The Theogony of Hesiod

1	Many were the minstrels who, in the early days of the world, went amongst men, telling them stories of the Gods, of their wars and their births, and of the beginning of things.
2	The son of Cronos did her no wrong nor took anything away of all that was her portion among the former Titan gods: but she holds, as the division was at the first from the beginning, privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and in sea.
3	Also, because she is an only child, the goddess receives not less honour, but much more still, for Zeus honours her.
4	Of all these minstrels none was so famous as Orpheus;
5	none could tell truer things about the Gods;
6	Whom she will she greatly aids and advances: she sits by worshipful kings in judgement, and in the assembly whom she will is distinguished among the people.
7	And when men arm themselves for the battle that destroys men, then the goddess is at hand to give victory and grant glory readily to whom she will.
8	he himself was half divine, and there were some who said that he was in truth Apollo's son.
9	But a great grief came to Orpheus, a grief that stopped his singing and his playing upon the lyre.
10	Good is she also when men contend at the games, for there too the goddess is with them and profits them: and he who by might and strength gets the victory wins the rich prize easily with joy, and brings glory to his parents.
11	And she is good to stand by horsemen, whom she will: and to those whose business is in the grey discomfortable sea, and who pray to Hecate and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, easily the glorious goddess gives great catch, and easily she takes it away as soon as seen, if so she will.
12	His young wife, Eurydike, was taken from him.
13	One day, walking in the garden, she was bitten on the heel by a serpent; straightway she went down to the World of the Dead.
14	She is good in the byre with Hermes to increase the stock. The droves of kine and wide herds of goats and flocks of fleecy sheep, if she will, she increases from a few, or makes many to be less.
15	So, then. albeit her mother's only child, she is honoured amongst all the deathless gods. And the son of Cronos made her a nurse of the young who after that day saw with their eyes the light of all-seeing Dawn. So from the beginning she is a nurse of the young, and these are her honours.
16	Then everything in this world was dark and bitter for the minstrel of the Gods;
17	sleep would not come to him, and for him food had no taste.
18	(Iliad. 453-491) But Rhea was subject in love to Cronos and bare splendid children, Hestia (18), Demeter, and gold-shod Hera and strong Hades, pitiless in heart, who dwells under the earth, and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, and wise Zeus, father of gods and men, by whose thunder the wide earth is shaken.
19	These great Cronos swallowed as each came forth from the womb to his mother's knees with this intent, that no other of the proud sons of Heaven should hold the kingly office amongst the deathless gods. For he learned from Earth and starry Heaven that he was destined to be overcome by his own son, strong though he was, through the contriving of great Zeus.
20	Then Orpheus said, "I will do that which no mortal has ever done before;
21	I will do that which even the Immortals might shrink from doing;
22	Therefore he kept no blind outlook, but watched and swallowed down his children: and unceasing grief seized Rhea. But when she was about to bear Zeus, the father of gods and men, then she besought her own dear parents, Earth and starry Heaven, to devise some plan with her that the birth of her dear child might be concealed, and that retribution might overtake great, crafty Cronos for his own father and also for the children whom he had swallowed down.
23	And they readily heard and obeyed their dear daughter, and told her all that was destined to happen touching Cronos the king and his stout-hearted son. So they sent her to Lyetus, to the rich land of Crete, when she was ready to bear great Zeus, the youngest of her children. Him did vast Earth receive from Rhea in wide Crete to nourish and to bring up.
24	I will go down into the World of the Dead, and I will bring back to the living and to the light my bride, Eurydike."
25	Then Orpheus went on his way to the cavern which goes down, down to the World of the Dead--the Cavern Tainaron.
26	Thither came Earth carrying him swiftly through the black night to Lyctus first, and took him in her arms and hid him in a remote cave beneath the secret places of the holy earth on thick-wooded Mount Aegeum; but to the mightily ruling son of Heaven, the earlier king of the gods, she gave a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes.
