Greek myths

Orpheus and Eurydice

Orpheus was the greatest musician in the world; when he played the lyre(ancient Greece's version of the guitar) and sang, trees would pull out their roots and follow him, dancing.  

Orpheus was engaged to Eurydice, the love of his life.  They got married and at the reception(which was outside in a field), she fell into a nest of venomous snakes and died.

Orpheus was desolate and determined to enter the Underworld and get her back.  He found the entrance and played for Charon, the Boatman, so that Charon ferried him across the River Styx.  He played for Cerberus, the three-headed guarddog of the Underworld.  FInally, he played for Hades and Persephone, god and goddess of the dead.  Orpheus played so well that Hades, the cold King of the Underworld, broke down and wept.

Because Orpheus had moved them so, Hades offered him a boon; Orpheus requested that his wife be given back to him.

Raising the dead in ancient Greece was a big deal, and not allowed.  One time, after the mortal son of Apollo had managed it, Zeus struck him down on the spot.

But Persephone convinced Hades to do so.  So Hades told Orpheus to walk back to the surface without looking back once, and Eurydice would follow him.  But if he looked back, to make sure, she would stay in the Underworld.

Orpheus  went back the way he'd come, but he couldn't hear Eurydice's footstep behind him, or her breath.  One step away from the sunshine, Orpheus figured he was close enough and looked back: there was his wife, looking beautiful--then she vanished.

Orpheus wandered the world alone until he died.

Hades and Persephone

Hades was the god of the dead, lonely and cold.  Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, goddess of the harvest and the domesticated side of nature.

One day, Hades saw Persephone picking flowers and fell in lust; he kidnapped her, dragging her back to the Underworld.  She wanted nothing to do with him, and sat in the corner, not eating or drinking, not talking.

On the surface, Demeter realized her daughter was missing and learned of her whereabouts.  She refused to do her duties until Persephone came back.  The earth began to die.

Zeus agreed to talk to Hades, who said that if Persephone hadn't eaten a single thing, he'd give her up without a fight.  But, she'd taken one bite of a pomengranat fruit.  Zeus decreed that she must spend half the year in the Underworld and half with Demeter on Earth.

(No one asked Persephone what she wanted, of course.)

So.  Those're the myths.  Yes, I'm about a thousand words into the Orpheus and Eurydice retelling.  Wincest?  Happy ending?  Haven't decided yet.