In that book’s version of the story, “the fluttering souls hushed” when Orpheus entered the realm of the dead and begged for his bride. I first read about Orpheus in “D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths,” a sumptuously illustrated book that I pored over nightly. The “Original” Orpheus “D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths,” by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire (1962)Īs children, we tend to remember particular versions of myths as if they were the definitive ones, only later to discover that there is no such thing as an “original” myth or fairy tale, but, instead, thousands of variations passed down through literature and oral tradition. (Click on the images to enlarge, or to view corresponding film clips.) Below, Bernheimer presents a selection of her favorite retellings, from ancient to modern times. But the story itself has been a source of inspiration for many artists, and the myth of Orpheus has been retold and reimagined numerous times in art, music, dance, and literature. In her introduction to “xo Orpheus,” Bernheimer writes that Orpheus’s tragic demise-he violates the terms of his agreement with Hades, Eurydice is cast back into the underworld, and he is gruesomely torn to pieces by followers of Dionysus when he refuses to join their orgies-shows us “both the power and the limitation” of artistic inspiration: Orpheus’s music had the power to save Eurydice, and yet she was not spared in the end, and neither was he. Orpheus was so skilled on his lyre that he was able to charm even inanimate objects with his music, and to convince Hades, the god of the underworld, to free his deceased wife and muse, Eurydice-with the one stipulation that he was not to turn around and watch her as she exited Hades’s kingdom. The new book, which includes the work of writers like Maile Meloy, Sheila Heti, and Heidi Julavits, gets its title from one of the great figures of ancient Greek mythology. The founding editor of the literary journal Fairy Tale Review and the editor of the award-winning 2010 anthology “ My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales,” Bernheimer has produced a new anthology, “ xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths,” a collection of short stories that reinterpret classic myths from ancient Greek, Indian, and other traditions. In her short stories, novels, and children’s books, and in her work as an editor, Kate Bernheimer has drawn upon the literary tradition of fairy tales as inspiration for modern fiction.
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