The story of Orpheus and Eurydice remains one of the most famed myths of ancient Greece. It is not only a tale that pulses with the timeless themes of beauty, love and loss, but it also reveals deeper aspects of the human experience regarding what it means to be god and man. As a man endowed with god-like powers in the form of musical ability, Orpheus carried within himself the unique and precious capacity to bend even the most rigid hearts into understanding and supporting his deepest desires, including the rare chance to bring someone back to life. This pivotal moment in the story when Orpheus turns his head and sees his beloved wife vanish not only stirs emotions but begs an even more impending question as to why Hades made this stipulation instead of simply giving Orpheus what he asked for, as well as what the true meaning behind Orpheus's act of turning his head. Ultimately, we see that Orpheus was given divine privileges that first seemed to exempt him from the natural laws of being man, but that in Hades' final test of will, in the end his humanness prevails over even an undeniable streak of divinity.
As the son of a Thracian prince, his Muse mother birthed him with “the gift of music” and there was no one would could be his rival “except the gods alone” (Hamilton 131). Due to the ethereal and inspirational quality of his music, which would make “the woodland dance and the rivers dance still,” he was able to bypass the laws that most other human beings were subject to (Friedman 92). In Orpheus and Eurydice's story, we are witness to two human souls which have found freedom from the earthbound limitations of earth in the form of mutual devotion and love. In their mutual “moving toward union with the One,” we see that Orpheus yields his supernatural power to the reality of physical death on earth (Friedman 95). In fact, while he was able to retrieve his wife by playing music on his lyre, the limitations of his humanness prevented him from maximizing his god-like power. Although Hades was “moved to pity” by the lyrics of Orpheus's song, the fact that he required that Orpheus not look behind him shows that even Hades understood that no mortal – even a half mortal – can be placed above the law of humanity. When Virgil writes in Georgics, “What could he do? Where could he turn, twice robbed of his wife? / With what tears could he move the spirits, with what voice / move their powers?” we see that after he lost the chance given to him by the power of his music, he no longer has anything else to offer the powers of the Underworld (Virgil 89). His humanness and the flaws that come inherent with human nature are what ultimately bind him back down to the grounds of unforgiving reality, where life is life and death is death.
While Orpheus was divinely granted the gift of moving music, the truth remains that true lasting beauty is ultimately derived from the virtue it inspires. Without lasting virtue, the music is but a passing phenomenon. Though Hades was moved to sympathy and allowed for the two lovers to be momentarily be given a chance to reunite, the stipulation he laid on them shows that not even divine gifts are able to compensate for the will of the human soul and the inherent doubts that plagued its temporary existence. “Not for nothing does divine anger harass you,” and it is for this reason that we see Orpheus's limitations and the humanness of his woes (Virgil 72). Instead of trusting that his wife would be by his side, he reveals his mortality by his moment of distrust in the divinity within him that would have waited for her to turn to him.
Works Cited
Hamilton, Edith, and Monica Ferrell. Mythology: Edith Hamilton. New York: Spark Pub., 2002. Print.
Friedman, John Block. Orpheus in the Middle Ages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard U Press, 1970. Print.
Virgil, and H. V. Jacques. Virgil Georgics. Sydney: Brooks, 1966. Print.
