WEBVTT 00:00:06.730 --> 00:00:09.950 It was the perfect wedding, the guests thought. 00:00:09.950 --> 00:00:14.430 The groom was Orpheus, the greatest of all poets and musicians. 00:00:14.430 --> 00:00:17.471 The bride Eurydice, a wood nymph. 00:00:17.471 --> 00:00:22.540 Anyone could tell the couple was truly and deeply in love. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:22.540 --> 00:00:27.090 Suddenly, Eurydice stumbled, then fell to the ground. 00:00:27.090 --> 00:00:30.622 By the time Orpheus reached her side, she was dead, 00:00:30.622 --> 00:00:35.631 and the snake that had bitten her was slithering away through the grass. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:35.631 --> 00:00:37.531 Following Eurydice’s funeral, 00:00:37.531 --> 00:00:42.861 Orpheus was overcome with a grief the human world could not contain, 00:00:42.861 --> 00:00:46.391 and so he decided he would journey to the land of the dead, 00:00:46.391 --> 00:00:53.902 a place from which no living creature had ever returned, to rescue his beloved. NOTE Paragraph 00:00:53.902 --> 00:00:58.624 When Orpheus reached the gates of the underworld, he began to strum his lyre. 00:00:58.624 --> 00:01:04.007 The music was so beautiful that Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guards the dead, 00:01:04.007 --> 00:01:06.883 lay down as Orpheus passed. 00:01:06.883 --> 00:01:11.988 Charon, the ferry captain who charged dead souls to cross the River Styx, 00:01:11.988 --> 00:01:17.878 was so moved by the music that he brought Orpheus across free of charge. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:17.878 --> 00:01:21.399 When Orpheus entered the palace of Hades and Persephone, 00:01:21.399 --> 00:01:23.346 the king and queen of the dead, 00:01:23.346 --> 00:01:25.228 he began to sing. 00:01:25.228 --> 00:01:30.097 He sang of his love for Eurydice, and said she had been taken away too soon. 00:01:30.097 --> 00:01:33.468 The day would come when she, like all living creatures, 00:01:33.468 --> 00:01:36.789 dwelled in the land of the dead for all eternity, 00:01:36.789 --> 00:01:41.759 so couldn’t Hades grant her just a few more years on Earth? NOTE Paragraph 00:01:41.759 --> 00:01:46.131 In the moment after Orpheus finished, all hell stood still. 00:01:46.131 --> 00:01:48.937 Sisyphus no longer rolled his rock up the hill. 00:01:48.937 --> 00:01:53.007 Tantalus did not reach for the water he would never be allowed to drink. 00:01:53.007 --> 00:01:58.031 Even the Furies, the demonic goddesses of vengeance, wept. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:58.031 --> 00:02:03.291 Hades and Persephone granted Orpheus’s plea, but on one condition. 00:02:03.291 --> 00:02:05.658 As he climbed back out of the underworld, 00:02:05.658 --> 00:02:10.299 he must not turn around to see if Eurydice was following behind him. 00:02:10.299 --> 00:02:15.580 If he did, she would return to the land of the dead forever. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:15.580 --> 00:02:17.451 Orpheus began to climb. 00:02:17.451 --> 00:02:18.580 With each step, 00:02:18.580 --> 00:02:23.050 he worried more and more about whether Eurydice was behind him. 00:02:23.050 --> 00:02:26.546 He heard nothing— where were her footsteps? 00:02:26.546 --> 00:02:29.889 Finally, just before he stepped out of the underworld 00:02:29.889 --> 00:02:31.901 and into the bright light of day, 00:02:31.901 --> 00:02:34.840 he gave into temptation. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:34.840 --> 00:02:38.862 Orpheus tried to return to the underworld, but was refused entry. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:38.862 --> 00:02:40.991 Separated from Eurydice, 00:02:40.991 --> 00:02:44.650 Orpheus swore never to love another woman again. 00:02:44.650 --> 00:02:49.343 Instead, he sat in a grove of trees and sang songs of lovers. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:49.343 --> 00:02:54.392 There was Ganymede, the beautiful boy who Zeus made drink-bearer to the gods. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:54.392 --> 00:02:58.713 There was Myrrah, who loved her father and was punished for it, 00:02:58.713 --> 00:03:02.581 and Pygmalion, who sculpted his ideal woman out of ivory, 00:03:02.581 --> 00:03:07.072 then prayed to Venus until she came to life. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:07.072 --> 00:03:08.732 And there was Venus herself, 00:03:08.732 --> 00:03:12.923 whose beautiful Adonis was killed by a wild boar. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:12.923 --> 00:03:15.653 It was as if Orpheus’s own love and loss 00:03:15.653 --> 00:03:21.312 had allowed him to see into the hearts of gods and people everywhere. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:21.312 --> 00:03:24.803 For some, however, poetry was not enough. 00:03:24.803 --> 00:03:27.284 A group of wild women called the Maenads 00:03:27.284 --> 00:03:31.872 could not bear the thought that a poet who sang so beautifully of love 00:03:31.872 --> 00:03:34.265 would not love them. 00:03:34.265 --> 00:03:38.934 Their jealousy drove them to a frenzy and they destroyed poor Orpheus. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:38.934 --> 00:03:42.143 The birds, nature’s singers, mourned Orpheus, 00:03:42.143 --> 00:03:46.062 as did the rivers, who made music as they babbled. 00:03:46.062 --> 00:03:49.204 The world had lost two great souls. 00:03:49.204 --> 00:03:53.885 Orpheus and Eurydice had loved each other so deeply that when they were separated, 00:03:53.885 --> 00:03:58.696 Orpheus had understood the pain and joys of lovers everywhere, 00:03:58.696 --> 00:04:02.555 and a new art form, the love poem, was born. 00:04:02.555 --> 00:04:08.705 While the world wept, Orpheus found peace, and his other half, in the underworld. 00:04:08.705 --> 00:04:14.594 There, to this day, he walks with Eurydice along the banks of the River Styx. 00:04:14.594 --> 00:04:17.084 Sometimes, they stroll side by side; 00:04:17.084 --> 00:04:19.135 sometimes, she is in front; 00:04:19.135 --> 00:04:24.085 and sometimes, he takes the lead, turning to look back at her as often as he likes.