Hadestown: From Myth to Musical
- ayouthviewpoint
- Mar 20
- 8 min read
By Angelica Varela
Greek myths have impacted society since their origins. Unlike books, they don't have an exact story which every person that knows the story can read and have the exact version. Originally, greek myths were passed down by word. This has caused the stories to change over time and take the meaning of the person who is telling it. Every person has a different interpretation of them. Along the years, myths change next to the world, taking the shape of the society it's being told in. They invite people to share their own versions, while still following the same storyline. One of these myths is the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.
Orpheus and Eurydice: The Original Myth
The first-ever account of this iconic story is said to come from a Greek lyric poet called Ibycus around 530 BC. The myth speaks about the legendary hero Orpheus, an extraordinarily talented musician who had previously taken part in the Argonauts and saved them from Sirens by charming them with his powerful song. He was said to charm anything with his voice, humans and gods alike. It was even said that animals, plants, and rocks wanted to be around him as he was playing his lyre, which was gifted to him by the god of music, Apollo himself. After his return from the expedition, he met Eurydice, a nymph, and fell for her instantly. They got married and unfortunately, on their wedding day, Eurydice died from a snake bite and got sent straight to the underworld. Devastated and determined to bring her back to life, Orpheus sang his way into the underworld, charming everyone who stood in his path and convincing them to work in his favor. Finally, when he reached Hades, king of the underworld, his singing was magnificent enough to convince him to let Eurydice leave the underworld, but on one condition: as Orpheus led her out, he could not look back at her, so he would just have to trust that she was there. Orpheus happily led Eurydice through the underworld back to the surface, and when they finally reached the light, Orpheus looked back only to see Eurydice still in the darkness and being sucked back in again, and he was left alone in the land of the living without his beloved wife.
The moral of this tale back then was that one shouldn’t defy the gods and their will, teaching the Greeks obedience. Orpheus defied Hades’ word by looking back at Eurydice and he faced the consequences for it. His own hubris was the cause of his and Eurydice’s demise. After she was taken to the underworld once again, he wrote a song begging for his own death and depending on the version being told, he was killed by humans, beasts, or possibly the gods themselves. The muses cut the head off his corpse and used it to play beautiful songs for all eternity.
Hadestown: The Musical Modern Retelling
Hadestown came to be in 2006, when its creator, Anaïs Mitchell, came up with a set of lyrics in her head while on her way to a gig. These lyrics were: "Wait for me, I'm coming / In my garters and pearls / With what melody did you barter me / From the wicked underworld?". This sparked the journey into making the concept album Hadestown which then led to its development into a musical with the help of director Rachel Chavkin. Hadestown had its official Broadway debut on April 17th, 2019, at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
What is Hadestown about?
Hadestown, simply put, is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice set in a post-apocalyptic world. Taking place in a type of New Orleans French Quarter where Spring and Autumn don’t come. The musical’s soundtrack is heavily inspired by New Orleans’ jazz and blues, mixing these two main genres with Dixieland and folk, creating a unique sound that blends seamlessly with the vibe the musical portrays. It contains two acts, each with 17 songs, these being:
Act 1
"Road to Hell"
"Any Way the Wind Blows"
"Come Home With Me"
"Wedding Song"
"Epic I"
"Livin' it Up on Top"
"All I've Ever Known"
"Way Down Hadestown"
"A Gathering Storm"
"Epic II"
"Chant"
"Hey, Little Songbird"
"When the Chips Are Down"
"Gone, I'm Gone"
"Wait for Me"
"Why We Build the Wall"
Act 2
"Our Lady of the Underground"
"Way Down Hadestown (Reprise)"
"Flowers"
"Come Home With Me (Reprise)"
"Papers"
"Nothing Changes"
"If It's True"
"How Long?"
"Chant (reprise)"
"Epic III"
"Promises"
"Word to the Wise"
"His Kiss, the Riot"
"Wait for Me (reprise)"
"Doubt Comes In"
"Road to Hell (reprise)"
"We Raise our Cups"
Unlike the original myth, the musical explores deeper, more modern concepts and gives each character an important role in the story. Themes like poverty, capitalism, and industrialization are explored through the character of Hades, who is portrayed as a higher power ruling over his city. He represents the whole machine that is capitalism, corruption, and greed; he strips his workers of their identities, everyone is the same down at Hadestown and it doesn’t matter who suffers the price as long as the factory keeps moving. The workers are powerless against him; they chose to work there and now they must pay what's due. Just like in the real world, the people think they have a voice, but the reality is that giving up and accepting the reality of it all seems like the best choice since there’s no true use for that voice anyway, speak and you will be silenced by higher powers. Persephone, his wife and goddess of spring and nature, is living in the underworld next to her husband and the industrialized empire he has built. She took part in many of the important decisions that drastically changed the storyline of the musical. Different from the stories of their love, instead of being kidnapped and dragged into the underworld, Persephone is in a mutual, consensual relationship with Hades, but that doesn’t mean she is any less miserable. Their constant fighting is what caused the world to turn bad, and since now Hades is keeping Persephone in his turf longer and longer, the land of the living is suffering the consequences of lack of food and vegetation, meaning that the economy hit the floor, and the world was in a state of poverty. Their relationship is a parallel to industry vs. environment, referring to how nowadays one can see fewer green areas and more factories and smoke. The climate change crisis referenced is affecting both the world inside Hadestown and the world outside of it. Another political reference that Hadestown makes homage to is in Hades’ showpiece song “Why We Build the Wall.” The wall represents safety and familiarity for the citizens of Hadestown; it is said to keep out the “enemy,” being poverty, but really all the wall is doing is isolating them from the rest of the world, from reality.
