The power of love and a classic tale

I’m a nerd. One thing I’m a nerd about is ancient Greek stories.

When I found out there’s a musical adaptation of the classic love tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice, it was going to be right up my league.

“Hadestown” came out in 2016 and is, in my opinion, one of the best productions in recent years.

Now, I’m going to talk about both the Greek story and the musical, but they are fairly close and the ultimate message is the same.

For those of you who don’t remember Orpheus and Eurydice, I’ll give the refresher.

Like most pre-printing press stories, this one was originally told verbally and has gone through some editing to fit modern society. There are slightly different versions of the story out there and I’ll point those out where I can.

Orpheus was a highly gifted lyre player. In some versions, he’s the son of Apollo, the god of music, and in others, he uses a lyre Apollo gave him.

He fell in love with Eurydice, who is sometimes a regular mortal and sometimes a nymph, a nature spirit.

Shortly after their marriage, Eurydice gets bitten by a venomous snake.

In some versions, she’s celebrating her marriage with her bridesmaid and in others, the happy couple is on a walk when a scouter of Eurydice seeks to kill Orpheus and marry her himself.

Regardless, she dies, and Orpheus is heartbroken.

In one version, he wanders the world singing his grief until a stairway to Hades opens up.

In another, he reaches out to Apollo, who petitions for Hades, god of the underworld, and his queen Persephone to meet with Orpheus.

Regardless, he goes down to Hades the place to meet with Persephone and Hades the god.

Orpheus talks to them about love, singing of his love for Eurydice and pleading with Hades to remember the love he feels for Persephone. He asks to take Eurydice home.

The two agree, but with one condition. Orpheus is to go back the way he came, and if Eurydice truly loves him, then she will follow behind him, but if he looks back before she enters the sunlight, then she will be brought back to the underworld.

Orpheus agrees and starts making his way back home. Depending on the version you’re reading, he either doubts that she’s following him and looks back to confirm she’s there, or he reaches the sunlight and gets so excited that he looks back before she reaches it.

Either way, she gets taken back to Hades and Orpheus continues to mourn her.

In researching this, I actually learned there’s more to his story. Orpheus takes no other lover after Eurydice and is killed by a group of female followers of Dionysus.

His disembodied head made its way to the Island of Lesbos, where he became an Oracle for Apollo until either the Muses or Apollo himself finally put Orpheus to rest.

Depending on the story, he is then either reunited with Eurydice or the two of them spend the rest of time roaming the underworld in search of each other.

“Hadestown” is a slightly modernized version, but it hits all the same main beats.

Now, obviously, Orpheus is the hero of the story, the main character here. I would actually argue the musical does a very good job of making Eurydice, Hades and Persephone into main characters in their own right.

But, we’ll focus on Orpheus.

There are certainly messages of working through grief, and I think one lesson people get out of this story is the power of true love. Orpheus’ deep love for Eurydice comes close to bringing her back to life.

There are also messages of having faith in the people you love.

While those are valid themes to find in this story, “Hadestown” emphasizes the one I like the most, and that’s that it is important to try.

Orpheus didn’t know if begging the gods would do anything, but he tried and he mostly succeeded.

Petitioning them worked, and it’s his own arrogance or insecurities that make it not work.

But if he didn’t try, then the story would just be that they fell in love and she died shortly after the wedding and he never got over it.

The reason I say “Hadestown” emphasizes this lesson is that the last line blatantly says it.

“With a tale of a love that never dies, with a love song, for anyone who tries.”

Michael Shine is a contributing writer for the Daily American Republic.