Beauty and sadness are inextricably woven together in the aesthetic of gothic culture. Edgar Allan Poe expressed this belief in an essay when he wrote, "Beauty of whatever kind in its supreme development invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears." From this artistic sense comes the embrace of those legendary artists of the Pre-Raphaelite, Romanticist and Symbolist schools, who drew upon tragic myth and legend for their creative inspiration and to express their philosophy.

The tragic and horrific story of Orpheus has been the subject of countless works of art, and was most beautifully painted in the years before and after the turn of the 19th century. Orpheus' supernatural ability as a musician appealed especially to the Symbolists, who sought to use the 'music' of color, line and shape to express concepts and emotions through dreamlike imagery.

Orpheus was the son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope. His father presented the child Orpheus with the gift of a lyre and he was taught to play it with unsurpassed perfection. His skills in music and song were magical, such was the depth of emotion he could express in words and melody. He grew to adulthood in the land of ancient Thrace, which is now northeastern Greece.

Orpheus fell in love with the beautiful nymph Eurydice and won her consent to marry him, but on the occasion of their wedding day, she was fatally bitten on the foot by a poisonous snake. Consumed by grief, Orpheus determined to find the Land of the Dead that he might be reunited with his lost bride.

It was said that hidden in the deep valley of Acherusia was the passage to the Underworld. Orpheus made his way to that dark valley, and the power of his songs of lament caused the trees of the forest to bow in the direction of the great hidden gate of Hades' realm. In this way, Orpheus found the dark passage that no other mortal had seen.

The black river Styx flowed across his path, but Orpheus' sad music won over the hard heart of Charon the Boatman, who offered passage across the water. The hideous creature Cerberus, the three-headed watchdog of Hades, whose gaze was as deadly as the Gorgon, heard Orpheus' lament and lay down harmlessly at his feet.

At last the rulers of the Underworld, Hades and Persphone, heard the forlorn music and came to hear Orpheus' plight. He sang of his love and his loss, he sang of the untimeliness of Eurydice's fate and he sang of Hades' ultimate sway over every mortal. The icy Queen Persephone was moved to plead on behalf of Orpheus' love, and Hades relented, allowing the grieving man one chance to find and reclaim his bride, with one condition. Once on their way to the world above, neither Orpheus nor Eurydice could cast their gaze back toward the Underworld, lest that gaze condemn the nymph to the Land of the Dead forever.

Orpheus wandered among the spirits of the dead, and of those punished by the gods. He saw Tantalus, who was condemned to stand in water up to his chin while tortured with an unquenchable thirst, while the charmed waters flowed away from him if he attempted to drink. He saw Sisyphus, who was bound through eternity to roll a heavy stone to the top of a hill, only to have it roll back down forever and ever. He saw the cursed Erinyes, the vengeance demons, who torment the dead with reminders of their crimes and failings among the living. All were affected by his song, and paused in their eternal duties to silently weep.

Orpheus found Eurydice among the spirits of the newly dead and taking her by the hand, he began the journey back and up the long ascent out of the depths of the Underworld. Just as the world of light and life had almost been regained, Orpheus was overcome with joy and turned to gaze at the face of beloved. But too soon, his glance was turned toward the Land of the Dead, and Eurydice was doomed to die a second time. His beloved was pulled from his grasp, falling back into the eternal shadows.

Orpheus returned to the River Styx, but now his words were met with silence from the boatman Charon. He could no longer pass to the world beyond, and bereft of hope, he journeyed back to the land of the living. He returned to Thrace, where he spent his days alone, shunning humanity in favor of the animals of the forests, which he entertained with the music of his lyre.

On the last day of his life, Orpheus encountered a group of women known as the Maenads, who were worshippers of Dionysus. The Maenads indulged in the darkest aspects of their god, engaging in mad frenzies of intoxication, sex, self-mutilation, bloodlust and extreme violence. When Orpheus refused their demands to indulge their desires, the Maenads seized upon him and tore him apart, dismembering and shredding his body and throwing the pieces, along with his lyre, into the River Hebrus.

Orpheus' head was carried by the current to the sea, and even though severed from his brave heart, his lips still whispered the name of Eurydice. It was found by nymphs on the island of Lesbos, where it was discovered to still have the capacity of speech and song and the gifts of wisdom and prophesy. A shrine was devoted to this mystical part of his remains, and it became known as the Oracle of Orpheus. In time, the oracle became more famous than the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi, whereupon Apollo himself came to command the Orphic Oracle to silence.

The Muses gathered the dismembered limbs of Orpheus and buried them. His lyre was placed in the sky as a constellation. Orpheus had at last regained his passage to the Underworld where he was reunited with the spirit of Eurydice.