Orpheus

Orpheus is a legendary figure in Greek mythology, renowned as a musician, poet, and hero. He is described as the son of the muse Calliope and either Oeagrus, a Thracian king, or Apollo. His lyre and song could charm all living things, making him a symbol of musical harmony.

In most accounts, his wife Eurydice dies from a snake bite soon after their wedding. Grief-stricken, Orpheus travels to the Underworld and persuades Hades and Persephone to release her, on the condition that he not look back until they reach the upper world. He looks back too soon, and Eurydice is lost again.

After Eurydice's death, Orpheus is said to wander Thrace and to reject Dionysian rites. Some versions end with his death at the hands of the Maenads; his head and lyre are said to have drifted to the heavens as the constellation Lyra.

Orpheus is central to Orphic tradition, a religious movement that taught the soul's immortality and its rebirth. Orphic hymns and tablet inscriptions circulated in antiquity, emphasizing purification, ethics, and rituals associated with afterlife and revelation attributed to Orpheus.

The Orphic myth influenced later literature and art, making Orpheus a symbol of musical power and lost love. He appears in works from Ovid to Apollonius Rhodius and inspired operas such as Monteverdi's L'Orfeo and various visual arts.