Orpheus gets to take Eurydice out of the Underworld but only if he walks all the way back without ever looking behind him

to make sure she's actually there

He doesn't make it

There was a fantasy book I read once that involved the main character being in the exact same situation

Like he literally goes down into the underworld and meets Hades to rescue his girlfriend

it was...weird

There was something about the mythic cycle forcing them to go through the same story again

The difference was that this guy had a friend with him

Who was like a big shiny paladin guy

So they make the deal and then the guy is like "Girlfriend. Paladinfriend. We can do this, but I need the paladin to walk in FRONT of me and ALSO not look back."

So they walk all the way back through the underworld and all of Hades minions keep on trying to trick him into looking back and he absolutely does not fall for it

The story has a happy ending this time

Once all three of them are on the surface, the paladin is like "Damn dude I don't know if I could have done it without looking back. How did you resist?"

"You were walking in front of me and you're wearing shiny plate mail."

"I could literally see her behind me the whole time in the reflection."

And like

That's such a weird setup and kinda making light of the tragedy of the original story

I feel like seeing her even in a reflection should mean he failed the test

He didn't turn around. That was the deal

I think she shouldn't have shown up in the reflection

that was how the book went

The story came up in another plurk and I was like "MAN that was a weird book"

Yeah, that really undermines the poetic tragedy of the myth for me... Like, he failed because he loved her so much the idea she might not be behind him wasn't worth living for. he'd rather be condemned to hell to know she was safe than risk walking out alone. to loophole the request like that seems cheap and missing the point haha

It was clearly trying to be a gotcha moment

And like, it was a little funny

But Also

My persistent Orpheus fear is that we've interpreted it as a love too strong for rationality and a question of trust and made a whole Broadway show about it

And if you told this to someone from Greece several Millenia ago what if they went "lol no it's a story about how the harp player never listens to basic instructions"

"I made this story up. I'm in a band."

death of the author

True! Take that, guy who I made up whole cloth to make fun of me in my head

literally in this case he probably died like 3000 years ago

I do think that the 'look back once you reach the surface and lose her there' telling is a classic Ovid 'the gods are jerks' ending

Using mirrors and tricks and exact wording to get around impossible tasks is a normal Hero thing (this is clearly inspired by how Perseus defeated Medusa) but it does seem a little cheap when the task wasn't impossible in the first place, just a test of willpower.