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Orpheus and Eurydice by G. Kratzenstein-Stub

In Greek mythology, Eurydice (Eurydíkê, Ευρυδίκη) was an oak nymph or woman. She was the wife of Orpheus and he loved her very much. While fleeing from Aristaeus, she was bitten by a venomous serpent and died. Distraught, Orpheus played such sad songs and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept and gave him advice. Orpheus traveled to the underworld and by his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone, and even made the Furies weep. In another version Orpheus played his lyre to put the guardian of Hades, Cerberus, to sleep. It was then granted that Eurydice be allowed to return with him to the world of the living. But the condition was attached that he should walk in front of her and not look back until he had reached the upper world. In his anxiety, he broke his promise, and Eurydice vanished again from his sight - this time forever. The story in this form belongs to the time of Virgil, who first introduces the name of Aristaeus. Other ancient writers, however, speak of Orpheus' visit to the underworld; according to Plato, the infernal gods only "presented an apparition" of Eurydice to him.

The story of Orpheus and Eurydice has been depicted in a number of works by famous artists, including Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, Nicolas Poussin, and, in Contemporary Art, Bracha L. Ettinger whose "Eurydice" Series, exhibited in Pompidou Centre; Paris (Face à l'Histore, 1996), the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam ("Kabinet", 1997) and The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerpen ("Gorge(l)", 2007), has inspired ample writings in the fields of ethics, aesthetics, art and feminist theory. It has also been retold as an opera by Jacopo Peri, C W Gluck and Yevstigney Fomin, a play by Sarah Ruhl, and in the comic book The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. It also forms the basis for the 1967 song "From the Underworld" by The Herd.

• List of characters in Metamorphoses
• Euridice, an opera by Jacopo Peri
• Orfeo ed Euridice, an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck
• Eurydice, a play by Sarah Ruhl
• Eurydice (Don't Follow), a song by Dark Wave band The Crüxshadows
• Orfeu Negro, a 1959 adaptation of the classic myth, filmed in Brazil

• Ovid, Metamorphoses 10
• Apollodorus, The Library 1.3.2
• Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.30
• Virgil, Georgics 4.453
• Plato, Symposium
• Sleepthief,"Eurydice" featuring Jody Quine"
• Griselda Pollock, "Abandoned at the Mouth of Hell". In: Looking Back to the Future. G&B Arts. ISBN 90-5701-132-8.
• Judith Butler, "Bracha's Eurydice". In: Bracha Lichtenberg Ettinger: Eurydice Series. Edited by Catherine de Zegher and Brian Massumi. Drawing Papers n.24. The Drawing center, NY, 2001. Reprinted in: Theory, Culture and Society, 21(1), 2004. ISSN 0263-2764.
• Emmanuel Levinas in conversation with Bracha L. Ettinger, "What would Eurydice Say?" (1991-1993). Reprinted in 1997. Reprinted in Athena: Philosophical Studies, Volume 2, 2006. ISSN 1822-5047.
• Dorota Glowaka, "Lyotard and Eurydice". In: Margaret Grebowicz (ed.),Gender after Lyotard. NY: Suny Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7914-6956-9
• Christine Buci-Glucksmann, "Eurydice and her Doubles. Painting after Auschwitz", in: Artworking 1985-1999, Amsterdam: Ludion, 2000. ISBN 90-5544-283-6.

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