The Orpheus Descent
The Orpheus Descent

Author: Tom Harper

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2014-05-27

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 0062305298

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A cerebral literary thriller in the vein of Dan Brown, Matthew Pearl, and Sam Bourne, The Orpheus Descent follows classical philosopher Plato on a mysterious journey to Italy that will ignite a conspiracy that burns into the present. The greatest thinker in human history, Plato, travels to Italy seeking initiation into the Orphic mysteries: the secret to the Underworld known only to the gods. But the knowledge he discovers is terrifying. Two millennia later, twelve ancient golden tablets secreted in museums around the world hold sacred information known to only a few—the pathway the dead must follow to the afterlife. And archaeologist Lily Barnes has just found another on a dig in southern Italy. But this tablet is far more valuable—and dangerous—than the rest. It holds the key to hell itself. Now, Lily is gone and her husband, Jonah, is desperate to find her. He knows she is alive—and in mortal danger—and he’s willing to go to hell itself to find her. But the deeper he descends on this dark and twisting journey, the more Jonah’s fear rises, for not everyone who travels where Lily has gone will find their way back. . . .

Orpheus
Orpheus

Author: Ann Wroe

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2011-07-14

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1446400905

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For at least two and a half millennia, the figure of Orpheus has haunted humanity. Half-man, half-god, musician, magician, theologian, poet and lover, his story never leaves us. He may be myth, but his lyre still sounds, entrancing everything that hears it: animals, trees, water, stones, and men. In this extraordinary work Ann Wroe goes in search of Orpheus, from the forests where he walked and the mountains where he worshipped to the artefacts, texts and philosophies built up round him. She traces the man, and the power he represents, through the myriad versions of a fantastical life: his birth in Thrace, his studies in Egypt, his voyage with the Argonauts to fetch the Golden Fleece, his love for Eurydice and journey to Hades, and his terrible death. We see him tantalising Cicero and Plato, and breathing new music into Gluck and Monteverdi; occupying the mind of Jung and the surreal dreams of Cocteau; scandalising the Fathers of the early Church, and filling Rilke with poems like a whirlwind. He emerges as not simply another mythical figure but the force of creation itself, singing the song of light out of darkness and life out of death.

Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black
Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black

Author: Marcus Sedgwick

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Published: 2019-09-03

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1536207969

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Harry Black is lost between the world of war and the land of myth in this illustrated novel that transports the tale of Orpheus to World War II–era London. Brothers Marcus and Julian Sedgwick team up to pen this haunting tale of another pair of brothers, caught between life and death in World War II. Harry Black, a conscientious objector, artist, and firefighter battling the blazes of German bombing in London in 1944, wakes in the hospital to news that his soldier brother, Ellis, has been killed. In the delirium of his wounded state, Harry’s mind begins to blur the distinctions between the reality of war-torn London, the fiction of his unpublished sci-fi novel, and the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Driven by visions of Ellis still alive and a sense of poetic inevitability, Harry sets off on a search for his brother that will lead him deep into the city’s Underworld. With otherworldly paintings by Alexis Deacon depicting Harry’s surreal descent further into the depths of hell, this eerily beautiful blend of prose, verse, and illustration delves into love, loyalty, and the unbreakable bonds of brotherhood as it builds to a fierce indictment of mechanized warfare.

Orpheus Descending
Orpheus Descending

Author: Tennessee Williams

Publisher: Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 92

ISBN-13: 9780822208655

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THE STORY: As The New York Times describes, The play tells of a woman storekeeper and a handsome, guileless youth who comes in off the highway. A guitar-player, he is a rural Orpheus who descends to rescue his love--not in Hades, precisely,

The Descent of the Lyre
The Descent of the Lyre

Author: Will Buckingham

Publisher:

Published: 2012-08-28

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789380905075

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A marvellous remaking of the tale of Orpheus set in early Nineteenth century Bulgaria. Praised by THE BOOKSELLER (UK) as 'A well-written, lyrical tale'. From the author of CARGO FEVER (2007).

Orpheus Process
Orpheus Process

Author: Daniel H. Gower

Publisher: Dell

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 9780440211433

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In a university lab is living proof of Dr. Orville Hammond's long-awaited mastery over death: a previously dead monkey who swims in a tank of violet fluid. But the murder of Dr. Hammond's daughter sends him over the boundaries of reason. His daughter will rise again--but she will not come back quite the same.

Redefining Ancient Orphism
Redefining Ancient Orphism

Author: Radcliffe G. Edmonds III

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-11-07

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 1107038219

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In a paradigm shift, this book redefines Orphism as a polemical label for extra-ordinary religion, good or bad.

The Whalestoe Letters
The Whalestoe Letters

Author: Mark Z. Danielewski

Publisher: Pantheon

Published: 2000-10-10

Total Pages: 106

ISBN-13: 0375714413

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Between 1982 and 1989, Pelafina H. Lièvre sent her son, Johnny Truant, a series of letters from The Three Attic Whalestoe Institute, a psychiatric facility in Ohio where she spent the final years of her life. Beautiful, heartfelt, and tragic, this correspondence reveals the powerful and deeply moving relationship between a brilliant though mentally ill mother and the precocious, gifted young son she never ceases to love. Originally contained within the monumental House of Leaves, this collection stands alone as a stunning portrait of mother and child. It is presented here along with a foreword by Walden D. Wyhrta and eleven previously unavailable letters.

Journeys to the Underworld and Heavenly Realm in Ancient and Medieval Literature
Journeys to the Underworld and Heavenly Realm in Ancient and Medieval Literature

Author: John C. Stephens

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2019-02-14

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1476634971

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Concepts of heaven and hell are among the oldest, most widespread religious beliefs in history. In Western literature, they are frequently embedded in stories of underworld explorations and celestial journeys--stories examining the nature of the universe, life on earth and the existence of the gods. The author analyzes tales of wonder in both ancient and medieval European literature. Other-worldly narratives appeared in literary contexts in the ancient world, including mythology, poetry and philosophical writings. In medieval times, they remained a popular form of literary expression. These stories are primarily religious in nature, describing fantastic worlds filled with miracles and supernatural beings.

Ritual Texts for the Afterlife
Ritual Texts for the Afterlife

Author: Fritz Graf

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2007-06-11

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1134119674

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Fascinating texts written on small gold tablets that were deposited in graves provide a unique source of information about what some Greeks and Romans believed regarding the fate that awaited them after death, and how they could influence it. These texts, dating from the late fifth century BCE to the second century CE, have been part of the scholarly debate on ancient afterlife beliefs since the end of the nineteenth century. Recent finds and analysis of the texts have reshaped our understanding of their purpose and of the perceived afterlife. The tablets belonged to those who had been initiated into the mysteries of Dionysus Bacchius and relied heavily upon myths narrated in poems ascribed to the mythical singer Orpheus. After providing the Greek text and a translation of all the available tablets, the authors analyze their role in the mysteries of Dionysus, and present an outline of the myths concerning the origins of humanity and of the sacred texts that the Greeks ascribed to Orpheus. Related ancient texts are also appended in English translations. Providing the first book-length edition and discussion of these enigmatic texts in English, and their first English translation, this book is essential to the study of ancient Greek religion.