Orpheus und Eurydike Orpheus und Eurydike Orpheus und Eurydike ("Orpheus and Eurydice") is an opera by Ernst Krenek. The German text is based on a play by Oskar Kokoschka. Kokoschka began writing his play during his convalescence (from wounds received on the Ukrainian front in 1915) and it premiered in 1921, one year before Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus appeared. In 1923 he let it be known that he was looking for a composer to write incidental music. Kokoschka's expressionist, psychological treatment of the Orpheus myth, marked by his passion for Alma Mahler, appealed to Krenek so he approached Kokoschka. They quickly decided that
Hades More elaborate names of the same genre were "Ploutodótēs" () or "Ploutodotḗr" (), meaning "giver of wealth". Epithets of Hades include "Agesander" () and "Agesilaos" (), both from "ágō" (, "lead", "carry" or "fetch") and "anḗr" (, "man") or "laos" (, "men" or "people"), describing Hades as the god who carries away all. Nicander uses the form "Hegesilaus" (). He was also referred to as "Zeus katachthonios" (Ζεὺς καταχθόνιος), meaning "the Zeus of the Underworld", by those avoiding his actual name, as he had complete control over the Underworld. In Greek mythology, Hades, the god of the underworld, was the