Orpheus, Eurydice and Hermes

1st century BCE, after an original of the late 5th century BCE

Marble, 121 × 98 cm · Louvre, Paris

A Roman copy, probably made in Italy, of a lost Athenian relief from the end of the 5th century BCE, which may have belonged to the Altar of the Twelve Gods in Athens. A nearly identical copy is in Naples.

Orpheus has just turned to look; Hermes, guide of souls, takes Eurydice’s hand to lead her back.
Orpheus holds his lyre; Hermes wears a traveller’s hat and boots.
A Latin inscription added before the 1500s names the figures wrongly, as Zethus, Antiope and Amphion.
Hermes’s legs and the upper right corner are later restorations.
Formerly in the Borghese collection; bought by the Louvre in 1807.

Orpheus charmed the gods of the underworld with his music and was allowed to lead his dead wife Eurydice home, if he did not look back. He looked, and lost her for ever.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · CC0