eurydice

Medium

Traditional

Artist Notes

"Eurydice" is a character in a Greek tragedy myth. She is the lover of Orpheus, the greatest of musicians. While walking among her people, the Cicones, in tall grass at her wedding, Eurydice was set upon by a satyr. In her efforts to escape the satyr, Eurydice fell into a nest of vipers and suffered a fatal bite on her heel. Her body was discovered by Orpheus who, overcome with grief, played such sad and mournful songs that all the nymphs and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus travelled to the underworld and by his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone (he was the only person ever to do so), who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. He set off with Eurydice following, and, in his anxiety, as soon as he reached the upper world, he turned to look at her, forgetting that both needed to be in the upper world, and she vanished for the second time, but now forever. In the World of Darkness novella collection, "Orpheus: Haunting the Dead", there is a Eurydice-based myth, and a character that this painting was inspired by. I read it 10 years ago or so, and have been waiting for awhile to make this painting. Oil on canvas, glazed-in colour