Orpheus
In Greek mythology, Orpheus was a Thracian musician whose magical skill on the lyre enabled him to charm the trees, rivers, and stones, as well as wild beasts. He was the son of Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, and a Thracian river-god (some versions say Apollo). Orpheus married the nymph Eurydice, but she soon died, bitten on the heel by a snake. Her grieving husband followed her to the underworld and, by playing on his lyre, charmed the deities into releasing her. The one condition was that he should escort her back to the upper world without looking at her. He did look, however, and Eurydice disappeared. Rejecting all women thereafter, Orpheus was torn to pieces by Thracian women; in one version, he was dismembered by Maenads at the urging of Dionysus, who resented Orpheus's advocacy of the worship of Apollo. Orpheus's singing head and lyre floated to Lesbos, where an oracle of Orpheus was established.
Some legends make Orpheus the founder of the Orphic mysteries and the author of the sacred texts of that cult. Orphism developed an elaborate cosmogony that focused on the killing and eating of Dionysus, son of Zeus, by the Titans, or Zeus's subsequent destruction of the Titans, from whose ashes arose the human race, part Dionysiac (divine and good) and part Titan (earthly and evil). Through initiation into the Orphic mysteries and by living an ascetic life of abstention from meat, wine, and sexual activity, individuals sought to suppress their earthly nature. Full liberation of the divine soul could be achieved only through a cycle of incarnations.
Orphism was never a widespread cult, although its ideas were influential. The story of Orpheus, however, has figured prominently in literature.