was the road by which Hercules descended when he went to carry off
Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the threshold of Pluto.
Undaunted by the terrors of the place, Orpheus passed through this
gate and down a dark and dismal road to the kingdom of the dead. Here
he came in safety through the crowd of ghosts and phantoms, and stood
at last before the throne of Pluto and Proserpina. Then he touched the
chords of his lyre and chanted these words:

"Great lords of the world below the earth, to which all we mortals
must one day come, grant me to tell a simple tale and declare unto
you the truth. Not to look upon the blackness of Tartarus have I come
hither, nor yet to bind in chains the snaky heads on Cerberus. It is
my wife I seek. A viper's sting has robbed her of the years that were
her due. I should have borne my loss, indeed I tried to bear it, but I
was overcome by Love, a god well known in the world above, and I think
not without honor in your kingdom, unless the story of Proserpina's
theft be a lying tale. I beseech you, by the realms of the dead, by
mighty Chaos and the silence of your vast kingdom, revoke the untimely
doom of Eurydice. All our lives are forfeit to you. 'Tis but a short
delay, and late or soon we all hasten towards one goal. Hither all our
footsteps tend. This is our last home, yours is the sole enduring rule
over mankind. She too, when she shall have lived her allotted term of
years, will surely come under your sway. Till then, I implore you,
let her be mine. But if the Fates refuse a husband's prayers, I am
resolved never to return hence. My death shall give you a double
boon."

[Illustration: ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE.]

Thus he prayed and touched his harp in tune with his words. All around