Orpheus came from Thrace and was the son of the Muse Calliope. He was the greatest musician in the world: when he played the lyre, which some said was a gift from Apollo, animals stopped to listen, trees bent towards him and even stones moved. He sailed with the Argonauts and saved his companions by drowning out the Sirens with his song.
The death of Eurydice
Orpheus married the nymph Eurydice. Soon after the wedding, while fleeing a shepherd who was chasing her (or dancing with her friends), Eurydice was bitten by a poisonous snake and died.
Descent to Hades
In despair, Orpheus resolved to do what no living man dared: go down to the land of the dead to bring her back. His music charmed the ferryman Charon, lulled the three-headed dog Cerberus to sleep, and for a moment even the damned stopped suffering. Before the throne of Hades and Persephone he sang his grief, and the rulers of the underworld, moved, let him lead Eurydice back to earth on one condition: he must not look back at her until they had come out into the light.
The glance
Orpheus climbed the dark path with Eurydice behind him. He could not hear her footsteps and, one step from the exit, doubt or love won: he turned. Eurydice vanished for ever, back among the shades. Orpheus tried to go down again, but Charon would not let him cross.
The end of Orpheus
From then on Orpheus lived alone, singing his sorrow. The Maenads, followers of Dionysus, offended by his rejection, tore him apart. His head, thrown into the river Hebrus, floated to the island of Lesbos, still singing. The Muses gathered his remains and Zeus set his lyre among the stars: the constellation Lyra, with its bright star Vega.
Orphism
Poems attributed to Orpheus were the basis of Orphism, a religious movement that taught the immortality of the soul, reincarnation and a pure way of life, for example without eating meat. Gold leaves with instructions for the journey to the afterlife have been found in tombs from Greece to southern Italy.
See also the Greek underworld.