Orpheus

1. Orpheus

2. Facts • King of the Tracian tribe Cicones • “the father of songs” • One of the chief poets and musicians • Invented/perfected the lyre • Could charm wild beasts, coax trees and rocks into dance, divert the course of rivers (GM 28) • Was a priest and seer • Practiced magical arts (astrology) • Instituted mystic rite • Founded many important cults (Apollo and Dionysus)

3. His Life • Two versions of his birth: • His father was Oeagrus, a Thracian king • His father was Apollo • In both versions,his mother was the muse Calliope (GM 28) • Living with the muses, Apollo gave him a golden lyre and taught him how to play and his mother taught him to make verses • Became one of the Argonauts and helped to drown out the deadly song of the sirens with his music

4. Death of Eurydice • Eurydice (GM 28) • Orpheus’wife • Killed by the bite of a snake • Orpheus goes down to the Underworld to bring her back and succeeds because his songs are so beautiful that they move Hades • The condition: he cannot look back until they reach the upper world • He looks back and loses Eurydice to the netherworld

5. His Death • A group of Ciconian Maenads (female devotees of Dionysus) came upon him as he sat singing beneath a tree • They attack him with rocks and branches but his song is so beautiful that they refuse to strike him • They then attack him with their own hands and tear him to pieces • His head and lyre floated down river still singing until it reached Lesbos • Dionysus invaded Thrace • Orpheus refused to honor him, instead preaching Apollo as the greatest of all gods • Dionysus set the Maenads on him who tear him limb from limb • His head and lyre float down the river • His head ends up at Dionysus’ sanctuary • His lyre ends up in Apollo’s temple • (GM 28)