Sayı 11- Ocak/Mart 2013 - Antalya Rehberler Odası

lyre that the wild animalswould get out of their lairsand lay at his feet; thebirds would stop flying andperch beside him. Whenhe started to play his lyre,the trees would tremblewith excitement and eventhe rocks would run to him.He participated in the expeditionof the Argonauts andachieved great things with hislyre. According to one legend,it was Orpheus who stilled themoving rocks in the strait openinginto the Black Sea throughthe harmony of sound he producedfrom his lyre, and as aresult he rescued his friendsfrom certain death. Again, thereare also those who say that hesent the dragon, which wasguarded the Golden Fleece, tosleep through playing his lyre.After returning from Colchiswith the Argonauts, Orpheussettled in Thrace and becameits king. At that time, he hadfallen in love with a very beautifulfairy girl named Eurydiceand he married her. He greatlyloved his wife. One day, whenhis beloved wife was escapingfrom the pursuit of a shepherdcalled Aristaeus, she was unableto see a serpent which hadhidden in the tall grass, and shestepped on it. When the serpentbit Eurydice, this beautifulwoman could not live long, andshe died. After the death of hisbeloved wife, Orpheus becameconvulsed with the agony andmisery of bereavement and felta sorrow that could not be feltby anyone else in the world.To console himself, he took hislyre and went into the mountainsof Thrace, played uponit and tore the place down. Butnothing could console him asthe thought of Eurydice wasalways on his mind. When herealized that he could not livewithout her, he even riskedgoing into the underworld, intothe dark realm, as he wishedto search for his lost lover bygoing down into the dark realmwhere the petrified heartswere. He came to the door ofthe other realm, and started toplay his lyre. Even the mouthof the three-headed Cerberus,who guarded the door into hell,fell open. And Ixion’s wheelstopped turning so it could listento the sound of the lyre.Finally, Orpheus reached Hades,the God of the Underworldand Orpheus began to play hislyre even more sadly and movingly.The heart of the mercilessHades was softened. Hetold Orpheus that he could giveback his wife on one condition.This condition was that Orpheuswould not look at his lover’sface, she would be followingbehind him, until they cameout on to the earth. Orpheuswas delighted, accepting Hadescondition and he began towalk toward the light of day. Hiswife followed behind him. Theywere almost coming out ontothe surface of the earth, but Orpheus,burning with love, couldnot resist it. He entirely forgotHades’ words, and he turnedback to see Eurydice. However,when he looked at her, hisbeloved wife at once rose intothe air like vapor and she disappeared.Orpheus stayed ona steep rock for seven monthsand he told of his sorrow to therocks through his lyre. The tigers,oaks and rocks all camenear to listen to him.As Orpheus taught people toget drunk, not with wine butwith the sounds of music, andwas paying no attention to otherwomen, the Bacchante (wilddrunk virgins), the angry Thracianwomen swooped down onhim and tore his body into pieces.His head fell into the river,and from there went into thesea... It swam up to the islandof Lesbos. Later, a temple wasbuilt there by the Orpheusians.The books of mythology describeOrpheus’s life like this.When did I first hear of Orpheus?I first heard of Orpheuswhen I was a beginner on theguitar, as a student at IstanbulUniversity. A movie becamevery popular and famous in Istanbuland throughout the worldin the 1960s; it was called: OrfeNegro (Black Orpheus). Its music,the Manha de Carnaval becameso well known that it wasthe song which I first started toplay and loved. Orfe Negro is amovie made about the carnivalin Rio de Janeiro. But Thraceand Rio de Janeiro in Brazil areso far apart! In the Rio Carnival,people have fun like crazy andhundreds of people lose theirlives. And a young man namedOrpheus loses his lover namedEurydice, finds out that she isdead, and looks for her in themorgues. Then, he goes upinto the mountains similar to thesteep hills of our Beydaglari byAntalya Bay, and laments withhis guitar until dawn, pleadingto the sun to bring back hislover to him. The movies of thattime were often adorned withFrench songs. The first line ofthe song began: “Maten faitle vait le soleil” (Rise, O sun,rise to bring me my beloved).While it took its place in mylife as a song that I loved, andplayed on my guitar, and sangthe French words as much as Icould, many years later I suddenlymet with the mythology ofOrpheus in my profession as atour guide.There is the Temple of Demeterin the city below the slopein Pergamon. While describingDemeter, her daughterPersephone should also bementioned. There is a parallelbetween the departure of