All Orpheus has to do is to leave the Underworld and she will follow him. Hades agrees that he can have Eurydice back. After explaining the situation to them, Hades openly weeps, Persephone’s heart melts, even Cerberus isn’t unaffected. So, armed with his Lyre and his voice (and his father convincing Hades to at least hear him out), he heads into the Underworld to find Hades and Persephone. Orpheus is so distraught when his wife dies that he decides he’s going to go to the Underworld and plead his case to get Hades to give her back. Aristaeus saw it happen and gave up, cursing his luck and Orpheus. She’d accidentally stepped into a vipers nest as they ran and was bitten. The first, that Aristaeus is no long following them and second, that Eurydice looks almost gray. Anyway, Orpheus and Eurydice run away from him, though eventually she trips and when Orpheus looks back he notices two things. His plan was to kill Orpheus and then take the girl (which in my opinion is just piss poor planning on his part). As the couple leaves the feast, they are set upon by Aristaeus, a Shepard who had wanted to claim Eurydice for his own. Hymenaios, the god of marriage, presides over the vows and everyone celebrates until it starts getting dark. The two fall in love, and hardly spend a day apart. Among the crowd is a wood nymph named Eurydice. One day he’s playing near a river and a crowd gathers to hear him. He’s extremely gifted with music, mastering the Lyre at a very young age. So, to sum it up quickly, I’ll tell you the myth so you don’t have to look.Įssentially, Orpheus is believed to be the son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope. So, I looked up the myth, this morning, after finishing the book, and before writing this. I couldn’t remember why he went or why he wasn’t supposed to look back. I knew Orpheus went to get Eurydice from the Underworld and he failed because he looked back, but that was it. I honestly remembered only one or two facts, but they didn’t make a whole lot of sense. I’ll be completely honest, as much as I love mythology from every culture, this was not a story I remembered a lot of. Vipers and Virtuosos is a modern retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice.

I still haven’t read Promises and Pomegranates yet, but it is on my list. In my defense, I was looking at like seven different books at the time. However, because I’m sometimes every bit the blonde I was born, despite my current hair color, I downloaded Vipers and Virtuosos before I downloaded the right one. I’d seen it on BookTok, and pretty much everywhere in the reading groups I’m part of on the book of faces. It’s also available on Amazon in paperback and hardback.) Anyway, so I wanted to read that.

I’m super behind on Lore Olympus right now (And if you haven’t checked that out on WebToon then you should. So I wanted to read Promises and Pomegranates by Sav R Miller, because I love all things Hades and Persephone.

Vipers and virtuosos book