OrpheusEurydiceANCIENT

OrpheusEurydiceANCIENT_Louvre

Ancient Greek relief sculpture depicting three figures: Zeus, Antiope, and Amphion, dressed in classical garb

The inscriptions above the individuals distract from the true mythological narrative shown here.

Zethus and Amphion were twin sons of Antiope, who conceived them in union with Zeus (disguised as satyr). The sons avenged her mistreatment at the hand of her wicked stepmother, Dirce. Zethus and Amphion roped Dirce onto the horns of a raging bull (cf. the Farnese Bull) which trampled the defenceless woman to a savage death.

Amphion went on to use his prodigious musical talent in distinguishing the growing town of Thebes where the twins would rule. While it is true that the figure captioned here as Amphion holds a lyre, the depiction seems otherwise inconsistent with the Theban myth. And the captions are regarded by scholars as 16th-century impositions upon the ancient relief.

In this image the situation is clearly different. Hermes’ petasus and Orpheus’ lyre, along with the difficult separation experienced by Eurydice, all lead to an interpretation that assures the captions are incorrect.

The Louvre’s website, interestingly, identifies the relief as a 1st–3rd century Roman copy of a 5th-century Greek original.