Musician whose song charmed animals, trees and stones. He sailed with the Argonauts and went down to the Underworld to bring back his wife Eurydice, but looked back too soon.
From Thrace. Today: north-east Greece, southern Bulgaria and European Turkey.
Strength 2/10 · Wisdom 8/10 · Courage 7/10 · Divinity 4/10 · Fame 9/10
The story
Son of the Muse Calliope, the greatest musician who ever lived. With the Argonauts, he saved the crew by out-singing the Sirens. When his wife Eurydice died, he went down to the Underworld and sang so beautifully that Hades let her follow him back, on condition he did not look round.
How it ends
He looked back too soon and lost her forever. Grief-stricken, he was later torn apart by Thracian maenads, and his head floated, still singing, to the island of Lesbos.
Still with us today
His story inspired some of the first operas ever written, by Monteverdi (1607) and later Gluck, as well as the musical Hadestown.
Family
Appears in
Jason and the Argonauts, The Underworld
Read about them in the Library
- Library of Apollodorus 2: Children of the gods, the Giants and Typhon
- Argonautica 1: The voyage begins
- Argonautica 4: The Fleece and the long way home
- Metamorphoses 10: Orpheus and his songs
- Metamorphoses 11: Midas, and Ceyx and Alcyone
Ancient sources
- Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica
- Ovid, Metamorphoses
- Virgil, Aeneid
In the sky and in space
- ConstellationLyra
The lyre of Orpheus, placed in the sky after his death. Its star Vega is one of the brightest in the sky. Hermes made the very first lyre.