Through the weightless throng, and the ghosts that had received proper burial, he came to Persephone, and the lord of the shadows, he who rules the joyless kingdom. When Thracian Orpheus, the poet of Rhodope, had mourned for her, greatly, in the upper world, he dared to go down to Styx, through the gate of Taenarus, also, to see if he might not move the dead.

While the newly wedded bride, Eurydice, was walking through the grass, with a crowd of naiads as her companions, she was killed, by a bite on her ankle, from a snake, sheltering there. The torch, too, that he held, sputtered continually, with tear-provoking fumes, and no amount of shaking contrived to light it properly. He was present at Orpheus’s marriage, true, but he did not speak the usual words, display a joyful expression, or bring good luck. Hymen, called by the voice of Orpheus, departed, and, dressed in his saffron robes, made his way through the vast skies to the Ciconian coast: but in vain. Bk X:708-739 Orpheus sings: The death of Adonis.Bk X:681-707 Venus tells her story: The transformation.Bk X:638-680 Venus tells her story: The foot-race.Bk X:560-637 Venus tells her story: Atalanta and Hippomenes.Bk X:503-559 Orpheus sings: Venus and Adonis.Bk X:431-502 Orpheus sings: Myrrha’s crime and punishment.Bk X:356-430 Orpheus sings: Myrrha and her nurse.Bk X:298-355 Orpheus sings: Myrrha’s incestuous love for Cinyras.Bk X:243-297 Orpheus sings: Pygmalion and the statue.Bk X:220-242 Orpheus sings: The Propoetides.Bk X:143-219 Orpheus sings: Ganymede Hyacinthus.This work may be freely reproduced, stored and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose. Kline © Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved

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