The story of Orpheus and Eurydice from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a poem that was written in about 8 CE and includes a variety of stories and myths that include a sort of transformation/change. The stories tell about the creation of the world from chaos into order into the last story about Julius Caesar’s death.
This one is about Orpheus and Eurydice, these two lovers. What happens is that Orpheus and Eurydice run away from this shepherd named Aristaeus who wanted Eurydice for himself. Eurydice gets bit by a venomous snake and so she descends to the Underworld. Orpheus goes to the Underworld to save her and convinces Hades to let him take Eurydice back to the upper world on the one condition that Orpheus couldn’t look back at Eurydice while leading her out of the Underworld. They were so close but at one of the last moments Orpheus second guessed this agreement and turned back to look at Eurydice which sent her back to the Underworld.
Orpheus and Eurydice in the Metamorphoses embody the magic of origin stories and myths. I grew up listening to bedtime stories about Chang Chang, the Thai elephant, Humpty Dumpty, in varying languages. The Metamorphoses draw me in because of the origin stories that remind me so much of the multilingual stories I enjoyed so much as a child. I think Orpheus and Eurydice teach us that patience and trust are really important in our relationships with other people and that the Gods are ever so powerful and you can’t disobey and distrust them. I like that Orpheus grounds his argument in Amor, something that many humans and the Gods understand. He appeals to Hades by saying that death is inevitable so Eurdycie will end up in the Underworld at sometime but it’s not her time right now. He argues for his love in this emotional and logical way. His argument falls into a similar style as Cicero’s Pro Archia: arguing for character as an overall contribution to wellbeing, tied into a logical way. Ultimately, in an unfulfilling ending, Orpheus loses his love Eurydice due to his own selfish flaw. In a story of monsters, magic, and myths, Orpheus and Eurydice are a lesson for human life.