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Mythographia

    Source Verification: Eurydice

    Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.

    What the Sources Attest

    Is Eurydice Hades' daughter?

    No source checked here makes her a daughter of Hades. Apollodorus calls her the wife of Orpheus, Ovid places her among Naiads at her wedding, and Virgil gives her dryad companions. Hades and Persephone appear only as the rulers who allow her to leave. Two other Eurydices in the myths have named fathers, Lacedaemon and Clymenus, and neither is Hades.

    Source: Apollodorus, Library 1.3.2

    Did Eurydice actually love Orpheus?

    Apollodorus and Plato say nothing of her feelings. Ovid is the only source checked here that lets her answer. She does not reproach Orpheus when he looks back. Ovid asks what she had to complain of except that she was loved, and her last word is a farewell. That is the poet's judgment of her, not a speech of hers.

    Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.1-85

    What did Orpheus do to Eurydice?

    Apollodorus says he disobeyed the condition, turned and saw his wife, and she went back. Virgil calls him forgetful and overcome in mind. Plato blames him for a different fault, that he came down alive instead of dying for love, and says the gods showed him only a wraith. Ovid has her go without blame for him.

    Source: Virgil, Georgics 4.487-491

    Are there other women called Eurydice in Greek myth?

    Yes. Apollodorus says Acrisius had a daughter Danae by Eurydice, a daughter of Lacedaemon. The Odyssey names the wife of Nestor as Eurydice, the eldest daughter of Clymenus. Neither woman has any link to Orpheus in those passages, so a source that says only Eurydice needs its context checked.

    Source: Apollodorus, Library 2.2.2

    Where Accounts Differ

    • how Eurydice died: at her wedding or fleeing Aristaeus
    • release or wraith in Plato's Symposium
    • Eurydice's death is told two ways. Apollodorus and Ovid say only that a snake bit her, and Ovid places it at her wedding among the Naiads. Virgil says she was fleeing Aristaeus when she trod on a water-snake.
    • Whether Orpheus truly won her release differs by source. Apollodorus, Virgil and Ovid have her led up and lost when he looks back. Plato's Symposium has the gods show him only a wraith, as a penalty for his lack of courage.

    Sources

    Primary sources
    • Apollodorus, Library 1.3.2
    • Apollodorus, Library 2.2.2
    • Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.1-85
    • Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.61-66
    • Virgil, Georgics 4.453-527
    • Plato, Symposium
    • Homer, Odyssey 3.464-468