Snakebit - Orpheus and Eurydice

As does Ovid in his treatment of this pair, Spencer's Amoretti and Epithalamion,

Egyptian tapestry roundel with 

Orpheus and Eurydice, 5th–6th century CE

 a 1595 Ode to his bride Elizabeth Boyle, invokes both Orpheus and Hymen thus:

So Orpheus did for his owne bride, 

So I unto my selfe alone will sing, 

The woods shall to me answer and my Eccho ring. 

Early before the worlds light giving lampe, 

His golden beame upon the hils doth spred, 

Having disperst the nights unchearefull dampe, 

Doe ye awake, and with fresh lusty hed, 

Go to the bowre of my beloved love, 

My truest turtle dove, 

Bid her awake; for Hymen is awake, 

And long since ready forth his maske to move, 

With his bright Tead that flames with many a flake, 

And many a bachelor to waite on him, 

In theyr fresh garments trim..... 
                        ~Edmund Spencer 1595 

Newly wed Orpheus and Eurydice do not fare so well as  Ed & Lizzy Boyle-Spencer.







From the very beginning for them the god Hymen showed up but:

"He brought nor happy smiles nor lucky sign;
Even the torch he held sputtered throughout
With smarting smoke and caught no living flame
For all his brandishing."

Persephone (aka Proserpine)

Orpheus drops in on Persephone, who by

 now has been raped by Hades, married him, 

and is Queen of the Underworld,

announcing:

"Ye deities who rule the world below

Whither we mortal creatures all return,

If simple truth, direct and genuine,

May by your leave be told, I have come down

Not with intent to see the glooms of Hell,

Nor to enchain the triple snake-haired necks

Of Cerebus, but for my dear wife's sake,

In whom a trodden viper poured his venom

And stole her budding years."

Hades and Proserpina are moved. Orpheus cuts a well-known deal with Hades: the "Don't look back" promise which he violates just as they emerge from the Underworld.
She slips back in. He goes nuts.
I ran short of time...

Orpheus and Eurydice, 1636-1638.
Found in the collection of the Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Artist: Rubens, Pieter Paul (1577-1640)

Proserpine
"What
are
 you
looking
 at?"

 

But love has won, a god whose fame is fair
In the world above; but here I doubt, though here
Too, I surmise; and if that ancient tale
Of ravishment is true, you too were joined
In love.

Postscript:

See below The Rape of Proserpine (p.109) Does the tale of Orpheus & Eurydice begin here?
After all, how good a fate is it to be Queen of the Underworld? Perhaps Persephone (Proserpina) is envious of Eurydice who gets to return topside? Does she trick Orpheus? If one goes with the idea that rape does not necessarily dissolve into love, one must assume there might be some residual resentment and longing to return home to Ceres (Demeter) her mother.

Daughter Julia shares the following gloss on Greek Myth:

If one were a young girl or any female growing up in BCE Greece, she might feel lucky not to have been raped already. Seen as it was back then, perhaps another distant mirror of our times, the equivalent of 19th century novels, or present day film where the Clark Gable/Clint Eastwood character gets his way with women. Of course then there is the incredible art.

Galleria Borghese (Rome) - Bernini