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Writer's pictureCaitlin Papp

Meet The Characters of Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice


Eurydice: According to Ancient Greek texts, Eurydice is a beautiful wood nymph. There is little more information about Eurydice as an individual, which is the norm for women in Ancient Greek myth-telling. It should be noted that nymphs are not immortal, although they do live longer than mortals.
She meets Orpheus while he plays his lyre, which is love at first sight for both. They are inseparable and decide to get married. However, the god of marriage, Hymenaios, warns the lovers that their wedding bliss will be cut short. This is where the story changes depending on who is telling the myth; according to Ovid in Metamorphoses, Eurydice is killed while walking in a field with some naiads when a snake bites her. In Virgil's telling of the myth, Eurydice is killed by a snake while running from Aristaeus, a shepherd who saw the beautiful Eurydice and wanted her for his own.
Eurydice journeys to the Underworld, where she remains until Orpheus finds her and attempts to bring her back to the world of the living.




Her Father: An incredibly personal character that Sarah Ruhl, the playwright of Eurydice, created. In a moving attempt to imagine what it would be like if she (Sarah Ruhl) could have just one more conversation with her father after his death from cancer when she was 18 years old. This version of the myth is usually set in the 1950's, as that is the period she attributes to her father and his stories. The father's directions near the end of the play are to Sarah Ruhl's grandparent's house in Iowa, giving the character more personal touches to the playwright. Ruhl stated, "...In my imagination, it stood to reason that Eurydice would meet an ancestor when she reached the underworld; in this case, her father."


Orpheus: A musician with superhuman musical capabilities. He has two different origin stories; he was either the son of the muse Calliope, and his father was the king of Thrace, Oeagrus, or the god Apollo.
It is said that Apollo gave Orpheus his famous lyre, which Hermes created, and his playing was so beautiful that the natural world responded to him; even the rocks would be moved when he played. He joined the Argonauts and helped soothe the sirens with his music so their ship, the Argo, could pass through a dangerous stretch of water.
Orpheus falls in love with Eurydice when he sees her and is devastated when she is killed. His grief made him search for a way to the Underworld, where he pleaded with the gods Hades and Persephone to allow Eurydice to return to the world of the living. Spoiler alert: she does not make it.
When he loses Eurydice again, he returns to Thrace to wallow in his grief, vowing never to marry again. Being off the marriage market may have been why a group of Thracian women called the Ciconians ripped Orpheus to shreds, killing him and all the animals and rocks that followed him (there are other endings to the myth of Orpheus).
He is then finally and forever reunited with his true love, Eurydice.


A Nasty Interesting Man/ The Lord of the Underworld (Hades): God of the Dead who presides over the funeral rites of humans and rules over the souls of the dead. He was also the god of the wealth found within the earth, like gold and other precious metals. He is the son of Cronus and Rhea and the brother of Zeus and is one of the major gods in Ancient Greek mythology. He was married to Persephone, the goddess of the Spring and daughter of the goddess Demeter. He is usually depicted holding a bird-tipped scepter or with a cornucopia pouring out its bounty.





A Chorus of Stones (Big Stone, Little Stone, Loud Stone):
From the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus, from the concept that his music was so beautiful that even the stones wept. The Stones are the keepers of the rules in the Underworld. According to Ruhl, "The Stones enforce the rules of the Underworld, amuse us when things are going very badly, and are immovable beings who are ultimately moved to tears by music. How a director conceives of the stone is, I think, the secret code to the whole production- they, in a way, create the world, and I have seen the stones enlivened in so many ways."
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