Notes

The pillared hall of Hades opened before the hero’s
song. The ranks of long-dead heroes who sit at Hades’
board looked up and turned their eyes away from the
pitiless form of Hades and his pale, unhappy queen. Grim
and unmoving sat the dark king of the dead on his ebony
throne, yet the tears shone on his rigid cheeks in the light
of his ghastly torches. Even his hard heart, which knew all
misery and cared nothing for it, was touched by the love
and longing of the music. G
At last the minstrel came to an end, and a long sigh like
wind in pine trees was heard from the assembled ghosts.
Then the king spoke, and his deep voice echoed through
his silent land. “Go back to the light of day,” he said. “Go
quickly while my monsters are stilled by your song. Climb
up the steep road to daylight, and never once turn back.
The spirit of Eurydice shall follow, but if you look around
at her, she will return to me.”
Orpheus turned and strode from the hall of Hades, and
the flocks of following ghosts made way for him to pass. In
vain he searched their ranks for a sight of his lost Eurydice.
In vain he listened for the faintest sound behind. The
barge of Charon sank to the very gunwales7
beneath his
weight, but no following passenger pressed it lower down.
The way from the land of Hades to the upper world is long
and hard, far easier to descend than climb. It was dark and
misty, full of strange shapes and noises, yet in many places
merely black and silent as the tomb. Here Orpheus would
stop and listen, but nothing moved behind him. For all he
could hear, he was utterly alone. Then he would wonder if
the pitiless Hades were deceiving him. Suppose he came up
to the light again and Eurydice was not there! Once he had
charmed the ferryman and the dreadful monsters, but now
they had heard his song. The second time his spell would
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be less powerful; he could never go again. Perhaps he had
lost Eurydice by his readiness to believe. H
Every step he took, some instinct told him that he was
going farther from his bride. He toiled up the path in
reluctance and despair, stopping, listening, sighing, taking
a few slow steps, until the dark thinned out into greyness.
Up ahead a speck of light showed clearly the entrance to
the cavern.
At that final moment Orpheus could bear no more.
To go out into the light of day without his love seemed to
him impossible. Before he had quite ascended, there was
still a moment in which he could go back. Quick in the
greyness he turned and saw a dim shade at his heels, as
indistinct as the grey mist behind her. But still he could
see the look of sadness on her face as he sprung forward
saying, “Eurydice!” and threw his arms about her. The
shade dissolved in the circle of his arms like smoke. A little
whisper seemed to say, “Farewell,” as she scattered into mist
and was gone. I
The unfortunate lover hastened back again down the
steep, dark path. But all was in vain. This time the ghostly
ferryman was deaf to his prayers. The very wildness of his
mood made it impossible for him to attain the beauty of
his former music. At last, his despair was so great that he
could not even sing at all. For seven days he sat huddled
together on the grey mud banks, listening to the wailing of
the terrible river. The flitting ghosts shrank back in a wide
circle from the living man, but he paid them no attention.
Only he sat with his eyes on Charon, his ears ringing with
the dreadful noise of Styx.
Orpheus arose at last and stumbled back along the steep
road he knew so well by now. When he came up to earth
again, his song was pitiful but more beautiful than ever.
Even the nightingale who mourned all night long would
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hush her voice to listen as Orpheus sat in some hidden
place singing of his lost Eurydice. Men and women he
could bear no longer, and when they came to hear him,
he drove them away. At last the women of Thrace,
maddened by Dionysus8 and infuriated by Orpheus’
contempt, fell upon him and killed him. It is said that as
the body was swept down the river Hebrus, the dead lips
still moved faintly and the rocks echoed for the last time,
“Eurydice.” But the poet’s eager spirit was already far down
the familiar path. J
In the daffodil meadows he met the shade of Eurydice,
and there they walk together, or where the path is narrow,
the shade of Orpheus goes ahead and looks back at
his love.
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