Orpheus in the Underworld
Orpheus was a young man from Thrace who had been taught to play the lyre by Apollo and so had an incredible talent for music and song.
Using his lyre, he sang songs so beautiful that he could charm wild animals, to make rocks and trees dance, and even make rivers change their course. Once, when he was part of the band of heroes called the Argonauts, he managed to drown out the seductive but deadly music of the Sirens by singing even louder! But even though all the girls loved him and his music, he had eyes only for one of them: Eurydice.
On the day they were due to be married, he went walking with her in a nearby meadow. But suddenly, out of nowhere, a snake appeared and bit Eurydice on the heel. Eurydice fell sick almost immediately, and died in the arms of Orpheus.
Angry, sad and confused all at once, Orpheus sang a song of lament so beautiful that the gods took pity on him and guided him towards a place called Taenarum, which had a secret entrance to the underworld, that he might try to retrieve Eurydice from beyond the grave.
Travelling with nothing other than his lyre, Orpheus used his music to charm his way into the underworld. When he reached Charon, the ferryman who carries dead souls over the river Styx, Charon refused to let him cross because he was not dead. But Orpheus sung to him a lament that told of his lost love, and Charon was so moved by pity and sadness that he agreed to take the young man across.
Orpheus's music was in fact so sweet that even the monster Cerberus stood listening, then let him pass; all the torments of the Danaids, Sisyphus and all the rest, ceased while he was playing. His song even brought tears into Hades's eyes, and through his unmatched music Persephone, the wife of Hades who guarded the female dead, allowed Orpheus the opportunity to take back Eurydice to the light of day.
"But," she said, "there is one condition: you will walk just ahead of her the entire way, and you must not look back at her until you reach the surface - not even once - otherwise she will be lost to you forever."
Happy for any opportunity to rescue his love, Orpheus eagerly agreed to this condition, and set out. Behind him, Eurydice walked with ghostly footsteps so light they couldn't even be heard, gripping his arm with a ghostly touch so faint it couldn't be felt. Together they walked and walked, past Cerberus, back across the Styx with Charon, and up the long trail to the surface.
Unable to hear any footsteps behind him, Orpheus became increasingly worried that Eurydice had let go of his arm and gotten lost. Finally, he felt the first breath of cool surface air reach his face, he forgot himself and turned his head to smile at Eurydice. He just saw her eyes open wide in surprise, and then she was drawn back, and vanished from his sight. The gates of the underworld were closed, and he had lost her again.
