Collage with sculptures of Orpheus, Eurydice & Hermes by Judy Goldstein.

The original myth ofOrpheus and Eurydice leaves a lot to be desired. In the story, Orpheus falls in love with Eurydice. Soon after, she dies from a snake bite, and so Orpheus goes into the underworld to demandHades let him take her back from the dead. Hades agrees on one condition: Orpheus can lead Eurydice back to the mortal world, but if he looks back at her, she can’t return. He makes it almost all the way to the top but looks back at the very last second, casting Eurydice back into the underworld forever.  

The myth centers aroundOrpheus: we understand his love, his grief, and his unwavering determination to getEurydice back from the underworld. Yet despite her being an integral part of the story and half of the romantic pairing, we learn very little about her feelings or desires. Furthermore, Eurydice’s fate is constantly in the hands of others. When she dies by a snake bite, Orpheus tries to save her, Hades grants him permission to try, and Orpheus ultimately fails, casting her back into the underworld for eternity. It’s the epitome of the misogynistic “damsel in distress” trope: Eurydice is helpless and reliant on love-driven Orpheus to save her.  

Written by Anaïs Mitchell,Hadestownfirst opened on Broadway in 2019. The musical is a retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice set in an apocalyptic society where the underworld (also referred to as “Hadestown”) is a factory floor, and the entire set resembles a dingy barroom. It tells the story of a world off-balance, with critical commentary on capitalism and climate change. Despite the misogynistic undertones of the original myth, I believeHadestownpromotes a feminist message.  

 InHadestown, like the original myth, it’s easy to read Orpheus as a sexist character who doesn’t consider Eurydice’s needs. At the beginning of the musical, the two of them live in poverty, and they’re struggling to put food on the table. Eurydice insists over and over that she’s hungry, but Orpheus is too obsessed with writing the perfect song to pay attention. And similar to the original myth, in the musical, Orpheus travels all the way down to Hadestown to rescue her, not even knowing yet if she even wants to be rescued.  

Still Orpheus — at leastHadestown’sOrpheus — demonstrates his commitment to solidarity and social justice through his relentless optimism. 

At the beginning of the first act, Orpheus very much falls under the “starving artist” trope. He tells Eurydice that he’s working on a song to make spring come, to fix what’s broken in the world, and that after that happens, everything else will fall into place. Eurydice views this behavior as naive, and the viewer is supposed to think this as well. However, Orpheus’ music is a metaphor for his dreams and the hope he has for a better world. His music gets him into the underworld and convinces Hades to let him try to bring back Eurydice; he refuses to give in to the hopelessness and despair. The hope Orpheus has may be naive, but it’s his driving force and therefore is powerful.  

The finale of the show is a slower, more somber repetition of the opening number, representing the exhausting Sisyphean quality of working towards change. You pour your heart into a cause, and yet more often than not you end up right back where you started. ButHermes, the narrator of the musical, reminds us that that’s the whole point: “It’s a sad song, but we sing it anyway, as if it might turn out this time.” As long as there are passionate people out there, fighting, singing the song, eventually itwill turn out differently.  

In addition to his optimism, Orpheus is incredibly audacious. He doesn’t care about the consequences or dangers but instead marches into the underworld with nothing but his song, a dream, and love to demand systemic change. Orpheus’ actions teach us how powerful—and successful—it can be to march into places that try to push you away and demand a place there anyway. He serves as a powerful example for women and other marginalized groups, who are taught to be compliant and fear taking up space. 

Hadestown expands the story beyond the relationship between Orpheus and Eurydice. At its core, Hadestown is about a group of people who are sick of being lied to, rising uptogether to take back control over their lives and their world. The other souls in the underworld—or “workers” on the “factory floor”—are equally tired of Hades’ regime, realizing that the freedom they’d been promised originally was a lie. They join together with Orpheus and Eurydice to fight for freedom and change. Orpheus says it himself: “I believe in us together, more than anyone alone.”  

When Orpheus goes to the underworld and convinces Hades to let him bring her back, Hades agrees on one condition: Orpheus can only save Eurydice if he walks ahead and doesn’t look back until they reach the sunlight. He fails, looking back right before the top. By forcing them to walk separately, Hades targets the solidarity that Orpheus and Eurydice have with each other and with the other workers.

If we take the underworld not as a literal “hell” but a metaphor and criticism of capitalism and patriarchy, this theme of solidarity is even more essential. For us to fix any of the “evils” in the world we can’t walk alone; wemust walk side by side and lift each other up.

This is why “Promises” is such an important song. Orpheus and Eurydice sing this duet in the underworld, after they agree to try and make it out of Hadestown. Mirroring the lines from the first act, Orpheus admits he has none of the things he originally promised Eurydice — no ring, no banquet table, no bed of feathers. He knows he can’t promise that things will be easy. But it’s reiterated again and again that the most important thing is that “any way the wind blows,” they’ll walk side by side.

Hadestowntakes place in a world that’s falling apart. Everything is off balance and there’s no spring anymore, just “blazing hot and freezing cold.” Yet through the vibrant love stories that persist despite existing in a broken world,Hadestowncelebrates the resilience and joy of love as protest to hatred and bigotry.

Fighting the patriarchal and oppressive system as a feminist is exhausting and often seems futile. It’s Sisyphus, pushing the boulder up again and again just to end up back at the bottom. It’s Orpheus and Eurydice, who fight so hard to be with one another and yet fail by fault of their own love. But just like Orpheus who fought his way into Hadestown with nothing but a song and a dream, we continue to do the work because to keep fighting is the whole point. And the next time you feel too defeated to go on, remember that art, a dream, love, and a little audacity can take us far.