Context Essay

Christian Woo

Thaddeus Lisowski

Latin 4 Honors

5/14/24

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Ovid Project Context Essay: The Death of Orpheus

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The Death of Orpheus is an important poem of Ovid’s Metamorphoses that continues  previous books’ themes such love and the Underworld, and touches upon new themes of greed and desire.

 

The first story in Book 10 is the well known tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. It is certainly not a coincidence, then, that the first story of Book 11 details Orpheus’s death. As its title suggests, The Death of Orpheus vividly describes the final moments of the famous poet Orpheus, who once ventured into the Underworld in hopes of resurrecting his lover Eurydice. 

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The final poem of Book 10 is the Fate of Adonis, which has themes relating to love as well as the Underworld. It is natural that these themes are continued over into the next book with the Death of Orpheus. His death, as well as his life, are most famously centered around desire, with some even calling it greed. Ovid uses the actions of Bacchus as a segway into the story of King Midas, but he makes sure that ideas of desire and greed are still prevalent. 

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The poem begins by describing Orpheus’s beautiful songs, which inducing animals, trees, and even rocks to follow him. However, the Maenads are angered due to Orpheus spurning their desire. They hurl objects at him, but the objects are so moved by his voice that they fall to the floor, ineffectual. After drowning his song with hideous instruments and chants, they throw more objects, drawing blood. While rushing towards him, the Maenads tear apart the animals that stopped to listen to his song, and they rush upon him. 

 

My excerpt begins as the Maenads stop to grab farming tools from nearby fields, killing the oxen. For the first time, his voice has no persuasion, and Orpheus is torn apart by the savage crowd. Nature weeps for him as his torn limbs are scattered, and his lifeless head floats down the river, uttering a mournful cry. Finally, his head washed onto the shore of Lesbos, where it was promptly attacked by a serpent. Saving Orpheus’s head was Apollo, who drove off the serpent and turned its jaws to stone. As his body was strewn about, the soul of Orpheus traveled into the Underworld, all the while searching for Eurydice.  My excerpt ends when they meet and embrace. As my last line affirms, he can follow her or lead, all the while able to look back at her in safety.

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The story finishes with the wrath of Bacchus. Angered by the poet’s death, he doesn’t allow the wicked dead to go unpunished and transforms the Maenads. While they shift forms, you would think they appear like trees. As the final line states: “such a thought would be the very truth”.