Hey guys
My name is Virgil and I just want to start by saying that yes, my mother is a teacher of Ancient History and Mythology, and yes, when I was born, she and her sick sense of humour thought it would be a 'marvellous' idea to name her only son after a 2100 year old dead Ancient Roman poet! Just thought I would clear that up now to prevent your inevitable questions :)
< P.S. that's the old guy on the left - I'm not famous enough yet to have a statue made of me :(
So, as I drown in my friends' never-ending jokes about my name, I thought "why not actually have a look at the stuff this guy wrote?" I mean, my mum obviously loved his poetry like she would love a celebrity (seriously, she at least could have called me something like 'Knox Leon' or 'Sunday Roast' or even 'Macklemore' for gods' sake!) So I decided to do some digging through her hundreds of books, and found this story about some musician called Orpheus and his wife, Eurydice. When I first read it I didn't understand anything the guy was going on about, but then my mum explained it and it is actually pretty sad. The poor guy travels all the way to the Underworld to get his dead wife back, and just as he succeeds, he ruins it by turning around to look at her, making her die again! (Sorry, probably should have put a 'Spoiler Alert' there - my bad!)
Anyway, it's now one of my favourite myths, so I have made this website exploring it. I have uploaded the full myth as written by the old Virgil, as well as lots of other random stuff about the story for your enjoyment and to hopefully explain it a bit better (Let's face it, it is a bit confusing for ordinary folk like you and me.) Feel free to comment with any questions you have or anything else you might want to mention. Enjoy!
Thanks and goodbye
ευχαριστώ και αντίο
et gratias vale
My name is Virgil and I just want to start by saying that yes, my mother is a teacher of Ancient History and Mythology, and yes, when I was born, she and her sick sense of humour thought it would be a 'marvellous' idea to name her only son after a 2100 year old dead Ancient Roman poet! Just thought I would clear that up now to prevent your inevitable questions :)
< P.S. that's the old guy on the left - I'm not famous enough yet to have a statue made of me :(
So, as I drown in my friends' never-ending jokes about my name, I thought "why not actually have a look at the stuff this guy wrote?" I mean, my mum obviously loved his poetry like she would love a celebrity (seriously, she at least could have called me something like 'Knox Leon' or 'Sunday Roast' or even 'Macklemore' for gods' sake!) So I decided to do some digging through her hundreds of books, and found this story about some musician called Orpheus and his wife, Eurydice. When I first read it I didn't understand anything the guy was going on about, but then my mum explained it and it is actually pretty sad. The poor guy travels all the way to the Underworld to get his dead wife back, and just as he succeeds, he ruins it by turning around to look at her, making her die again! (Sorry, probably should have put a 'Spoiler Alert' there - my bad!)
Anyway, it's now one of my favourite myths, so I have made this website exploring it. I have uploaded the full myth as written by the old Virgil, as well as lots of other random stuff about the story for your enjoyment and to hopefully explain it a bit better (Let's face it, it is a bit confusing for ordinary folk like you and me.) Feel free to comment with any questions you have or anything else you might want to mention. Enjoy!
Thanks and goodbye
ευχαριστώ και αντίο
et gratias vale
