ORPHEUS was the son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope. He was presented by his father with a lyre and taught to play upon it, which he did to such perfection that nothing could withstand the charm of his music. Not only his fellow-mortals, but wild beasts were softened by his strains, and gathering round him laid by their fierceness, and stood entranced with his lay.
Hymen had been called to bless with his presence the nuptials of Orpheus with Eurydice; but though he attended, he brought no happy omens with him. His very torch smoked and brought tears into their eyes. In coincidence with such prognostics, Eurydice, shortly after her marriage, while wandering with the nymphs, her companions, was seen by the shepherd Aristaeus, who was struck by her beauty and made advances to her. She fled, and in flying trod upon a snake in the grass, was bitten in the foot, and died.
Orpheus sang his grief to all who breathed the upper air, both gods and men, and finding it all unavailing resolved to seek his wife in the regions of the dead (Hades).
As he sang these tender strains, the very ghosts shed tears. Tantalus, in spite of his thirst, stopped for a moment his efforts for water, Ixion's wheel stood still, the vulture ceased to tear the giant's liver.
Then for the first time, it is said, the cheeks of the Furies were wet with tears. Proserpine could not resist, and Pluto himself gave way. Eurydice was called. She came from among the new-arrived ghosts, limping with her wounded foot. Orpheus was permitted to take her away with him on one condition, that he should not turn around to look at her till they should have reached the upper air.
Under this condition they proceeded on their way, he leading, she following, through passages dark and steep, in total silence, till they had nearly reached the outlet into the cheerful upper world, when Orpheus, in a moment of forgetfulness, to assure himself that she was still following, cast a glance behind him, when instantly she was borne away. Stretching out their arms to embrace each other, they grasped only the air!
Dying now a second time, she yet cannot reproach her husband, for how can she blame his impatience to behold her? "Farewell," she said, "a last farewell,"- and was hurried away, so fast that the sound hardly reached his ears.
Orpheus endeavoured to follow her, and besought permission to return and try once more for her release; but the stern ferryman (Charon) repulsed him and refused passage. Seven days he lingered about the brink, without food or sleep; he sang his complaints to the rocks and mountains, melting the hearts of tigers and moving the oaks from their stations.
He held himself aloof from womankind, dwelling constantly on the recollection of his sad mischance. The Thracian maidens tried their best to captivate him, but he repulsed their advances.
The women raised a scream and drowned the voice of the music, and then the missiles reached him and soon were stained with his blood. The maniacs tore him limb from limb, and threw his head and his lyre into the river Hebrus, down which they floated, murmuring sad music, to which the shores responded a plaintive symphony.
The Muses gathered up the fragments of his body and buried them at Libethra, where the nightingale is said to sing over his grave more sweetly than in any other part of Greece.
His lyre was placed by Jupiter among the stars (constellation of Lyra). His shade passed a second time to Tartarus where he sought out his Eurydice and embraced her with eager arms. They roam the happy fields together now, sometimes he leading, sometimes she; and Orpheus gazes as much as he will upon her, no longer incurring a penalty for a thoughtless glance.
really enjoying your thoughts here too!!!
:)
你說得沒錯，愛情應該很難被廣義化，因為這個世界上的愛情因人而異，因情而異。。。
謝謝您給我上了一堂課，我現在也開始慢慢明白這個神話裏所傳達的一些讓人思考的信息了。。。
:)
No wonder "人人渴望愛，可我們見到過偉大的愛情嗎？研究愛情的人遠遠多於真正相愛的人。。。"
:)
thanks for your thoughtful opinions.....
please don't worry about saying "wrong or foolish" words....
i think all friends who share ideas on here are very intelligent and well-schooled....
i was trying to talk about "love" within the scope of that myth.....you seem to generalize "love"....
when you generalize, you take the risk of "speaking for others"...for example, do you think people, the happy farmers' marriage, don't know about love? their marriage lacks love? etc., etc.....
that was why i said not all "loves" are the same....
but it is perfectl okay for you to say "this is the kind of love i am talking about"....
everyone has his/her take on love.....but the striking aspect about Orpheus is the punishment he got.....do people receive the same punishment also for love?
