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Orpheus
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Oil painting by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot showing Orpheus leading Eurydice by the hand through a shadowy forest, with Orpheus holding a lyre and three figures in the background. Black Orpheus Painting by Gustave Moreau showing a woman in ornate robes holding the severed head of Orpheus and his lyre, standing barefoot in a rocky, dreamlike landscape.
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Oil painting by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot showing Orpheus leading Eurydice by the hand through a shadowy forest, with Orpheus holding a lyre and three figures in the background.
Eurydice and Orpheus Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld, detail of an oil painting by Camille Corot, 1861; in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Orpheus

Greek mythology
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Orpheus, in Greek mythology, legendary hero endowed with superhuman musical skills. He became the patron of a religious movement based on sacred writings said to be his own. Traditionally, Orpheus was the son of a Muse (probably Calliope, the patron of epic poetry) and Oeagrus, a king of Thrace (other versions give Apollo). According to some legends, Apollo gave Orpheus his first lyre. Orpheus’s singing and playing were so beautiful that animals and even trees...

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