ORPHEUS LEADING EURYDIKE OUT OF HADES.
(From the painting by Corot.)
Persephone and Pluto were pitiless gods. Their hearts were long since hardened to the cries of the living who prayed for the restoration of their loved ones. But they could not resist the power of the enchanting sounds that Orpheus made. They called the spirit of the beautiful Eurydike to them and said to the musician: “Take thy wife Eurydike and go up again to the light of the sun. Let her gaze on the smiling sky and see the fields of the upper world. But beware of one thing. Let her follow thee and do not turn around to look at her before reaching the world of the living. If thou shouldst turn and look upon her she will return at once to her place among the dead.”
Orpheus left Hades in great haste and Eurydike followed him. In the midst of deepest silence they ascended through dismal rocky places. They neared their journey’s end. They could almost see the green earth when Orpheus was seized with a dreadful doubt. “I hear no sound whatever behind me,” he said to himself. “Is my beloved Eurydike really following me?” He turned his head a little. He saw Eurydike, who followed him like a shadow. But suddenly she began to be drawn backward. She stretched out her arms toward Orpheus as if imploring his help. Orpheus hurried to take her in his arms, but she vanished from his sight and Orpheus was alone again.
Yet he did not despair. Again he descended into Hades and reached the river which separates this world from that of the dead, but the boatman, Charon, refused to ferry him across. Seven days and seven nights Orpheus remained there without drink or food, weeping and mourning. The decree of the gods was not to be changed. When Orpheus found that he could effect nothing he returned to the earth. He wandered alone over the mountains and glens of Thrace, which resounded with his plaintive songs day and night.
One day as he sat upon a grassy spot and played his lyre a troop of wild women who were celebrating a festival rushed upon him and tried to make him play for them to dance. Orpheus indignantly refused, and they grew angry and handled him so roughly that he died. Where he was buried the nightingales sang more sweetly than elsewhere. And his lyre, which was thrown into the sea, was caught by the waves, which made sweet music upon it as they rose and fell.
Orpheus was honored by the gods, and after his death they brought him to the Abode of the Blessed, where he found his beloved Eurydike and was reunited to her.
CHAPTER XXIV
PELOPS, THE HERO OF THE PELOPONNESOS
Some of the heroes famed in Greek song and story, and whose descendants lived in Greece, had come from foreign countries, many of them from Asia Minor. Greece and Asia Minor had always been closely connected. Travellers from each were in the habit of visiting the other country. Sometimes they traded together and sometimes made war on each other.
One of the most powerful kingdoms of Asia Minor was Phrygia, and it was ruled by a king of the name of Tantalos, who had at first governed wisely and in the fear of the gods. He was made arrogant by prosperity, and at length grew so overbearing and cruel even to his own son, Pelops, that the gods determined to make an example of him. They sent him living to Tartaros, the portion of Hades reserved for the very worst offenders, there to endure a terrible punishment forever.