Orpheus Descends to Hades

Overview

“Orpheus Descends to Hades” here refers to the Bibliotheca 1.3.2 version. After Eurydice dies from a snakebite, Orpheus enters Hades and persuades Persephone to let her return on the condition that he not look back before leaving. He fails to obey and loses his wife again. This entry follows the Bibliotheca version only. It does not claim that an ancient work used the same title or project its route, musical power and condition onto the different crossings of Odysseus or Heracles.

Relationships

• Orpheusdescends while alive

  Orpheus enters the realm of Hades for Eurydice.

• Eurydiceis the shade offered conditional return

  Eurydice is the dead wife Orpheus seeks to bring back.

Story appearances

• Gates of the UnderworldLater mythographic descent shaped by petition, condition and failure

  Later mythographic descent shaped by petition, condition and failure, part of the Underworld story's crossings, losses, judgments or guarded spaces.

Ancient sources

MythWeave distinguishes ancient-source evidence from later adaptations and modern interpretation.

• Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 1.3.2: Orpheus, Eurydice and the condition against looking back