27	Then he took it in his hands and thrust it down into his belly: wretch! he knew not in his heart that in place of the stone his son was left behind, unconquered and untroubled, and that he was soon to overcome him by force and might and drive him from his honours, himself to reign over the deathless gods.
28	The trees showed him the way. As he went on, Orpheus played upon his lyre and sang; the trees heard his song and were moved by his grief, and with their arms and their heads they showed him the way to the deep, deep cavern named Tainaron.
29	Down, down, down by a winding path Orpheus went.
30	(Iliad. 492-506) After that, the strength and glorious limbs of the prince increased quickly, and as the years rolled on, great Cronos the wily was beguiled by the deep suggestions of Earth, and brought up again his offspring, vanquished by the arts and might of his own son, and he vomited up first the stone which he had swallowed last.
31	And Zeus set it fast in the wide-pathed earth at goodly Pytho under the glens of Parnassus, to be a sign thenceforth and a marvel to mortal men. And he set free from their deadly bonds the brothers of his father, sons of Heaven whom his father in his foolishness had bound.
32	He came at last to the great gate that opens upon the World of the Dead.
33	And the silent guards who keep watch there for the Rulers of the Dead were astonished when they saw a living being coming towards them, and they would not let Orpheus approach the gate.
34	And they remembered to be grateful to him for his kindness, and gave him thunder and the glowing thunderbolt and lightening: for before that, huge Earth had hidden these. In them he trusts and rules over mortals and immortals.
35	(Iliad. 507-543) Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled mad Clymene, daughter of Ocean, and went up with her into one bed. And she bare him a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also she bare very glorious Menoetius and clever Prometheus, full of various wiles, and scatter-brained Epimetheus who from the first was a mischief to men who eat bread; for it was he who first took of Zeus the woman, the maiden whom he had formed.
36	The minstrel took the lyre in his hands and played upon it.
37	As he played, the silent watchers gathered around him, leaving the gate unguarded.
38	But Menoetius was outrageous, and far-seeing Zeus struck him with a lurid thunderbolt and sent him down to Erebus because of his mad presumption and exceeding pride.
39	And Atlas through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms, standing at the borders of the earth before the clear-voiced Hesperides; for this lot wise Zeus assigned to him. And ready- witted Prometheus he bound with inextricable bonds, cruel chains, and drove a shaft through his middle, and set on him a long- winged eagle, which used to eat his immortal liver; but by night the liver grew as much again everyway as the long-winged bird devoured in the whole day.
40	And as he played the Rulers of the Dead came forth, Hades and Persephone, and listened to the words of the living man.
41	"The cause of my coming through the dark and fearful ways," sang Orpheus, "is to strive to gain a fairer fate for Eurydike, my bride.
42	That bird Heracles, the valiant son of shapely-ankled Alcmene, slew; and delivered the son of Iapetus from the cruel plague, and released him from his affliction -- not without the will of Olympian Zeus who reigns on high, that the glory of Heracles the Theban-born might be yet greater than it was before over the plenteous earth.
43	This, then, he regarded, and honoured his famous son; though he was angry, he ceased from the wrath which he had before because Prometheus matched himself in wit with the almighty son of Cronos. For when the gods and mortal men had a dispute at Mecone, even then Prometheus was forward to cut up a great ox and set portions before them, trying to befool the mind of Zeus.
44	All that is above must come down to you at last, O Rulers of the most lasting World.
45	But before her time has Eurydike been brought here.
46	Before the rest he set flesh and inner parts thick with fat upon the hide, covering them with an ox paunch; but for Zeus he put the white bones dressed up with cunning art and covered with shining fat. Then the father of men and of gods said to him:
47	(Iliad. 543-544) `Son of Iapetus, most glorious of all lords, good sir, how unfairly you have divided the portions!'
