Orpheus
This Argonaut was a famed singer and poet; when Apollo (who may have been his father) gave him a lyre, Orpheus’ music was so moving and exceptional that trees bent to hear it, rivers veered off their courses, flowers opened into bloom, and rocks wept.
Orpheus sailed on the Argo, under Jason’s command. The ship sailed past the Sirens, nymphs whose beautiful song caused sailors to go mad (see The Sirens), and they began to sing. Orpheus saved Jason and the crew by singing more beautifully than them.
When Orpheus’s wife, Eurydice, received a fatal bite from a snake, Orpheus went into the underworld and tried to charm Hades into letting Eurydice go. He succeeded; Hades agreed, on one condition: Orpheus must not look back until he was once again on earth. When Orpheus had almost reached the earth’s entrance, he looked behind him to be certain that Eurydice was following him. She disappeared immediately, never to be seen again.