Orpheus Relief with Hermes, Eurydice, and Orpheus

myminifactory

The relief belongs to a class of "three figure reliefs" in Classical Greek style from the 5th century B.C. Most of these were discovered at sites in Italy, and therefore may have been created by Greek artists for an Italian art market between 100 BCE-100 CE. Five full copies and two partial ones of the Orpheus panel are known; our cast is of the relief in the Naples Archaeological Museum, Italy, either a genuine original from the 1st century BCE/CE or a copy of a Greek original dating back to around 420 BCE. On the Naples relief, the name of each figure is inscribed at the top of the scene in Greek (Orpheus is written backwards). This cast adapts the marble relief in Naples - Orpheus's foot is slightly angled. One theory, now discredited, suggests that the original of this relief once decorated the Altar of the Twelve Gods in the marketplace (Agora) at Athens. Our panel shows Orpheus, Eurydice, and Hermes (the Roman Mercury). According to myth, Orpheus was a son of Apollo and a famous singer who lived in Thrace in northern Greece - his song could charm human beings, wild animals, and even inanimate objects like trees and rocks. His wife, Eurydice, was playing with her companions when she stepped on a serpent that bit her: she died. Hermes led her "shade" into the realm of Hades and Persephone. Orpheus refused to accept the loss, and followed the shade of his wife. Persuaded by his music, Hades agreed to return Eurydice to the land of the living, as long as Orpheus did not look back at her while leading her spirit back to the upper world. At the threshold to the upper world, however, Orpheus hesitated and turned - Eurydice was forced to die a second time. In sorrow, the singer turned away from the love of women and became exclusively homosexual. Infuriated, the wild women (maenads) of Thrace tore him to pieces and threw his head in the river; it floated downstream and out to sea, still singing. Hermes stands on the viewer's left, and can be recognized by his traveler's hat (petasos) and cloak (chlamys) pinned at the right shoulder. He wears a short tunic belted at the waist, with his left hand holding the right wrist of Eurydice. She is not only the central figure but also the visual focus of the composition - standing with her weight on the left leg; the right is free and trailing. Eurydice's left hand is raised to the shoulder of her husband, as if to comfort him. She wears a Classical peplos, a simple dress pinned at each shoulder, with an overfold that covers her belt; over the left leg, the skirt forms closely-spaced vertical folds, like the flutes of a column. A veil completes her costume, and frames her face and downcast eyes. Both Eurydice and Hermes wear sandals with carved soles - the straps would have been painted. Orpheus at right balances the figure of Hermes in a near mirror-image pose (his right hand is raised to touch the hand of Eurydice on his shoulder), and he wears high boots. The singer wears a peaked Thracian cap to indicate his northern origin, and grasps his lyre in the left hand - the instrument appears in profile. The pathos of the scene depends largely on the pose and gestures of the three figures, but as spectators we sense the tragic outcome of the story. L.-A. Touchette has suggested a new interpretation - that Eurydice is shown returning to her husband. It is more likely, however, that Hermes has grasped Eurydice's wrist, much like a bridegroom grasps his bride, using a conventional gesture of possession (cheir' epi karpo) in order to take her back to Hades.