48	I have desired strength to endure her loss, but I cannot endure it.
49	And I have come before you, Hades and Persephone, brought here by love."
50	(Iliad. 545-547) So said Zeus whose wisdom is everlasting, rebuking him. But wily Prometheus answered him, smiling softly and not forgetting his cunning trick:
51	(Iliad. 548-558) `Zeus, most glorious and greatest of the eternal gods, take which ever of these portions your heart within you bids.' So he said, thinking trickery.
52	When Orpheus said the name of love, Persephone, the queen of the dead, bowed her young head, and bearded Hades, the king, bowed his head also.
53	Persephone remembered how Demeter, her mother, had sought her all through the world, and she remembered the touch of her mother's tears upon her face.
54	And Hades remembered how his love for Persephone had led him to carry her away from the valley where she had been gathering flowers.
55	The and Persephone stood aside, and Orpheus went through the gate and came amongst the dead.
56	Still upon his lyre he played.
57	Tantalos--who for his crime had been condemned to stand up to his neck in water and yet never be able to assuage his thirst--Tantalos heard, and for a while did not strive to put his lips towards the water that ever flowed away from him;
58	Sisyphos--who had been condemned to roll up a hill a stone that ever rolled back--Sisyphos heard the music that Orpheus played, and for a while he sat still upon his stone.
59	Ixion, bound to a wheel, stopped its turning for a while; the vultures abandoned their torment of Tityos;
60	the daughters of Danaos ceased to fill their jars; even those dread ones, the Erinyes, who bring to the dead the memories of all their crimes and all their faults, had their cheeks wet with tears.
61	In the throng of the newly-come dead Orpheus saw Eurydike.
62	She looked upon her husband, but she had not the power to come near him.
63	But slowly she came when Hades, the king, called her.
64	Then with joy Orpheus took her hands.
65	It would be granted them--no mortal ever gained such privilege before--to leave, both together, the World of the Dead, and to abide for another space in the World of the Living.
66	They went through the gate and came out amongst the watchers that are around the portals.
67	These showed them the path that went up to the World of the Living. That way they went, Orpheus and Eurydike, he going before her.
68	Up and through the darkened ways they went, Orpheus knowing that Eurydike was behind him, but never looking back upon her.
69	As he went his heart was filled with things to tell her--how the trees were blossoming in the garden she had left;
70	how the water was sparkling in the fountain;
71	how the doors of the house stood open;
72	how they, sitting together, would watch the sunlight on the laurel bushes.
73	All these things were in his heart to tell her who came behind him, silent and unseen.
74	And now they were nearing the place where the cavern opened on the world of the living. Orpheus looked up towards the light from the sky.
75	Out of the opening of the cavern he went; he saw a white-winged bird fly by.
76	He turned around and cried, "O Eurydike, look upon the world I have won you back to!"
77	He turned to say this to her.
78	He saw her with her long dark hair and pale face.
79	He held out his arms to clasp her.
80	But in that instant she slipped back into the gloom of the cavern.
81	And all he heard spoken was a single word, "Farewell!"
82	Long, long had it taken Eurydike to climb so far, but in the moment of his turning around she had fallen back to her place amongst the dead.
83	For Orpheus had looked back.
84	Back through the cavern Orpheus went again.
85	Again he came before the watchers of the gate.
86	But now he was not looked at nor listened to; hopeless, he had to return to the World of the Living.
87	The birds were his friends now, and the trees and the stones.
88	The birds flew around him and mourned with him;
89	the trees and stones often followed him, moved by the music of his lyre.
90	But a savage band slew Orpheus and threw his severed head and his lyre into the River Hebrus.
91	It is said by the poets that while they floated in midstream the lyre gave out some mournful notes, and the head of Orpheus answered the notes with song.
92	And now that he was no longer to be counted with the living, Orpheus went down to the World of the Dead, going down straightway.
93	The silent watchers let him pass; he went amongst the dead, and he saw his Eurydike in the throng.
94	Again they were together, Orpheus and Eurydike, and them the Erinyes could not torment with memories of crimes and faults.

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The Theogony of Hesiod

Orpheus