Eurydice Dying at The Louvre, Paris

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This marble sculpture finished in 1822 shows Erydice dying after a snake bites her, created by Charles-Francois LeBoeuf. In Greek mythology, Eurydice was either an oak nymph or one of Apollo's daughters (the god of music who also drove the sun chariot and 'adopted' the power from primordial god Helios). She married Orpheus, who tried to bring her back with his enchanting music after she died. Eurydice was the wife of Orpheus, who loved her deeply; on their wedding day, he played joyful songs as his bride danced through the meadow. One day, Aristaeus saw Eurydice and pursued her until she stepped on a viper, was bitten, and died instantly. Distraught, Orpheus played so mournfully that all nymphs and deities wept and told him to travel to the Underworld to retrieve her, which he gladly did. After his music softened Hades' and Persephone's hearts, with singing so sweet even Erinyes wept, he was allowed to take Eurydice back to the world of the living. Orpheus played his lyre to put Cerberus, guardian of Hades, to sleep after which Eurydice was allowed to return with Orpheus to the world of the living. Either way, the condition attached was that he must walk in front of her and not look back until both had reached the upper world. Soon Orpheus began to doubt she was there, thinking Hades deceived him. Just as he reached the portals of Hades and daylight, he turned around to gaze on her face, and because Eurydice hadn't crossed the threshold yet, she vanished back into the Underworld. When Orpheus later died at the Maenads' hands by Dionysus' orders, his soul ended up in the Underworld where he was reunited with Eurydice. This story belongs to the time of Virgil who first introduced Aristaeus and the tragic outcome. Other ancient writers speak of Orpheus visiting the underworld more negatively; Phaedrus in Plato's Symposium says infernal deities only "presented an apparition" of Eurydice to him. Ovid claims her death wasn't caused by fleeing from Aristaeus but dancing with naiads on her wedding day. Plato represents Orpheus as a coward instead of choosing to die to be with the one he loved, mocking deities by trying to go to Hades to get her back alive. Since his love was not "true" — meaning he wasn't willing to die for it — he was punished by deities, first giving him only Eurydice's apparition in the underworld and then being killed by women.