Lesbos
An Aegean island where the severed head of Orpheus floated ashore, still singing, after the Maenads tore him apart.
The Story of Lesbos
After Orpheus failed to retrieve Eurydice from the Underworld and turned away from the company of women in grief, the Thracian Maenads — driven mad by Dionysus — tore him limb from limb. His severed head was thrown into the Hebrus River, and it floated singing down to the sea. The head drifted across the Aegean and came to rest on the shores of Lesbos, where it was enshrined and gave oracles. This is why Lesbos was said to have the most gifted poets in the world — the land itself had absorbed the gift of Orpheus's voice, and Sappho and Alcaeus later proved the tradition right.
Children
{Orpheus (head enshrined here)}
Symbols
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
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