The Mask of Orpheus Orpheus must travel through is given a symbolic name. At the start of this act, time is moving backwards: Orpheus travels back out of and into the Underworld, and Euridice dies once more. Then time moves forwards as Orpheus leaves the Underworld again. One version of the Orpheus story is that he is then killed by a thunderbolt thrown by Zeus, while another is that he is dismembered by the women of Dionysus. Orpheus then becomes the subject of a cult and an oracle. Time flows backwards once more, and Orpheus' death is acted out again, and the opera ends
Pseudo-Orpheus Pseudo-Orpheus "This article is about the poem known as Pseudo-Orpheus, not about the term "Pseudo-Orpheus" as it is applied to the unknown writer of other works falsely attributed to Orpheus." Pseudo-Orpheus is the name of a poetic text, preserved only in quotations by various Christian writers, which has a complex history. Pseudo-Orpheus appears in multiple recensions (versions created over time). The poem presents the legendary Greek figure Orpheus as giving a poetic speech to his son, Musaeus, identified as the biblical Moses, passing on to him hidden wisdom he learned in Egypt. It presents a monotheistic view of God, whom,