Orpheus
Orpheus is a hero in Greek mythology. When he played his lyre the world would sway to the music. It was noted he could charm mortals, Gods and even stones with his music. He was the son of a Muse. He was a companion of Jason and the Argonauts.
Orpheus was married to a dryad named Eurydice. In one version of the myth, while trying to get away from a satyr Eurydice was bitten by a snake and went to Hades. Orpheus rode the ferry across the river Styx to bring her back from the underworld. He played his lyre to make Cerberus fall asleep, and moved the wife of Hades, Persephone, with his music. She said he could take Eurydice back to the upper world if he didn't look back at Eurydice until they both got back up to the land of mortals. Racked by doubt, he did look back just before reaching the upper world, and so she was returned to the realm of Hades forever. He was killed by a group of Maenads when they became tired of his mournful music over Eurydice, and his head was cast into the sea.
Orpheus Media
Greek mythology ; Parentage of Orpheus and Linus, Genealogical chart.*Data from Parada, Carlos (1993) Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology (Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, Vol 107) (Hardcover), Coronet Books ISBN: 978-9170810626.
Important sites in the life and travels of Orpheus
Orpheus with the lyre and surrounded by beasts (Byzantine & Christian Museum, Athens)
Orpheus (left, with lyre) among the Thracians, from an Attic red-figure bell-krater (c. 440 BC)
Thracian Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus on His Lyre (1865) by Gustave Moreau
The Death of Orpheus, detail from a silver kantharos, 420–410 BC, part of the Vassil Bojkov collection, Sofia, Bulgaria
Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus (1900) by John William Waterhouse
