#eurydice turning

[luthienne]

Pádraig Ó Tuama, on Rita Dove's poem "Eurydice, Turning" as featured in On Being: Poetry Unbound

[soracities]

Does it matter why Lot's wife looked back? She looked back because she loved her daughters. She looked back because she loved her home. She looked back because she loved the past. She looked back because she loved the world. Remember Lot’s wife: it's intended as a warning, but I have adopted it as a creed. When the world burns, I will fill my eyes with as much of it as I possibly can. I can think of no greater honor than to remain on the earth. You are worth turning around for. You are worth transformation. You are the heat that lights the match that lights the hearth that warms me. You are everything.

Amelia K., “I: Vision - Eurydice, Mangan’s Sister, & Lot’s Wife”

[hummingbird-hunter]

If you see this in the wild please reblog the following version instead:

[lostdathomirian]

somewhere in the house of hades, the court musician dreams of bringing his muse home again.

[jackwhiteprophetic]

Eddie is Orpheus and he's starting his journey up from the underworld (driving to the hospital through a thunderstorm) and behind him is Eurydice (Buck) and the only way to get them both out is to keep moving forward and not look back and he has to get them out this time.

And he can't look back to see him, he can only hear the rain on the windows and the cracking of Buck's ribs as someone else gets closer to his heart than Eddie might ever get to be again.

(He didn't get Shannon out last time)

[yea-baiyi]

say what you want about svsss but hands down the most distraught i have ever been while reading a mxtx novel is after the bing-ge extra. what do you mean he asked shen qingqiu to come with him. what do you mean “it’s not fair”. what do you mean he looked back.

[to-be-a-dreamer]

I can’t stand that TikTok trend that’s like “just saw Hadestown and my boyfriend is walking the entire way back to the hotel without looking back at me to prove Orpheus was a chump” because not only do they not get the whole point of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth they also Were Not Paying Attention to the musical they just saw.

Hate people who see WSS as “just a Romeo and Juliet retelling”. Hate people who see Hadestown as “Just an Orpheus and Eurydice retelling”.

Hate people who watch a musical that takes a classic story everyone knows and uses it to explore/critique our modern society and only see it as a funky retelling.

Not Getting The Point of WSS is one thing because it’s more subtle and it can be really easy to just see it as a modern R&J, especially if you don’t really know R&J.

How the fuck do you watch Hadestown and see it as just an O&E retelling? It is one of the most heavy-handed political musicals out there how are so many people missing the point?

Orpheus has to fail. Not because that’s how the Greek myth ends but because that’s the whole point of the message of Hadestown.

Social reform is hard. Changing the world is one of the most challenging things you can try to do. So often we see people try to make a difference in society, to change some kind of injustice in the world. And so often we see those people fail. It can feel so impossible to actually do some good in this fucked up world because we see these people who are smarter and stronger and more qualified than us fail over and over again.

Why do we even keep trying?

Because we have to.

Because one day, someone will try and they’ll succeed.

One day Orpheus won’t turn around.

One day the people of Hadestown will get to see someone escape and they’ll know they can escape too. Only then does the world get to change.

So we have to try. We have to keep singing the sad song, no matter how many times Orpheus turns around, because one day he won’t.

In the Greek myth, Orpheus fails because he loves Eurydice.

In Hadestown, Orpheus fails because we fail.

We try and we fail to make a difference. We try and we fail to change the world for the better. We try to see the world for what it could be and it keeps letting us down.

But we don’t give up. We don’t stop singing.

Hadestown is genuinely one of the best musicals ever. Full stop. This musical is one of the reasons i wish I was smarter because I would love to be able to do an entire thesis on this show and all the themes and messages in it. Some of them are subtle. Some of them aren’t.

It is not just an Orpheus and Eurydice retelling. I am begging people to hear the real message.

Never stop trying to change the world.

One day we’ll make it out of Hadestown.

We just have to keep singing the song.

[windsweptinred]

Hear me out, here me out…

“And that it was from Chaos that the first three primordial gods sprang forth: Gaea (Earth), Tartarus (the Underworld), and Eros (Love) - Hesiod's Theogony

Gaea/Earth: Ariadne 

Tartarus/The Underworld: Eurydice

Eros/Love: Caeneus

Purely me headcanoning my heart little away. But I love how in a sense they all represent the three eternal beings ‘of chaos’ that make up creation incarnate. 

Ariadne: Who is now the ‘Mother of her people and her land’ as president. A representation of feminine power. Life

Eurydice: The first person to return from the Underworld and essentially, conquer/master death. Death 

Caeneus: Sweet, sweet Caeneus who embodies love, the driving force of creation. Love

They don't embody the return to Chaos per say, rather the power that sprang from it. The necessary cycle of death and rebirth, destruction and creation that Zeus has selfishly stalled. That they, as a trio will restart.

