While often compared to the Akkadian/ Sumerian myth of Inanna's descent to the underworld, that tale is actually a parallel for Persephone's kidnapping by Hades because both "Inanna's Descent" and Persephone's kidnapping are cultural explanations for the changing seasons. The story of Eurydice has a number of strong universal cultural parallels, from the Japanese myth of Izanagi and Izanami, the Mayan myth of Itzamna and Ixchel, the Indian myth of Savitri and Satyavan. The myth may have been derived from another Orpheus legend in which he travels to Tartarus and charms the goddess Hecate. In particular, the name Eurudike ('she whose justice extends widely') recalls cult-titles attached to Persephone. The story of Eurydice may be a late addition to the Orpheus myths. Since his love was not "true"-meaning he was not willing to die for it-he was punished by the deities, first by giving him only the apparition of his former wife in the underworld and then by being killed by women. Plato's representation of Orpheus is that of a coward instead of choosing to die in order to be with the one he loved, he mocked the deities by trying to go to Hades to get her back alive. Other ancient sources, however, speak of Orpheus's visit to the underworld in a more negative light according to Phaedrus in Plato's Symposium, the infernal deities only "presented an apparition" of Eurydice to him. The story in this form belongs to the time of Virgil, who first introduces the name of Aristaeus and the tragic outcome. When Orpheus was later killed by the Maenads at the orders of Dionysus, his soul ended up in the Underworld where he was reunited with Eurydice. Just as he reached the portals of Hades and daylight, he turned around to gaze on her face, and because Eurydice had not yet crossed the threshold, she vanished back into the Underworld. Soon he began to doubt that she was there, suspecting that Hades had deceived him. Either way, the condition was attached that he must walk in front of her and not look back until both had reached the upper world. In another version, Orpheus played his lyre to put Cerberus, the guardian of Hades, to sleep, after which Eurydice was allowed to return with Orpheus to the world of the living. After his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone, his singing so sweet that even the Erinyes wept, he was allowed to take her back to the world of the living. Distraught, Orpheus played and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and deities wept and told him to travel to the Underworld to retrieve her, which he gladly did. One day, Aristaeus saw and pursued Eurydice, who stepped on a viper, was bitten, and died instantly. Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein, Orpheus and Eurydice, 1806, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, CopenhagenĮurydice was the Auloniad wife of musician Orpheus, who loved her dearly on their wedding day, he played joyful songs as his bride danced through the meadow.
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