An Essay on Seeing Through Orpheus and Eurydice: The Feminine Reborn

The Orpheus and Eurydice myth validate and maintain a sociological system of shared set of rights and wrongs, properties or improprieties that has created the patriarchal ideology and institutions that governs how the West interacts with the world today. Namely, the dialectic relationship, in society and the psyche between the masculine and feminine. Orpheus and Eurydice display a masculine centered approach that has become the controlling paradigm that we see in modern society. Orpheus and Eurydice demonstrate the oppression and fragmentation of the feminine; The demoralization and stripping of matriarchal religions. Orpheus and Eurydice show the importance of individuation and demonstrate that a metaphorical death can bring forth rebirth and transformation when we embrace our path to awakening.

Oppression and Fragmentation of the Feminine
The original myth establishes Eurydice as a goddess. Even her name, “Universal Dike” and “Mother of Fate”, embodies her autonomy and demonstrates that her power is destined.  Dike, is understood as a rule that even the Gods must obey. However,  Hellenic writers converted the goddess, Eurydice, into Orpheus’s wife. This demonstrates how the masculine stripped the feminine of her power and autonomy and made her into one that is subject to life rather than the source of it. Goddesses, that were the source, became wives, sisters and concubines They were removed from their fateful place and replaced with a patriarchal pantheon that silenced the voice of the feminine. The residues of this myth are demonstrated in current society as, women’s interests are discounted by legislation and personal decisions about a woman’s body are still being challenged as states try to overturn Roe v. Wade 410 U.S. 113 (1973).

The reader is only given Orpheus’s perspective. The myth does not give Eurydice a voice;  this shows a direct silencing of the feminine. We see this same silencing in societies: women are discounted, oppressed, and objectified by their male counterparts. There is a devaluing of the feminine; some countries still perceive women as property of their fathers and husbands.  In America, females are paid less than a male for the same work. There is a perception that a female is of lesser value and not equal to a man.

Oppression of the Feminine Gives Way to a Patriarchal Paradigm
The oppression and objectification of the feminine has been embodied in how we interact and perceive Gaia, Mother Earth, there is a pervading masculine centered mindset that perceives life as something to manipulate, control, and commodify for personal gain. This global paradigm perceives earth as something to rule over and possess. Humanity pillages her natural resources, pollutes the air with emissions, and decimates her ecological systems. Thus, causing effects of global warming that present hurricanes, earthquakes, and other great natural disasters all around the world. She was silenced in the same way that Eurydice was silenced and oppressed in the same way that Eurydice was oppressed. We see her anguish in the display of the natural disasters and extreme weather. We see her speaking in the same way that Eurydice demonstrated her autonomy as she ran away from Orpheus in to the embrace of a snake.

Individuation
Why is it hard for the masculine to hear the feminine? Perhaps this stems from the male’s inability to perceive the complexity of the feminine and hold this paradoxical place of seeing the feminine as creative and destructive, woman & girl. Perhaps this inability stems from fear or resentment. Perhaps for the patriarchal institutions to be validated the feminine must be devalued and suppressed. She must be shown as incompetent and dependent upon the male/ masculine. For, it is in this process, and this myth, that the patriarchal paradigm is shown to serve a purpose and remain in place.

Poets Virgil and Ovid, demean the former goddess, Eurydice, to a “girl” in the retelling of the myth. They frame her as a victim of circumstance who is unaware of her own power and autonomy and god forbid in control of her own destiny. Virgil states that, “she, [Eurydice] doomed girl, running headlong along the stream, so as to escape you [Orpheus] did not see the fierce snake that kept…” (p.116, ). This excerpt shows Eurydice as one dimensional, undeveloped, and not in control of her destiny, and it speaks to the male’s inability to acknowledge the complexity and multidimensionality of the female as woman and girl.

Dark Times, Rebirth, and Transformation
In the Fall of Man,  a snake beguiles Eve to bite the fruit from the tree of good and evil. After biting the fruit, Adam and Eve are awakened (KJV, Gen. 3). This snake symbolizes an awakening. This awakening causes a spiritual death that separates Adam and Eve from God and removes them from the Garden of Eden. Similar to the awakening of Adam and Eve, As Eurydice runs into a viper. She is bitten and awakened by this bite. it is eluded that this encounter may not have been accidental. She may have knowingly run towards the snake which leads to her death.  However, in death, she too is awakened. The awakening separates her from the Upper world in the same way that Adam and Eve’s awakening separated them from Garden of Eden. But this separation may not be counted as a loss because it loosened her from the bonds of her marriage to Orpheus and brought forth her individuation. She descends to the Underworld. Hecate, the crone, the dark goddess of painful trials; and Persephone the queen of Hades is both there. The presence of the crone, Persephone, and Eurydice the maiden, symbolizes that Eurydice is individuating herself, stepping into her own destiny, and embracing he feminine power as being the three in one: the crone, woman, and girl.  This metaphorical death speaks to how painful ordeals can can lead to one’s rebirth and a fuller identity—the feminine reborn!