Eurydice
Eurydice was the nymph whose death drove Orpheus to descend to the underworld — only to lose her at the last moment when he looked back.
The Myth of Eurydice
Eurydice, a dryad nymph, died from a serpent's bite on her wedding day to Orpheus. Shattered by grief, Orpheus descended to the Underworld — past Cerberus, across the Styx, into the halls of Hades. His music moved even the Furies to tears and persuaded Hades and Persephone to release Eurydice on one condition: Orpheus must not look back. He failed at the threshold of daylight, and Eurydice was drawn back into darkness forever. The myth embodied the Greek understanding that death's boundary cannot be crossed by love alone. Heracles and Theseus survived their own descents, but Orpheus's failure became the more enduring story.
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Fun Fact
The "don't look back" motif — whether in myth, in Lot's wife, or in Satchel Paige's advice — traces to Orpheus and Eurydice.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Oenone
🌿 nymphhealing, prophecy
Mountain nymph of Mount Ida who was Paris's first wife before Helen.
Thetis
🌿 nymphSea nymph whose son's fate drove the Iliad
Thetis was the Nereid whose son was destined to surpass his father — a prophecy so threatening that Zeus and Poseidon married her off to a mortal.
Meliboea
🌿 nymphnature, grief
A nymph (or mortal woman) who survived the massacre of Niobe's children and was preserved by her extreme pallor of terror.
Autonoe
🌿 nymphnature, grief
A Nereid and, in separate traditions, a daughter of Cadmus who witnessed the death of her son Actaeon.
Galatea
🌿 nymphSea nymph loved by a Cyclops
Galatea was a Nereid loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus — but she loved the mortal Acis.
Minthe
🌿 nymphthe underworld, plants
A Naiad nymph of the Underworld river Cocytus who was trampled into the mint plant by a jealous Persephone.
Cyane
🌿 nymphsprings, grief
A Sicilian water nymph who tried to stop Hades from abducting Persephone and dissolved into her own spring from grief.
Dryads
🌿 nymphTree nymphs
Dryads were nymphs bound to individual trees — when the tree died, so did its dryad.
Lampades
🌿 nymphUnderworld
Torch-bearing nymphs of the underworld who served as attendants of the goddess Hecate
Bolina
🌿 nymphthe sea, escape
A mortal woman pursued by Apollo who threw herself into the sea and was granted immortality as a nymph.
Clymene
🌿 nymphfame, ocean
Oceanid nymph and mother of Phaethon and the Heliades.
Thetis
🌿 nymphSea nymph mother of Achilles
Thetis was a sea nymph so powerful that both Zeus and Poseidon desired her — until a prophecy warned her son would surpass his father.