The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700

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Orpheus ( - )

Ancient Greek singer and lyre-player who failed to retrieve his wife Eurydice from the dead and was ripped apart by Maenads. Dictionary of National Biography entry: http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198606413.001.0001/acref-9780198606413-e-4611?rskey=7URZ41&result=1&q=orpheus Other biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus Relationships: Apollo (mythology) (-) was a father of Orpheus
References in Documents:
MS Book of the dean of Christ Church (MacGregor, ed.) 501 Facies Heroinæ formosissimæ, ac mortis, in eodem cerasi ossiculo. Face of a very beautiful lady, and of Death, carved on the same cherry-stone.
MS Book of the dean of Christ Church (MacGregor, ed.) 502 Orpheus citharizans in una facie ossiculi unius pruni sculptus, et omne genus bestiarũcomitatium inaliâ, opere multiforo. 464 Orpheus playing the lyre carved on one side of a single plum-stone, and accompanied on the other a following of all kinds of animals. Executed in openwork . MacGregor 1983, no. 181.
A memo dated 28 April 1658 (Canterbury Cathedral loose papers) A Cast marble table frō from Rome, with figures, Orpheus and the beasts about him.