[captainfairygodmother]

No no no, you don't understand. "We've got forever to figure out what the rest means" is Charles making sure that they don't end up like Orpheus and Eurydice, even if it's subconsciously because he never finished the ending of the myth. Because if Charles would have stopped to think through what Edwin fully meant by what he said, or stopped to think through how he feels and give him a longer response based on that, even for just a second of consider, the demon monster thing would've gotten to Edwin. The confession was to Charles what Orpheus turning to find Eurydice was. "Oh if Charles actually reciprocated Edwin's feelings he would have told him then" is the exact same vibes as "If Orpheus really loved Eurydice he wouldn't have turned around", in the sense that no, because Charles and Orpheus loved Edwin and Eurydice so much, even if for the former it was something that would never develop into more, they did what they had to. The only difference is that Edwin and Charles have "forever to work out the rest", they survived to be able to have at least that, while Orpheus and Eurydice don't, and are deemed a tragedy.

[cyanorhis]

In terms of “canon-compliant” zutara, I think often about how Zuko’s development is both his redemption and his doom.

Because how come the obsessive go-getter of the show does not fight harder against fate (bryke’s annoying ass) to save his beloved from putting herself into a rewardless martyr-like situation in the form of a marriage that serves as repopulation program? (Which I always thought was ridiculous).

He learns bit by bit to acknowledge and make up for his mistakes. He respects Katara above all else. He fights fair. He does not guilt-trip her nor treat her like a reward. He loves her. He gave his life for her. He would not have survived had she not been the exceptional person she is. He supports her decisions no matter what. He listens to her.

So when she tells him about her ridiculously good and selfish intentions of pandering (once again) to a non-celibate Monk who wishes to have her mother his children for the sake of airbending and his supposed affection that was born out of the self-insert of narrators who give way too much importance to childhood crushes for one’s babysitter, he might argue but he can’t help but love her and respect her decision, both horrified by the cruelty of fate (aka bryke) and filled with admiration for the person she has always been.

If Orpheus loved Eurydice too much not to turn back when she tripped behind him, then Zuko loved Katara way too much not to validate and support her terribly selfless decisions. Because how dare him be selfish and want her for himself. And how dare him tell her what to do after years of war.

It is terribly tragic because on the other side, a part of her wishes he had fought harder.

A “villain” turned “hero” sometimes can mean the upholding of ideals made by two men who enjoy shaming young girls for their choice of love interest. Sometimes, the lack of a “villain” to whisk away the princess from the “hero’s” hands means said princess will remain unacknowledged and forgotten in a narrative that turns it into something of her own volition, a narrative that ignores everything a beloved female character represented for the people she was made to represent (by their own words, must I say). It leaves the realm of picking the love interest (which honestly could simply not ever happened in any form and would still be better than this) and enters the realm of once again giving a poor treatment to a female main character who quite literally Drives the story from its beginning.

And just like Orpheus and Eurydice are doomed by fate, Katara and Zuko are doomed by Bryke. And surprisingly, Katara gets the worse of it.

[aregebidan]

“who are you? i don’t even know your name” “don’t be in such a rush. you will give me a name someday. and i live in terror of that day” / “i’m afraid to turn around. not of your anger, though. i’m afraid i’ll see nobody” / “go on dreaming. when you dream about my likeness you create it” / “when you loved no one you never thought of death” / “give her proof of her love” “shall i?” “kill her before she sees you” “no!” “then kill yourself” “how?” “let her go”

literally who is doing it like them. no one. no one. no one.

[coffeeshopdaydream]

The Half of It (2020) dir. Alice Wu

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) dir. Céline Sciamma

[akicklineisinevitable]

something about Hatchetfield is so Hadestown coded. something about how it's a sad tale, but we sing it anyway. as if it will turn out this time. (i'll find you in the next timeline). something about how not everyone can make it out, and those that do don't make it out unchanged. something about love that was doomed from the start (wait for me? i will) (when you shipped out, i thought i'd wait for you). something about how the scenery changes, but the stories are the same. something about it was a world of gods and men (there are monsters and there are men).

[finelythreadedsky]

this is what kills me about black orpheus (1959, dir. camus) actually. because orfeu is familiar with the story of orpheus and eurydice. early on someone even makes a joke like "your name's orpheus? where's your eurydice?" he knows the story and he knows what it means to be orpheus. and then at the pivotal moment he looks anyway because after all he's orpheus and he can't not.

[makemeimmortalwithahug]

charles and edwin singing together "total eclipse of the heart" at karaoke. that's it that's the post