Orpheus Still Sings I

Dedicated to my wife Isabel and to Elizabeth Sewell, teachers mine.

Chapter I

1

On the day of Orpheus’ wedding, Eurydice, the bride, is playing with the Naiads on the flowery plain, when a viper bites her in the heel, she collapses and dies. So starts the narrative in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book X. Orpheus is desperate. ‘Che farò senza Euridice’, he heartbreakingly intones in Gluck’s opera, ‘che farò senza il mio bene’ (What will I do without Eurydice, what will I do without my comfort.) He goes down to Hades to look for his dead beloved. Somehow, he knows the way: through a cave. Which cave has been the subject of controversy; the likeliest candidate seems to be the cave in Cape Tainaron, the southernmost point of mainland Greece, where Heracles had made the dreaded descent before.

There is agreement on the remainder of the story. With his divine music (song and lyre – or perhaps sitar?), Orpheus enchants every soul in Hades, from Cerberus the hound to Persephone the queen, who, in tears, grants to Orpheus the return of his beloved to the lightsome world, on the condition that while Eurydice’s shade is following him, he must not look at her. Yet, steps away from the gates, Orpheus turns to check if Eurydice is truly following, thus sending her back to be trapped in the Underworld forever. For us to mull over what might have moved the hero to such catastrophic climax.

Perhaps, his ears not ...