Orpheus and Eurydice

Orpheus fell in love with a nymph named Eurydice and blissful was their life together until one day she was pursued by a son of Apollo, the minor deity Aristaeus. In her headlong eagerness to escape, she stepped on a poisonous snake, was bitten and died. Disconsolate, Orpheus found a cave which lead to Hades and followed Eurydice to the Underworld. Here his musical charms were so persuasive that the King of the Dead permitted the minstrel to take his sweetheart Home with him – on one condition..Orpheus was to go alone, his wife would follow him, but he was not to look back at her until they left the Underworld. Orpheus accepted and set out. He had almost reached daylight when a terrible doubt seized him. He turned around to check. Eurydice fainted and died again. Orpheus was not admitted to the Underworld for the second time. Orpheus swore he would never love another, and it may have been the steadfastness of this vow which caused certain wild women of Thrace to tear him limb from limb in a fit of jealousy. They threw his head into a river, and it kept on singing all the way to the sea.