Orpheus and Eurydice

“Don’t think they don’t have gods’ support, the angers you are weighted with

You’re paying for a grievous offence.”

Virgil’s narrator, Proteus, begins to tell the story of Orpheus to Aristaeus. The translation here employs a double negative, which is the use of two negatives in a single sentence, in which case the opposite meaning is intended. In other words, the anger aimed at Aristaeus has the support of the gods.

“True he was present, but no hallowed words

He brought nor happy smiles nor lucky sign.”

Ovid is referring to the god Hymen, whom Orpheus has summoned to attend his wedding. Ovid takes this opportunity to narrate a series of bad omens to foreshadow the imminent catastrophe of Eurydice’s death. Three such omens follow in quick succession in this quotation.

“He risked even the gorge of Taenarus, the towering portals of the underworld,

And the abode of spirits where darkness reigns like a dismal fog.”

Virgil succinctly evokes the dangers that Orpheus is prepared to face as he descends to the underworld. The cavern known as Taenarus, in southern Greece, was considered to be one of the main entrances to the underworld. The simile in the second line here conveys the forbidding nature of the place Orpheus is about to enter.