Rather than curiosity or idle, naïve, love-stricken besottedness, the main emotion driving Orpheus was fear and doubt. So, in the last analysis, although his love for his wife played a part, Orpheus’ decision to turn and look back at his wife was born of a fear that if he did look back, his wife wouldn’t be there – and if that were the case, he didn’t want to return to life without her. And Orpheus’ determination to bring his wife back from the dead was so great that he wanted to make sure he wasn’t leaving the Underworld without her.Īfter all, this is the Underworld we’re talking about: you can’t just pop back if you’ve forgotten something, like the supermarket. In many ways, his doubt is well-placed: the Greek gods and goddesses were not above tricking mankind. Orpheus doubts whether his wife really is behind him on the return journey, and eventually this doubt eats away at him until he cannot resist turning back to check. It’s often said that it’s devotion or love that is Orpheus’ downfall: he’s so desperate to take one quick, besotted glance back at his wife as she follows him out of the Underworld that he turns round and, in doing so, condemns her (back) to death.īut as the summary above reveals, it’s actually a far more understandable emotion that prompts Orpheus’ folly: doubt.
Why, when he has successfully negotiated the seemingly impossible – persuading the gods to bring his wife back from the dead – does Orpheus blow it all at the last moment by foolishly going against their instructions and looking back at Eurydice before they are safely back in the world of the living?
The Orpheus and Eurydice myth is often slightly simplified when told, and thus it loses some of its force and meaning.
Orpheus tried to return down into the Underworld to plead with the gods again, but he found the entrance to Hades barred – this time for good. So, Eurydice died a second time – this time thanks to her husband. And so he had to watch in horror and despair as Eurydice was taken back down into the Underworld – all because he looked back at her. But in looking back, he had broken the one condition Hades and Persephone had laid down: not to glance back until they were both out of the Underworld.
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