Eurydice

“Eurydice is a luminous retelling of the Orpheus myth from his beloved wife’s point of view. Watching it, we enter a singular, surreal world, as lush and limpid as a dream—an anxiety dream of love and loss—where both author and audience swim in the magical, sometimes menacing, and always thrilling flow of the unconscious… Ruhl’s theatrical voice is reticent and daring, accurate and outlandish.” —John Lahr, New Yorker A reimagining of the classic myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her wedding day, Eurydice journeys to the underworld, where she reunites with her beloved father and struggles to recover lost memories of her husband and the world she left behind.

Eurydice (the wife of Amyntas III, the mother of Philip II, and grandmother of Alexander the Great) was the first royal Macedonian woman who played a role in the public life of ancient Macedonia. This study examines the nature of her role and the factors that contributed to its expansion.

The story of Orpheus's tragic quest into the underworld to rescue his true love Eurydice back from the dead is one that has haunted the western imagination for over 2,000 years through many tellings, re-tellings, appropriations and adaptations. A unique coming together of poetry, art and criticism, Orpheus and Eurydice explores the myth's impact through a graphic-poetic reconstruction of the story. Including critical reflections from leading thinkers, writers and critics, this is a compelling exploration of the enduring power of this tale.

All students can learn about plot using a classic mythology passage written at four reading levels. Symbols on the pages represent reading-level ranges to help differentiate instruction. Provided comprehension questions complement the text.