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Son of Calliope, muse of eloquence and poetry, and of the king Oeagrus, it was said that Orpheus's musical gift was beyond mortal worth. The people of the land went as far as to say that the young man had received his powers from Apollo himself, the god of music and beauty, and that Orpheus might have in fact been his very son.
His music was so powerful that it had the power to soothe rocks and nature, souls and beings across the entire land which he ventured with the Argonauts.
It was after his greatest trip that he first encountered Eurydice, a dryad of the greatest beauty, goddess of the forest, who incarnated the softness of the wood and trees. The love which they shared for one another was superior to any other love, perhaps stronger than anyone had ever seen before. Unfortunately, their wedding was ridden of any joy and filled with an incomprehensible sadness that neither were responsible of. The torch which Orpheus held did not burn with ardent colours, but with ocre, a sign of a terrible prognostic that made all guests weep.
Orpheus was not the only one who had fallen under Eurydice's charm. A frustrated, vicious shepherd who went by the name of Aristeus had as custom to spy on the dryad every day, as she bathed with the naiads in the river. It was on a warm afternoon that he had taken upon himself to go after her with foul intentions, the sinful attraction which he held for her skin becoming too much for him to cope.
At his approach, Eurydice ran away, and, in her flight, stepped onto a venomous snake that killed her instantly.
Orpheus, driven to a uncontrollable madness, took it upon himself to go down into the pits of hell to get her back in the mortal world, for them to be united once again. He seduced Cerberus, guardian of the doors of Tartarus, the three eumenides who decided of the fate of the dead, and at last, Hades, king of the Underworld himself with the power of his heavenly music, begging for Eurydice's mercy.
Hades accepted, but at only one condition: he must not gaze once at his beloved one during his escalade out of the pits of hell. Orpheus, too pleased, accepted without an ounce of hesitation.
He played his lyre and sang for Eurydice to follow behind him, unable to look back to see if she had kept up with his pace, unable to see if she was still there, right behind him. His throat was raw and his body exhausted as he could finally see the light of day, but could no longer hear the sound of his wife behind him.
Engulfed with worry and doubt, Orpheus turned around, and, in the shortest of all instants, saw his wife, before she was torn back into the flames of hell, condemned to a perpetual death, separated from the love of her life.
Orpheus sang her memory to the world until his last breath, until his death, torn and shredded to pieces by maenads, sent by Dionysus himself. His head was thrown into the sea, yet still he sang the tune of his love for Eurydice over the waves of the sea.
His body was then buried at the foot of the Mount Olympus, next to the one of Eurydice. Finally, they were united, throughout death.
