Four years have passed since the death of Eurydice, but Orpheus remained faithful to her. He did not want marriage with any woman in Thrace. One day in early spring, when the first greenery was breaking through the trees, a great singer was sitting on a low hill. At his feet lay his golden cithara. The singer picked it up, quietly struck the strings and began to sing. All nature listened to the wondrous singing. Such power sounded in Orpheus’s song, it captivated and attracted the singer so much that wild animals, having left the surrounding forests and mountains, crowded around him, as if enchanted. The birds flocked to listen to the singer. Even the trees moved and surrounded Orpheus; oak and poplar, slender cypresses and broad-leaved plane trees, pines and spruces crowded around and listened to the singer; not a single branch, not a single leaf trembled on them. All nature seemed enchanted by the wondrous singing and sounds of Orpheus' lyre. Suddenly loud exclamations, the ringing of tympanums and laughter were heard in the distance. It was the Kikonian women who celebrated the joyful festival of the noisy Bacchus. The bacchantes were getting closer, and then they saw Orpheus, and one of them loudly exclaimed:
- Here he is, a hater of women!
The Bacchante waved her thyrsus and threw it at Orpheus. But the ivy entwined around the thyrsus protected the singer. Another bacchante threw a stone at Orpheus, but the stone, defeated by the enchanting singing, fell at Orpheus’ feet, as if begging for forgiveness. The cries of the bacchantes were heard louder and louder around the singer, the songs sounded louder, and the tympanums thundered louder. The noise of the Bacchus festival drowned out the singer. The bacchantes surrounded Orpheus, swooping down on him like a flock of birds of prey. Thyrsuses and stones flew like a hail towards the singer. In vain Orpheus begs for mercy, but the frantic bacchantes do not heed him, whose voice the trees and rocks obeyed. Stained with blood, Orpheus fell to the ground, his soul flew off, and the bacchantes tore his body with their bloody hands. The head of Orpheus and his cithara were thrown by the bacchantes into the fast waters of the Hebra River. And - oh, miracle! — the strings of the cithara, carried away by the waves of the river, sound quietly, as if lamenting the death of the singer, and the shore sadly answers them. All nature mourned Orpheus: trees and flowers cried, animals and birds cried, and even dumb rocks cried, and the rivers became full of water from the tears they shed. The nymphs and dryads, as a sign of sadness, let down their hair and put on dark clothes. Farther and farther Gebr carried the singer's head and cithara to the wide sea, and the sea waves brought the cithara to the shores of Lesbos. Since then, the sounds of wondrous songs have been heard in Lesbos. The gods then placed the golden cithara of Orpheus in the sky among the constellations.
The soul of Orpheus descended into the kingdom of shadows and again saw the places where Orpheus was looking for his Eurydice. Again the great singer met the shadow of Eurydice and embraced her with love in his arms. From then on they could be inseparable. The shadows of Orpheus and Eurydice wander through the gloomy fields overgrown with asphodels. Now Orpheus can turn around without fear to see if Eurydice is following him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru