Exploring Orpheus and Eurydice through Art

For thousands of years, artists have been inspired by the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. But what can these depictions tell us about the cultures that created them?

Below, Seán Hemingway, the John A. and Carole O. Moran Curator in Charge of the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Greek and Roman Art, leads us through five works in the museum’s collection. Some of them depict Orpheus and Eurydice, and some of them depict related stories or figures from ancient Greece.

By clicking on each featured work, you’ll find a video with Seán introducing and offering context for the art in question. You’ll also find information about each of the featured works and a link to the relevant page on the Met Museum's own website, as well as some questions to guide your own art-history exploration.

To get started, here is an introduction to the collection:

read the Eurydice educator guide buy tickets

As you look at each object, ask yourself:
- What is something that I really like about this object?
- What is something that I find surprising?
- What is something that I’m curious about or about which I’d like to learn more?
To dig a bit deeper, look for answers to each of the following questions as you watch the videos:
- What is a krater?
- What was a symposium?
- Where did the gods of ancient Greece live?
- What instrument did Orpheus play? Was he always depicted playing this particular instrument?
- How can we identify specific mythological characters depicted in ancient Greek art?
- What other instruments did the ancient Greeks play? How do we know about Greek music?
Orpheus among the Thracians

Terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)
Attributed to the Painter of London E 497

Date: ca. 440 B.C. | Culture: Greek, Attic

About this object: A bell-krater is a bowl for mixing water and wine.

What it depicts: This scene is from later in Orpheus’s life, after his ill-fated attempt to retrieve Eurydice from the Underworld, when he returned to his homeland of Thrace. Unfortunately, Orpheus’s sojourn in Thrace ended tragically: Angered by his refusal to marry one of them, the women of Thrace banded together and killed him. On the vase, we see Orpheus speaking with a Thracian man; to the right, we see a Thracian woman holding a scythe (a reference to Orpheus’s impending death).

Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1924 | Accession Number: 24.97.30

Read about this work on The Met’s website

Other works in this video:

Eurydice, Circle of Antonio Lombardo
Date: 1515–ca. 1524 | Culture: Italian, Padua
Credit Line: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917 | Accession Number: 17.190.737

Eurydice Bitten by a Serpent, Hendrick de Clerck (Netherlandish, 1570–1629)
[no date]
Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1957 | Accession Number: 57.188

Story of Orpheus and Eurydice
Date: early 17th century | Culture: Flemish
Credit Line: Anonymous Gift, 1949 | Accession Number: 49.32.53

Orpheus and Eurydice, Auguste Rodin (French, Paris 1840–1917 Meudon)
Date: modeled ca. 1887, carved 1893 | Culture: French, Paris
Credit Line: Gift of Thomas F. Ryan, 1910 | Accession Number: 10.63.2

Orpheus and Eurydice, Agostino Carracci (Italian, Bologna 1557–1602 Parma)
Date: ca. 1590–95
Credit Line: Gift of Henry Walters, 1917 | Accession Number: 17.37.170
Persephone’s ascension from the Underworld

Terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)

Attributed to the Persephone Painter

Date: ca. 440 B.C. | Culture: Greek, Attic

About this object: A bell-krater is a bowl for mixing water and wine.

What it depicts: Like the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, the story of Persephone is one of the rare stories in ancient Greek myth about someone returning from the Underworld. Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, goddess of the harvest. One day, while she was looking at a beautiful narcissus flower, she was abducted by Hades, god of the Underworld, to be his bride. Demeter, understandably despondent at the loss of her daughter, refused to grow any crops, so the gods of Olympus hired the messenger god Hermes to convince Hades to let Persephone return to her mother. Hades agreed, but with a condition: Since Persephone had eaten the seeds of a pomegranate while in the Underworld, she would have to spend part of the year with Hades. To this day, we know when Persephone is in the Underworld, because crops die and winter descends on the land.

Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1928 | Accession Number: 28.57.23

Read about this work on The Met’s website

Other works in this video:

Rape of Persephone, Gaetano Gandolfi (Italian, 1734–1802)
Date: ca. 1755–90
Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1960 | Accession Number: 60.611.66

Unhappy Ghosts Crossing the Styx: In Base-relief, John Doyle (Irish, Dublin 1797–1868 London)
Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 2014 | Accession Number: 2014.757.5(16)
Musician playing a kithara and singing

Terracotta amphora (jar)
Attributed to the Berlin Painter

Date: ca. 490 B.C. | Culture: Greek, Attic

About this object: An amphora is a large vase for storing wine, oil, or water.

What it depicts: On this vase, which may have been used as a prize for a singing competition, we see a young man singing (notice his open mouth) while playing a kithara, a particularly large and fancy type of lyre. The lyre, a U-shaped harp, was the preferred instrument of both Orpheus and his father, the god Apollo. It is predominantly through images such as these that we know what kinds of instruments the ancient Greeks played.

Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1956 | Accession Number: 56.171.38

Read about this work on The Met’s website

Other works in this video:

Terracotta amphoriskos (flask)
Date: ca. 420 B.C. | Culture: Greek, Attic
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1919 | Accession Number: 19.192.44

Terracotta kylix (drinking cup), Attributed to the Dokimasia Painter
Date: ca. 480 B.C. | Culture: Greek, Attic
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1906 | Accession Number: 06.1021.188

Terracotta squat lekythos (oil flask)
Date: late 5th century B.C. | Culture: Greek, Attic
Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1924 | Accession Number: 24.97.35

Terracotta column-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), Attributed to the Pig Painter
Date: ca. 475–465 B.C. | Culture: Greek, Attic
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1941 | Accession Number: 41.162.86

Terracotta amphora (jar), Attributed to the Eucharides Painter
Date: ca. 490 B.C. | Culture: Greek, Attic
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1907 | Accession Number: 07.286.78

Terracotta kylix (drinking cup), Attributed to the Akestorides Painter
Date: ca. 460 B.C. | Culture: Greek, Attic
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1922 | Accession Number: 22.139.72

Terracotta bell-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water), Attributed to the Painter of London E 497
Date: ca. 440 B.C. | Culture: Greek, Attic
Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1924 | Accession Number: 24.97.30

Terracotta stamnos (jar), Attributed to the Menelaos Painter
Date: ca. 450 B.C. | Culture: Greek, Attic
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1906 | Accession Number: 06.1021.178

Pair of bronze cymbals
Date: 5th–4th century B.C. | Culture: Greek, Peloponnesian
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1913 | Accession Number: 13.225.5a, b
The Orpheus Cup

Cup with enamel cover
Jewel animals, amorini, and figurines of the lid attributed to Jan Vermeyen (Brussels (Hapsburg Lowlands) before 1559–1608 Prague) | Painted enamel by Johann Wilhelm Baur (German, Strasbourg 1607–1642 Vienna) | Goldsmith work by Hans Georg Bramer (Austrian, 1608–1661) | Enamel painting by an anonymous Viennese artist, active after January 1642

Date: 1641–42, the jeweled elements on the lid in the form of animals, amorini holding bow and quiver, and the statuettes of Orpheus and Diana, Prague, ca.1600 | Culture: Austrian, Vienna

About this object: This is a drinking cup with a very ornate sculptured cover. Perhaps surprisingly, the cover was made first, and the cup was made nearly half a century later.

What it depicts: On the top of the cup sits Orpheus playing a viol (a Renaissance-era instrument instead of his ancient Greek lute). Behind him is Diana (the Roman version of Artemis), the goddess of the hunt. Gathered around him is an assortment of different species, a reference to his music’s capacity to charm animals as well as humans. The cover of this cup was made around 1600, the year of the first extant opera, which also told the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Credit Line: Purchase, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Acquisitions Fund, 2020 | Accession Number: 2020.400a, b

Read about this work on The Met’s website

Photograph by Micah Joel
Orpheus and Eurydice

Marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917)

Date: modeled ca. 1887, carved 1893 | Culture: French, Paris

About this object: This marble sculpture was one of the first works by Rodin to come to the United States and was acquired by The Met during the composer’s lifetime.

What it depicts: In this sculpture, we see Orpheus and Eurydice in the moments before Orpheus's fateful backwards glance. The figures' smooth skin contrasts with the coarse texture of the rocks behind them, which perfectly evoke the rough cave and underground passages leading into the Underworld.

Credit Line: Gift of Thomas F. Ryan, 1910 | Accession Number: 10.63.2

Read about this work on The Met’s website

Except where noted, all images courtesy and copyright The Met Museum

Videography by Micah Joel

Excerpts from Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice performed by Erin Morley, Joshua Hopkins, Jakub Józef Orliński, Nathan Berg, Barry Banks, and The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin

A co-production of the Metropolitan Opera and LA Opera

Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera and LA Opera. Originally commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater New Works Program.

Eurydice is performed by arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc., publisher and copyright owner.