Part 246: Orpheus

I've just spent the weekend tearing up the house looking for my beloved book of Greek mythology. This is what happens when your parents split up and move repeatedly while you're in college.

PERSONA MYTHOLOGY UPDATE

Let's talk about Orpheus.

The one on the left is the version Minato gets.

The Personae in Persona 3 are all named for figures in Greek mythology and because of that, they are generally more familiar to Western audiences than the Japanese gods and heroes that made up the Personae in Persona 4. Orpheus the musician is a prime example; while most of the folks here probably can't name the husband of Gaia without resorting to Wikipedia, they have almost certainly read about Orpheus's trip into the Underworld. But before I talk about that journey, let's look at some of the lesser-known stories surrounding the guy.

Orpheus was the son of Calliope, one of the nine Muses. The Muses, for the record, are the goddesses of the arts, with Calliope being the patron of epic poetry. Sources identify his father as either the Thracian king Oeagrus, while others say his father was Apollo. Still other stories depict Apollo as Orpheus's music teacher or even his lover.

Orpheus was most famous for his music. He was so talented that he could charm wild animals and make trees and stones move. According Argonautica, which tells the story of Jason and his quest for the Golden Fleece, Orpheus was one of the Argonauts who accompanied Jason on his journey. When the Argonauts passed by the island inhabited by the Sirens, Orpheus protected the crew from the Sirens' hypnotic songs by playing louder and more beautiful music, drowning them out.

Supposedly Orpheus founded the Orphic Mysteries (hence its name), a religion thought to date back as far as the 4th century BCE. Believers also venerated Persephone and Dionysus in particular, who like Orpheus are also strongly connected to the Underworld in mythology. Practitioners believed in reincarnation, practiced secret initiation rites, lived strictly ascetic lives, and founded their beliefs on a series of sacred writings. I could go into more detail but Orpheus seems to have little to do with their system of beliefs beyond being the founder of their cult.

The most famous story of Orpheus concerns his descent into the Underworld. Orpheus fell in love with and married a woman named Eurydice. On their wedding day, a satyr assaulted Eurydice, and as she ran from him a snake bit her and she died. Orpheus was disconsolate. He resolved to journey into the Underworld, land of the dead, to plead with its god Hades to return Eurydice to life.

When he reached the river Styx and the boatman Charon demanded payment for passage, Orpheus played a tune so enchanting that Charon took him across for free. Then he came before Hades and Persephone and sang a song about his love for Eurydice and how she had died before her time. Orpheus's music was so beautiful that he brought the spirits of the dead to tears and caused Kerberos, the three-headed dog who guards the entrance to the Underworld, to cease growling and lie down. Hades himself was so moved that even he shed a few tears. He agreed to allow Orpheus to return with Eurydice to the world of the living, on one condition: as Eurydice followed Orpheus out of the Underworld, Orpheus could not look back until they had both left.

You folks can probably see where this is going.

All of the sources agree that Orpheus looked back before he left the Underworld, but the why is unclear. One story says that he turned around after he had left but before Eurydice had left, mistakenly believing that it was safe to look. Another says that he looked behind to make sure she was following. Everyone agrees that he looked back when they were very close to the exit. When he turned around Orpheus saw the specter of Eurydice, who bid him farewell and vanished.

Orpheus returned to the Underworld and begged Hades to give him another chance, but the god refused. Upon his return to the land of living, Orpheus spurned the company of other human beings. He spent the rest of his life roaming the hills of Thrace, mourning the death of Eurydice. Eventually a band of Maenads, the wild women worshippers of Dionysus ran into him and demanded that he join in their festivities. When Orpheus refused, they threw sticks and rocks at him, but even these inanimate objects were so enchanted by his music that they refused to hit him. So the Maenads refused and tore him to pieces with their bare hands in a frenzy. They threw his head and lyre into a river, which floated downstream into the sea, still singing sad songs about Eurydice. Eventually Orpheus's head floated to Lesbos. According to one account, the inhabitants built a shrine to house his head, where he served as an oracle. Another story says that the Muses gathered up his body parts for burial at Leibethra at the foot of Mount Olympus, where nightingales sang over his grave. After he died, he was finally reunited with Eurydice in the Underworld.

On a side note, I have actually visited the cave that supposedly served as the entrance to the Underworld for Orpheus. In the Rhodope mountains of southern Bulgaria, where Thrace is located, there's a cave known as Devil's Throat. The opening leads down into this giant natural hall with a river running through it; the cave complex holds the one of highest underground waterfalls in Europe at 42 feet. Presumably the ancients thought the river was Styx.

e. Yes, of course Minato's Orpheus is the one on the left.