The tragic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice - Brendan Pelsue

The marriage of Orpheus, the greatest of all poets and musicians, to Eurydice, a wood nymph, was heralded as the perfect union. Anyone could tell the couple was deeply in love. So when their wedding ceremony ended in Eurydice's untimely death, Orpheus had no choice but to venture into the underworld to try to reclaim his lost love. Brendan Pelsue shares the tragic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Lesson by Brendan Pelsue, animation by Anton Bogaty.

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[rosalie_m]

“Turning to look back at her as often as he likes” I love that

[dizzinessends]

I always like the version where Orpheus doesn’t turn around because of doubt, but because he takes one step out into the world and turns around too quickly to greet her in his joy. Just the heart-wrench of what face he must’ve made as she got sent back to the underworld OOO

[mis_l]

Moral of the story: The people you love are always right behind you, even if you can’t sense them

[blob]

Every mythology story: *do the only freakin thing that they were not supposed to do*

[alexandrakotanidou]

Fun Fact:
A different version of the myth says that when he lost Eurydice the second time, Orpheus completely avoided women and focused on playing his music even more. He was so good that the men warriors of the territory would leave their weapons and listen to his music, enchanted. But their wives grew jealous cause they felt like he was depriving them of their husbands and decided to run up and kill him. They actually attacked and cut him in pieces and threw the parts of his body in the river Evros. But somehow his head magically stayed alive and he continued singing for ever.

I'm actually taking an exam in archeology and this is one of the stories that is depicted on an attic pottery piece that I'm studying and I got too excited so I decided to share😌

[glowworm]

I love how despite the bittersweet ending, this version ends on a happy note as Orpheaus is finally reunited with Eurydice after his own death.

[shannonweiss]

"It's a sad song, but we sing it anyway. Cause, here's the thing:
To know how it ends, and still begin to sing it again. As if it might turn out this time."

[romanimations]

There's another version of the story I believe where Eurydice fell and when Orpheus heard, he turned to help her. Which is far sadder, because it shows that he loved her so very much that his first instinct was to help.

[crescent_foxx]

BOI SHE'S A GHOST OF COURSE YOU WOULDN'T HEAR HER FOOTSTEPS

[tarrute]

Nobody:
Snake: I’m about to ruin this mans whole career.

[coffin_qt]

Way down, Hadestown, way down under the ground.

[nizzletapewormlicker]

Ellen: so I hear you want your wife back
Orpheus: omg u didn’t
Eurydice: *walks onto stage*
Orpheus: *turns around*
Eurydice: *disappears*

[farexe]

Me: *about to cry after that beautiful story*
Video: tED-ED IS A NON PROFIT ORGA-

[rory]

I literally heard the “la la la la la la la” from epic iii when the video said “and he began to sing”

[LOSERWITHACAUSE]

“Perhaps he makes a choice. He chooses the memory of her. That’s why he turns. He doesn’t make the lover’s choice, but the poet’s.”
― Céline Sciamma, Portrait of a Lady on Fire

[billyk]

I say this about every video but the animation in this is amazing

[shukrina]

"please bring my gf back"
"okay but don't turn around"
"okay"
**turns around**
**she dies**

*:O*

[ClairandHerImaginaryCat]

The moral of the story: Ted-Ed is a non-profit

[kritrom]

OR
He could just be talking to her as they climb.
"Yo you there?"
"Yea."
"Kay cool."

[xhappyponyxwasmyoldname]

They missed a very important detail about why Hades did it actually. When Orpheus comes into the palace, Hades cried “No more cheap minstrel tricks. I am a god. My rages are not to be assuaged, nor my decrees nullified. No one comes to Tartarus without being sent for. No one has before, and no one will again, when the tale is told of the torments I intend to put you to.” We all know he loved Persephone very much, and in the original myths, Orpheus actually “sang a song that conjured up a green field and a grove of trees and a slender girl painting flowers and all the light about her head, with the special clearness there was when the world had just begun. He sang of how that girl made a sight so pleasing as she played with the flowers that the birds overhead gossiped of it, and the miles underground— until the word reached even gloomy Tartarus, where a dark king heard and went up to see for himself. Orpheus sang of that king seeing the girl for the first time in a great wash of early sunlight, and what he felt when he saw that stalk-slender child in her tunic and green shoes moving with her paint pit among the flowers; the fever that ran in his blood when first he put his mighty arm about her waist, and drank her screams with his dark lips and tasted her tears; of the grief that had come upon him when he almost lost her again to her mother by Zeus’s decree; and of the joy that filled him when he learned that she had eaten of the pomegranate. Persephone was sitting at Hades’ side. She began to cry. She leaned forward and whispered to him swiftly. The king turned to Orpheus. Hades did not weep, but no one had ever seen his eyes so brilliant.” He doesn’t listen to Orpheus’s request because Orpheus asked him, nor because Orpheus moved him, but because of Persephone. This video is actually pretty far from the original myths, but that’s alright, it’s art.