我說到愛情，常是指相愛，不僅相愛，還指一種意思活動，或者說一起學習，人生不也是一個學習的過程嗎？我不是說的那種簡單的占有感情占有肉體的關係或其他的缺乏精神平等交流的關係。。。我說的一樣，就是愛情是相愛。。。大同小異，就是即痛苦又幸福。。。不相愛不同甘共苦不犧牲不付出代價那叫愛情嗎？沒有愛就無法生存，但那不是我想說的兩人間的愛情，頂多是一個人的愛情。。。
而現代人，人人渴望愛，可我們見到過偉大的愛情嗎？研究愛情的人遠遠多於真正相愛的人。。。你列舉的那些"love stories" 那是苟且偷生不是我說的愛情。。。
For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf
For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea -
我說的愛情是指海上的那兩道光。。。
其實我的愛情哲理很簡單就是愛，別的我想得很少。。。所以說錯話或亂說話是常有的事。。。我基本屬於無知的人。。。:)
這個神話故事裏的愛侶不也是兩道光嗎？
ZZ: “i didn't understand these myth very well before...now i am learning more....”
:)
zf:
agree with you said about "因為每個人的愛都是即痛苦又幸福...."
but,
"...其實從古至今，東方西方，所有的愛情都是一樣的，結局也大同小異..."
i am not sure about this ... if there is any logic in it, it is like saying, "all lives are the same more or less"....right??
but, each life is so different....
of course, there are many many "similar love stories" in which a man and a woman love each other against all odds, etc. etc.....
in real life, many "love stories" are merely "stories of institutional unions"...like it or not, many people i know of in China simply get married because they don't know what "love" is and they don't know what to do with themselves if they don't get married like anybody else....
so, there is the element called "culture," or "tradition" or something of that sort....
this myth tells us that not all 愛情 is the same....that is, not every man can do what Orpheus has done, metaphorically, i mean....
Orpheus didn't love Eurydice because she can give him a lovely baby and cook and does laundry for him and live a life in peace like the happy farmers, for example....
i didn't understand these myth very well before...now i am learning more....
thanks, y.y. for ZTing the poem.....
keep the great thoughts coming :)
. . .
It happened as he expected. He turned his head
And behind him on the path was no one.
Sun. And sky. And in the sky white clouds.
Only now everything cried to him; Eurydice!
How will I love without you, my consoling one!
But there was a fragrant scent of herbs, the low humming of bees,
And he fell asleep with his cheek on the sun-warmed earth
其實從古至今，東方西方，所有的愛情都是一樣的，結局也大同小異。。。如果愛，沒有什麽好分析好評價的，愛是等想清楚了再愛？還是愛完了再做總結？ 愛有就有，沒有就沒有。。。我喜歡讀神話或童話中的愛情故事，是因為裏麵有相愛的愛侶。。。現代人幻想愛情的，多還在茫茫人海裏尋覓；研究透了愛情的“聰明人”，比如李敖，放棄了愛情。。。有一對男女的對話很給我啟發“你為什麽愛我？”“因為我傻。。。”所以現代人不傻的人連愛情的感覺都沒有。。。“Being foolish/Is part of human”。。。愛情是美好的，傻也可愛。。。“I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.”。。。
如果每個人的愛也會被他人來評價，這個世界真是個沒有愛的世界。。。因為每個人的愛都是即痛苦又幸福的。。。可能我是女性的關係，我總是喜歡感受這個世界，因為人人活著都不容易，沒有區別。。。
I love you because you are everywhere.
You don’t need a name in order to be
Kissed by angels. You are the Angel
Who carries the message to the troubled,
The disheartened, the discouraged, the
Lost, the forgotten, the timid, the wicked…
You make each one of them realize
The equal importance, the same
Beauty in every breathing thing.
《I love you because you are different》
good to know you are all familiar with the greek myth....
this stroy strikes me as a very typical greek myth:
love --- death --- gore/punishment
!!!!!
usually, naiive people would think "love" is all about romance, sweetchildish
stories or middle class complacency, etc. etc...
but,
since the very beginning of time, "love" always comes with a "price"....
this story seems to open to many different interpretations i think.....
“古希臘的神話與傳說”伴著我從小學到現在。喜歡雅典娜，也喜歡普路同，喜歡那些也有歡樂與憂傷的神祗。謝謝LTG的貼子共同分享！
其實經常悄悄去YY和LTG的窩，隻不過最近懶得留言罷了。這兩天又有點恢複過來啦！
i like greek mythology a lot, used to read Ovid's metamorpheses, very beautifully written . . .those stories, no matter how old they are, can always come back as new inspiration . . . :)
it is one of the most mesmerizing love stories of all time!!!
very greekish too :)
grest contrast between love and gore....
I just read Orpheus and Eurydice, a poem of Czeslaw Milosz
love this story so much. . .