Orpheus Stravinsky's ballet "Orpheus" (1948) and two operas by Harrison Birtwistle: "The Mask of Orpheus" (1973–1984) and "The Corridor" (2009). The Bulgarian Rousse State Opera commissioned and performed "Orpheus: A Masque" by John Robertson. It debuted in 2015. Rainer Maria Rilke's "Sonnets to Orpheus" (1922) are based on the Orpheus myth. Poul Anderson's Hugo Award-winning novelette "Goat Song", published in 1972, is a retelling of the story of Orpheus in a science fiction setting. Some feminist interpretations of the myth give Eurydice greater weight. Margaret Atwood's "Orpheus and Eurydice Cycle" (1976–86) deals with the myth, and gives Eurydice a more prominent
Hades death, although Euripides' play ""Alkestis"" states fairly clearly that Thanatos and Hades were one and the same deity, and gives an interesting description of Hades as being dark-cloaked and winged; moreover, Hades was also referred to as "Hesperos Theos" ("god of darkness"). When the Greeks propitiated Hades, they banged their hands on the ground to be sure he would hear them. Black animals, such as sheep, were sacrificed to him, and the very vehemence of the rejection of human sacrifice expressed in myth suggests an unspoken memory of some distant past. The blood from all chthonic sacrifices including those to