Page 51 of Orpheus
Chapter 23
If Apollo wasn’t willing to help me recover Eurydalos, I would just have to do it on my own. The god tried to persuade me to move on with my life, to live in this world as the most famous poet and musician that I was meant to be. But there was no fulfillment in that for me. What was the point in accomplishing such greatness only to not enjoy it with the one you truly love? There was no reason for me to strive for better things if I could not share the experiences with Eurydalos.
If anything, Apollo’s attempts to get me to move on only made my will to remain with Eurydalos all the more reinforced. It made me realize that I could never find another love so perfect as the one I already had. And I needed that more than ever, more than anything else in this entire world.
Apollo did warn me that no living mortal could ever return to the Underworld more than once. I was still unsure whether or not that was a rule among the gods, or rather that no one just managed to do it. If the latter, I was more determined than ever to be the very first. If the former, I would just have to venture to the entrance to the Underworld to find out for my very self, which I was ready to do.
My path was clear. I left the fields of Iolcus after my meeting with Apollo. I ventured south for days, remembering the very trail the God of the sun and I took to get to the entrance to the Underworld.
As I descended the slopes of Cape Tanaerum, I prayed to the gods and goddesses to aid me in my quest to obtain Eurydalos. I prayed to Aphrodite, hoping she would see my undying love for Eurydalos. I prayed to Ares, who could see my unmalleable will and steadfastness, to fight any and all obstacles on my journey to rescue my lover. I prayed to Athena to provide me with all the wisdom and any strategies I would need in battle or against any barriers that blocked my path. And lastly, I prayed to Apollo once more. It was his musical abilities and guidance that would be my best leverage again in navigating this ominous kingdom.
Who knows what further creatures and monstrosities I would potentially go against, beyond Cerberus, as I searched the Underworld for Eurydalos? Soon, I overcame the pitch-black cave, seeing the light at the end of it just as I had remembered a few days ago when I first came to this entrance with Apollo.
Once I emerged from it, I was in the pure green field with the tar-looking River of Styx that flowed at its edges, separating the living from the dead. A sense of hope had sprung up within me the minute I reached it. I remembered just how worried I was about gaining access to cross the river and to reach Hades and Persephone to present them my plea the first time I came here. Yet, I still managed to muster up such great confidence in being able to do so.
Now, all I needed to do was give myself that same assurance and I was sure I would be able to somehow find a way to track down Eurydalos and return him back to the surface where he rightfully belonged.
I stood along the pewter grey river, playing my lyre in the hopes of it enticing Charon, just as it previously had. Soon enough, I gazed out into the fog along the horizon and noticed the ferryman’s shabby boat approaching me. Once it reached the shore of the living, I stepped forward, ready to make my way into the vessel to cross over into the Underworld.
But before I could even do so, Charon held his decrepit hand up in front of me. “You cannot pass! No song nor token may grant you access into the Underworld,” Charon informed me, so matter-of-factly.
“How come?” I asked with a defiant tone in my voice. “My lyrics are just as worthy if not more to allow me to cross Styx. Why now am I not allowed to cross this very same river that I just crossed a few days ago?”
Charon glared at me with a horrifying stare. The cold blackness of his eyes made me shutter. “You have already entered this world once, mortal. You are not given any sort of permission to gain access again. The mandates, directly from the King of the Underworld, himself, state that no mortal may trespass into his land more than once. No riches, tokens, nor pleasant ballad may allow you to persuade me otherwise.”
Before I could even try to respond to Charon and present to him my reasoning for wanting to get back into the Underworld, he was already moving his oar and paddling off away from me.
“Please, Charon!” I called out to the ferry captain. “I need you to hear me out. I must cross this river and get to the Underworld. I must!” I shouted.
But my yells did me no justice. They were all in vain. My only means of gaining entrance in order to find my love was slowly drifting away from me in the viscous undulating waters.
My ambition was too much. It would receive no reciprocation. I brought my palms to my face and fell to my knees in the grass, just before the metallic river.
I was a lost soul with nowhere to go. I had no motivation. No determination. No strength nor willpower to go on if I could not have Eurydalos. The reality of my situation began to sink in once more as my tears fell to the ground. Where was I to go? What was I to do? I had no answers and nothing to guide my wayward conscience.
“You refuse to move on. Even still…” a familiar voice abruptly called from behind me. I twisted my neck to get a look at who the person was that had snuck up on me in this embarrassing state.
But of course, there was only one individual who knew I would come to this spot of all places and here he stood once more. I was in no mood to see Apollo again. He had already seen me depressed far more than I would have wanted anyone to. It was now starting to become a pattern that whenever I cried, he suddenly appeared.
“I already told you,” I uttered in between my sobbing and sniffling. “I cannot live without him. I don’t want to go on in this world if I can’t have Eurydalos here to experience life with.”
“Stubborn as ever,” Apollo simply stated. “If your resolve is this unwavering, then there is only one solution, Orpheus. And I think you know what that is.”
I arched my brow at the god, unsure of what he was referring to. His words were enigmatic. I couldn’t quite decipher them.
Apollo must have sensed my confusion, for he became blunt with his remarks. “If you cannot live in this world with Eurydalos, then perhaps you can be with him in a different one.”
I rose to my feet, shocked by what he was insinuating. “You mean… in the Underworld?”
He nodded to confirm my thoughts about what he was referring to. “Yes. But I must warn you, dear Orpheus. If this is the route you ultimately decide to take, there is no going back. Once you are dead and a part of their world, it cannot be undone. Is this what you truly desire?”
I only wanted to be with Eurydalos. And if that meant I would have to live with him in the Underworld forever, then so be it. I had finally come to terms with this. I was more than willing to give up all that I had accomplished in this world if it meant I was able to be with my lover again. I would easily sacrifice all of that if I could spend the rest of my days with Eurydalos.
It was the reconciliation I needed to accept. There was no other choice for me. I was decisive in my response to Apollo. “Yes. I think it’s time. I am ready to die, if it means I get to be with the love of my life.”
Chapter 24
“Are you certain?” Apollo asked me once more. “You are ready to die and remain forever in the Underworld?”