On the other side, there’s Hermes, who is introduced at the beginning and plays many roles as a character in the story. Just as in his original role in Greek mythology, he serves as a narrator for the story, a messenger between the characters and the audience. He serves as a reminder of the many times that this story has been told before, which may or may not insinuate that it will have the same exact ending. He additionally serves as a commentator and friend to Orpheus, though, like old Greek choruses in plays, he switches sides based on what the morality of the situation points to. His third role is as a psychopomp, a guide for souls into the other life, and this is shown many times, including when he gives Orpheus instructions on how to reach Hadestown without boarding the train, aka dying.
Orpheus and Eurydice's relationship is very complex and emotional. The way their love and story are portrayed in Hadestown brings their relationship a plethora of hidden meanings. One of the primary meanings is that of Art vs. Commerce. Orpheus is a very optimistic and hopeful guy, who truly believes he can save the world with the song he is developing. On the other hand, Eurydice is seen more as a practical thinker, who has been forced to try and thrive in unimaginable conditions of food scarcity and poverty. This clashing of personalities is what eventually leads to their demise. Orpheus had been paying too much attention to his beloved song, while on the other side, Eurydice was facing the harsh realities of the life they were living in, so she decided to make a choice. This is one of the things that gives Hadestown a different aura than the original myth; Eurydice wasn’t taken to the underworld against her will, she chose to accept Hades’ offer. Although yes, it was a choice due to desperation and manipulation from Hades' side, it still doesn’t change the fact that it was up to her to make that decision.
Orpheus once again shows his determination and optimism by embarking on a journey to rescue his wife. When he arrives, Hades is angered that a puny man really had the audacity to come and demand something of him on his own property, so he proposed Orpheus a deal: if he sings a song so beautiful that even he is moved by it, he will let Eurydice go. And so, he does, Orpheus sings a song which turns out to be the same one Hades had sung with Persephone once, which reminded them of a time when they were in love. Hades kept his side of the bargain, but there was a catch; while Orpheus was leading out Eurydice, just as in the original myth, he couldn’t look back. Finally, Orpheus and Eurydice ascend to the surface, but not alone—they had the workers trailing right behind them. This detail is insinuated in the song “Wait for Me (Reprise),” specifically in the lines where Eurydice sings, “I hear the walls repeating / The falling of our feet and / It sounds like drumming / And we are not alone / I hear the rocks and stones / Echoing our song / I'm coming.” This detail serves as more evidence to the fact that throughout the story, Orpheus is a figure of hope, for Eurydice and the world. Hope that art really can thrive in a world filled with industry. But unfortunately, just as Hermes said, this is an old story that has been told before. As they get closer to the light, the Fates fill Orpheus with more and more doubt. Since he could not return to the underworld once he had escaped, the question “Who says that Hades isn’t just tricking him?” lingered in his head. And the Fates did their job; they kept destiny as it was. Orpheus reached the light, and his fatal flaw caught up to him, making him quickly look back at Eurydice, who, just as in the old tale, was still in the darkness, and she was swept back into Hades' realm once again. Yes, Orpheus might have achieved his original goal, which was to bring back Spring, giving the musical a partial happy ending, but at what cost? Then again, like Hermes had been reminding the audience this whole time: “It’s an old song! And we’re gonna sing it again.”
Tragic stories like these are told and adapted time and time again because they are how society tells what is going on in their world. Classics hold the culture in which they were created, but as time passes and as new adaptations and retellings arise, different versions with different worldviews come to life, giving the stories a sense of freshness. The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is a never-ending cycle, but this is the exact reason why people like telling these stories. Tragic tales such as these humanize people and give them a sense of hope that somehow, the ending might be different this time around. That sliver of hope is something people hang on to as comfort in a world that thrives off human suffering. Stories and myths make up the eras of history, and like the saying “History always repeats itself,” so will these timeless tales, over and over again.
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Awesome article. Mrs. Varela explain with careful narrative a critical myth using a historical and artistic background full of joy and charm stories. Beautiful explanation....
Prof. Adolfo Jiménez Corretjer