Orfeo muerto por las borrachas mujeres · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Orfeo muerto por las borrachas mujeres
Period: 1550-1600;
Geographic: Ancient Greece; Mount Rhodope
Description: This engraving illustrates the horrific death of Orpheus. Orpheus is illustrated sitting by a tree on the left-hand side of the engraving, playing his lyre whilst surrounded by the animals who listen to him. Orpheus is being approached by the Maenads, a frenzied group of women who worship the god Bacchus. They first attack the animals that surround Orpheus and tear them to pieces. Then they attacked Orpheus by throwing stones and spears at him until he bled. Just like the animals, the Maenads end up tearing Orpheus to pieces.
Image Creator: Virgil Solis (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:11536
Language: spa
Source Name: Las Transformaciones de Ovidio en lengua Española, repartidas en quinze libros, con las Allegorias al fin dellos, y sus figuras, para prouecho de los Artifices [The Transformations of Ovid in the Spanish language, distributed in fifteen books, with the allegories at the end of them and their figures, for the benefit of the creators]
Parent Collection: Las Transformaciones de Ovidio en lengua Española. Woodcut engravings by Virgil Solis (1595)
Image: mta_11536_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Ovid's Metamorphoses
Subject: Greek Mythology; Maenads; Orpheus; Roman Mythology