Sonntag, Juli 15, 2007

Farewell to Orpheus


This sculpture is on the Portland campus. Named Farewell to Orpheus, I assume it is Eurydice, who says her final good bye to her husband Orpheus, who screwed up the rescue mission:



Orpheus Descends to the Underworld
Eurydice's death caused such sorrow to Orpheus her spouse that he not only lamented her with the bitterest of tears but, reliant on his skill in playing the lyre, he went down to the underworld. On arriving he lulled Pluto and Proserpina so delectably with his lyre that they actually returned him his spouse, on condition that he would not look at her until they returned to the living. Unsure his wife was following him, Orpheus looked back; so Eurydice was recalled to the under- world by Pluto, leaving her mate in most extreme torment.

From Ovid's Metamorphosis

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