinger in Conversation with Emmanuel Levinas." Philosophical Studies 2.
• Glowaka, Dorota. 2007. "Lyotard and Eurydice." In Gender after Lyotard, edited by M. Grebowicz. NY: Suny Press. {{ISBN|978-0-7914-6956-9}}
• Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths, Harmondsworth, London, England, Penguin Books, 1960. {{ISBN|978-0143106715}}
• Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition. Penguin Books Limited. 2017. {{ISBN|978-0-241-98338-6|024198338X}}
• Pollock, Griselda. 2009. "Orphée et Eurydice: le temps/l'éspace/le regard traumatique." In Guerre et paix des sexes, edited by J. Kristeva, et al. Hachette.
• —— "Abandoned at the Mouth of Hell." In Looking Back to the Future. G&B Arts. {{ISBN|90-5701-132-8}}.
• Rosand, Ellen. "Opera: III. Early opera, 1600–90." Grove Music Online, edited by L. Macy.
• Whenham, John. 1986. [https://books.google.com/books?id=MYsRKxqUC9cC&q=Orfeo Claudio Monteverdi, Orfeo]. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-28477-5}}

• Aken, Dr. A.R.A. van. (1961). Elseviers Mythologische Encyclopedie. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
• Hirsh, Jennie, and Isabelle D. Wallace, eds. 2011. Contemporary Art and Classical Myth. Farnham: Ashgate. {{ISBN|978-0-7546-6974-6}}.
• Masing-Delic, Irene. 2011. "Replication or Recreation? The Eurydice Motif in Nabokov's Russian Oeuvre." Russian Literature 70(3):391–414.

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• [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-008979 Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Eurydice)]

{{Orpheus and Eurydice}}

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Category:Children of Apollo

Category:Dryads

Category:Greek underworld

Category:Metamorphoses characters

Category:Nymphs

Category:Residents of the Greek underworld