Then through the vast heaven, having been dressed in a saffron cloak,
Hymen departs the heavens, proceeds to the shores of the Cicones,
and is called by the voice of Orpheus in vain.
He (Hymen) indeed was present, but he brought neither ceremonial words,
nor happy faces, nor a lucky omen;
also the torch, which he held, continuously hissed with tear-provoking fumes
and even with shaking found no fires.
The outcome was more grave than the omen. For while [Orpheus'] new wife,
accompanied by a crowd of river nymphs, wandered through the grass,
she died with the fang of a serpent having been received in her ankle.
  After the bard of Mt. Rhodope wept into the upper air for her
 and, in order that he not fail to try the Shades,
he dared to descend to the River Styx by the gate of Taenarus,
and through the light peoples and the ghosts having suffered burial
he went to Persephone and the master holding the unpleasant kingdom
of the shades, and with the strings having been beaten to a song
he spoke thus: “O divinities of the world placed below the earth
into which we fall back, whichever of us are created mortal,
if it is allowed and, with the wanderings of false speech placed aside,
you permit truth to be said, I did not descend here so that I might see
dark Tartarus nor to bind the three throats
of the monster of Medusa shaggy with snakes;
the cause of my way is my wife, into whom a stepped on
serpent poured venom and taking away her budding years.
I wish to be able to endure nor shall deny that I tried;
Love conquers. This god is well known in the upper regions (earth);
whether he may be here also, I doubt. But nevertheless, I sense that he also is here,
and, if the story of the old kidnapping is not a lie,
Love has joined you also. I beg by these places full of despair
by this huge Chaos and the silence of this desolate kingdom,
unweave the premature death of Eurydice!
Everything is owed to you and, having delayed
a little bit, sooner or later, we hasten to one seat (death).
We all proceed here, this is the ultimate house and you
hold the most enduring dominion over the human race.
She too, when advanced in age completed her deserved years
will be under your authority- we ask for this right through a tribute.
But if the Fates deny this favor for my wife, it is certain
for me to not want to return; enjoy the death of two.”
  The lifeless souls were crying over him saying such things and moving his
strings to his words; nor did Tantalus
capture the fleeing water, and the wheel of Ixion ceased to turn,
nor did the birds tear at his liver, and the descendants of Belas were free
from their urns, and O Sisyphus you sat on your rock.
Then first, it is said that the cheeks of the Furies, conquered
by his song, were wet with tears; nor was the royal spouse
able to deny him begging, nor he who rules below
and they called Eurydice. She was among the recent shadows,
and she walked with a step, slow from her wound.
The Rhodopeian hero welcomed her and at the same time the restriction,
lest he turns behind with his eyes until he will exit the valley
of the underworld, or his gift would be nullified.
  The inclined footpath is pressed upon through the soundless silence,
tall, dark and dense with mist.
They were not far off from the border of the top of the land;
here, fearing that she may lose strength and eager of seeing her,
her lover turned his eyes. And immediately she fell back,
holding her arms and struggling both to be grasped and to grasp,
and the unlucky one grasped nothing except the retreating air;
and now dying again, she did not complain about her husband
at all (for what could she complain of except that she was loved?)
She said her final goodbye, which now he scarcely received with his ears
and again she fell back to the same place.
  Orpheus stood agape because of the twin death of his wife, not differently
than the coward who saw Cerberus, the three-headed dog, chained by the central neck,
and whose fear vanished with his nature, as stone transformed his body.
Or like Olenos, and you, his Lethaea, too proud of your beauty:
he wished to be charged with your crime, and seem guilty himself:
once wedded hearts, you are now rocks set on moist Mount Ida.
  The toll-keeper restrained him begging and wishing to cross again
in vain. Nevertheless, he, filthy, sat on the shores
for 7 days without the gift of Ceres (grain);
anxiety and grief of his soul and tears were food.
Having complained that the gods of the underworld were cruel,
he retreated onto high Rhodope and to Haemus beaten by the winds.
The third Titan finished the year and come to watery Pisces;
and Orpheus had shunned all feminine love,
whether because it ended badly for him,
or whether he had given his loyalty; however, passion had many women
that they marry themselves to the poet, many felt pain having been rejected.
He set the example for the people of Thrace
of giving his love to tender boys, and enjoying
the springtime and first flower of their youth.