And made Hell grant what Love did seek.”
Orpheus and his beloved wife, Eurydice, were constant companions, but one day Eurydice trod upon a poisonous snake, was bitten on the foot, and soon died. Her spirit was borne into Hades by Mercury. The husband, left desolate, boldly made his way into the land of shadows, presented himself before the throne of Pluto and Proserpine, and, with the aid of his lyre, persuaded them to again unite the thread of Eurydice’s life.
“Hell consented
To hear the Poet’s prayer;
Stern Proserpine relented
And gave him back the fair.”
—Pope.
Eurydice was permitted to return to earth on condition that, as she followed her husband from the regions of the dead, he should not look behind him. Conducted by Mercury, they had all but passed the fatal limits of that gloomy world when Orpheus, no longer able to restrain his impatience, looked back, and so lost once more and forever his beloved Eurydice.
INTERPRETATION.
Eurydice, whose name comes from a Sanskrit word denoting the broad-spreading blush of dawn across the sky, is a personification of that light slain by the serpent of darkness at twilight.
Orpheus is sometimes considered as the sun, and the dawn (Eurydice) reappears opposite the place where he disappeared; as the dawn is no longer seen after the sun has fairly risen, the ancients said, “Orpheus has turned round too soon to look at Eurydice, and so is parted from the wife he loves.”
ART.
This marble relief, in the Villa Albani, Naples, is a fine illustration of one of the leading principles of Greek art—extreme moderation in the expression of passion. The greatest grief is most delicately yet most intensely expressed by a few voiceless gestures.
Orpheus, guided by Mercury, is leading Eurydice back from Hades. Contrary to his contract, he turns with irresistible longing to look at her before they are entirely past the portals. Eurydice lovingly puts her hand on his shoulder. But now their parting must come. Orpheus’ bitterness at his fate is expressed by his hand, which moves toward the hand of his beloved. Mercury, sad and pitying, takes her by the other hand to lead her again “down the darkling ways.”
