Eurydice

Eurydice was married to the poet and singer Orpheus. The couple had settled in Thessaly and was very happy. One day Eurydice was pursued by the god Aristaeus, who tried to rape her. In her efforts to elude him, she stepped on a poisonous serpent, which bit her. She died within minutes and was straight away transported to the gloomy caverns of Hades.

Orpheus was broken-hearted. He went to the underworld to beg for the revival of his darling. Before the gods he sang his most poignant song. The gods were touched by his music and granted him a way out of his misery: when he walked back to the upper world, Eurydice would follow his steps. There was one condition: Orpheus should not look back until he and his wife had reached the sunlight, because if he did, she would fade away and return to eternal darkness, and there was no retrial.

When he didn’t hear her footsteps he looked back. She was right behind him when she ebbed away…