Eurydice in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Eurydice

5 passages from 3 ancient authors that tell of Eurydice, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Eurydice was a nymph in Greek mythology, one of the daughters of the god Apollo. She was married to Orpheus, a legendary musician and poet.After the... For the story in one place, read our article on Eurydice.

Ovid (2)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.1–85Orpheus and EurydiceHymen, called to the wedding of Orpheus and Eurydice, comes with a smoking torch and an ill omen, and Eurydice is bitten by a snake and dies. Orpheus goes down to the underworld and sings before Hades (Pluto) and Persephone (Proserpina), and the shades, even the Furies, weep, and Tantalus, Ixion and Sisyphus forget their torments. He is allowed to lead Eurydice back on condition that he does not look back, but as they near the light he turns to see her, and she slips away. Orpheus then shuns women and gives his love to the young men of Thrace.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.1–84The death of OrpheusThe Thracian women, who are angered by Orpheus' refusal to love another woman after Eurydice, attack him during the rites of Dionysus (Bacchus). Their spears and stones are charmed by his music until the noise of their pipes and drums drowns it out, and they tear him to pieces and throw his head and lyre into the river Hebrus. His shade goes to the underworld, where he is reunited with Eurydice, and Dionysus punishes the women by turning them into trees.

Pausanias (1)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.6.1–8Ptolemy of Egypt: his rise after Alexander and wars with AntigonusPausanias begins the story of the kings Ptolemy and Attalus, who gave their names to Athenian tribes. Ptolemy, son of Lagus but said to be Philip’s son, takes Egypt after Alexander’s death, repels Perdiccas, and fights Antigonus and Demetrius with Seleucus, Cassander and Lysimachus as allies. After Antigonus falls he recovers Syria, conquers Cyprus, and leaves Egypt to his son by Berenice rather than to the son of Eurydice, daughter of Antipater.

Virgil (2)

Virgil, Georgics 4.453–527Orpheus and EurydiceProteus says Orpheus, grieving for his bride Eurydice, is the cause of the plague. Eurydice died when a water-snake lay in the grass as she fled, and Orpheus went down to the palace of Hades (Dis), where his song stilled the shades, Cerberus and the Eumenides. He led her up but looked back at the threshold of day, and she vanished. He mourned for months, and the Ciconian women tore him apart, and his head still called her name down the Hebrus.
Virgil, Georgics 4.528–566The sacrifice of Aristaeus; the poet's farewellProteus plunges into the sea, and Cyrene tells Aristaeus that the nymphs, companions of Eurydice, sent the plague and must be appeased. He must sacrifice four bulls and four heifers at four altars, then after nine days send poppies and a black sheep to Orpheus and a calf to Eurydice. Aristaeus does so, and bees swarm from the carcasses and cluster in a tree. The poet closes by saying he sang of farming while Caesar waged war by the Euphrates, and names himself Virgil.