希腊神话：ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE-俄耳甫斯与欧律狄刻

Orpheus，the son of Apollo，was a wonderful musician. He had a lyreof his own，and learned to play on it，when he was very young. This lyre was not quite so fine a one，perhaps，as Apollo's famous golden lyre，but it could produce marvellousmusic.
Orpheus often went to a lonely place，outside the village，where he would sit on the rocks and play all day long. Then the spiders stopped their spinning，the ants left off running to and fro，and the bees forgot to gather honey；for none of them had ever heard such sweet music before. The little birds who had their nests in the grass did not know what new singer had come among them. They gathered around Orpheus to listen，some hopping around on the rocks，and others swinging on tall weeds，and trying to catch the tune.
One day a cobra，gliding by slylyunder the grass-heads，in the hope of finding eggs or young birds in some ground-nest，heard the music，and stopped to listen. He coiled himself up，raised his head， and swayedback and forth，in time to the music. The birds had nothing to fear from him while such music was filling the air. But they knew him well，as he lived close by under a rock.
As Orpheus grew older， his music became more and more wonderful. When he went to the old place to play，all the animals and birds in the fields and in the forest gathered around him. Lions，bears， wolves，foxes，eagles，hawks，owls，squirrels，little field-mice， and many other kinds of creatures were in the audience. Even the trees in the grove nearby tore themselves up by the roots，and came and stood in the circle around Orpheus，so that they could hear better. Their branches cast a pleasant shade over the other listeners ，and over Orpheus，as well，keeping off the hot raysof the afternoon sun.
The nymphs of the valley soon made friends with Orpheus，and when he had grown to be a man，one of them，whose name was Eurydice，became his wife.
One day， as Eurydice was running carelessly through the meadows，she stepped on the cobra that lived under the rock. Although the cobra was always gentle when under the influence of the magical music of Orpheus，he was not so at other times. He turned，instantly， and bit Eurydice on the ankle.
Then Eurydice had to go down to the dark underworld，where Pluto was king，and Proserpine queen.
When Orpheus came back to the meadows，he could not find Eurydice. He took his lyre，and played his sweetest，most entrancingstrains，while he wandered all about the mountains and valleys，calling to her. Her sister nymphs joined him in the search，and everywhere the hills echoedtheir calls of "Eurydice，Eurydice! "But there was no answer.
Orpheus could not bear to give up Eurydice for lost. After he had looked everywhere on earth without finding her，he knew that she must be in the underworld. He made up his mind that he would go down and play before King Pluto. He thought perhaps he could persuade Pluto and Proserpine to let her come back to the sunny valley again.
So he went down into Pluto's kingdom，and there he played such a very sweet，sad song that tears came into the eyes of all who heard it. Even Pluto，whom men thought very hard-hearted，could not help feeling sorry for the singer.
When the song was over，Orpheus implored that Eurydice might be allowed to return with him to the upper world，saying that he could not return without her. Pluto consented to let her go on one condition， and that condition was that Orpheus must have faith to believe that Eurydice was following him，and until he reached the upper air must not look back to see.
So Orpheus started back again，playing softly on his lyre. The music was not sad now. You would have thought that the dawn was coming，and that young birds were just waking in their nests. In the darkness，for it is always dark in the underworld， Eurydice was following；but Orpheus could not be sure of this. He slowly climbed the steep path over the rocks，back to the world of light and warmth. Just as he had almost reached that familiar world；just as he could feel the fresh air from the sea on his forehead，and could see the glimmerof a sunbeam reflected on the rocks，he felt all at once as if Eurydice were not there. The thought flashed into his mind that King Pluto might be deceivinghim. He turned his head，and by the dim light which was beginning to break over his path，saw Eurydice fading away and sinking down into the underworld. Her arms were stretched out toward him，but she could not follow him any farther. He had broken the condition imposed by Pluto，hence Eurydice must go back among the shades.
Oh，if only he had not looked back! Eurydice was lost indeed now. Orpheus knew that it would be of no use to try again to bring her to the upper world. He did not go back to the pleasant valley in which he had grown up，but went to live on a lonely mountain，where he spent all his days in grievingfor Eurydice.
The music that came from his lyre was so sad now that it would have broken any one's heart to hear it. When the wind blew from the north，the people who lived at the foot of the mountain could faintlyhear the mournful，wailing sound of the lyre. It came down the mountain to them，almost every day，for seven months，and then the north wind did not bring them those strains any more. Some said that Orpheus had been killed by lightning，and others that he had been torn in pieces by the Menads，certain wild，half-crazedwomen who wandered over that mountain；but no one ever knew what really did become of him.
His lyre floated down the river Hebrus，and then out to sea， sending out sweet sounds as it went，with the rise and fall of the water. One day，when the waves ran high，it was cast up on the shore at the island of Lesbos. There it remained till it was all overgrownwith vines and flowers，and half-buried under falling leaves. The nightingaleswere said to sing more sweetly on that island than in any other place.