Orpheus and Eurydice by Emma Wilson-Kanamori

I don’t believe in a love where I do not glance back.

In the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, what if they were separated with wrath? What if Eurydice bargained with Hades behind Persephone’s back, and our Orpheus seduced the Furies, and in their bargains inhaled that deep sombre shadow of the Underworld?

What if they too emerged from drops of blood, changed and marked? What if they became the precipice between the sky and the horizon, and in their lust to be united, became the very monsters that guard Hades’ gates?

And what if they sailed away together, leaving a massacre, terrible in flesh, the two sinners who overthrew the master of the underworld and his wife, scot-free or so they thought—until Hades chased them down. What if he demanded Orpheus as pay for the powers he gave to our Eurydice, whilst behind him, the Furies knew that she would sacrifice herself to save him? What if the two lovers did not go meekly with their eyes downcast, but bit their ruin in the jugular?

This is simply a thought I have. What if instead of simpering tragedy, they fought, biting and scratching, to throw the gods off their throne?

There is a romance to that, don’t you think?

There is fire.

Bio

Emma Wilson-Kanamori's short fiction has appeared in the literary magazines Ginosko Literary Journal and The Gravity of the Thing. Though she grew up in Japan as a mix of writer, artist, and dancer, she has moved to Scotland and settled down fully as a scribbler, both of words and of images.

Author's note

I wrote "Orpheus and Eurydice" to start as a contemplation of Eurydice taking agency. In the mythology book I grew up reading, the tale was very centred on Orpheus and the measures he took to bring his love back from the Underworld. I entertained the thought of a Eurydice who had not yet become a mindless shade of herself, but who might have struck a similar deal to claw back to the man she loved. Within it as well, I think, is a grief I've felt toward those kinds of inevitable separations in my life—how similar our romances can be to these ancient mythologies, where one small act causes a cascade in our lives and everything we believed would be infinite. Despite knowing that there's an end to everything, though, some of us fight to hang on for as long and as hard as we can. This is an ode to our spirit.