Not Willing to die...

Death of Orpheus, Albrecht Durer, 1494.

But others point out that Orpheus did not receive his wife back, because his attempt was the quest of a coward, who was not willing to die for her but entered the Underworld alive, and alive he left both Underworld and wife, who in that way died twice. And as they reason thus, they have in mind Alcestis, who was allowed to return from the Underworld for having willingly died for love of her husband.

Death of Orpheus

Some affirm that Orpheus was torn in pieces by the MAENADS, but others say that he committed suicide out of grief for the death of his wife. Still others assert that Orpheus came to his end by being struck by a thunderbolt, hurled at him by god because he revealed sayings in the mysteries to men who had not heard them before. Yet others say that because Orpheus first favoured love for youths, he seemed to insult women, and for this reason the latter killed him.

Aphrodite, Calliope, Dionysus , Apollo

Concerning the Maenads or women who killed him, some say that when Aphrodite and Persephone were both in love with Adonis, Orpheus' mother Calliope was then appointed judge by Zeus, and she decided that each should possess him half the year. Aphrodite then, angry at the decision, stirred all the women in Thrace with love, each to seek Orpheus for herself, so that they tore him limb from limb. But some affirm that these women were instigated by Dionysus 2, who was angry against Orpheus because he had looked into the rites of the god.

His head fell into the sea and was cast by the waves upon the island of Lesbos where the Lesbians buried it, and for having done this the Lesbians have the reputation of being skilled in music.In the island of Lesbos, they say, Orpheus had a shrine where oracles were given until Apollo, the god of prophecy, rebuked him:
"Cease to meddle with my affairs, for I have already put up long enough with your vaticinations." [Flavius Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 4.14]

Women and wine

It is also told that the Thracian women plotted Orpheus' death, because he had persuaded their husbands to follow him in his wanderings, and that first after having drinking much wine, they dared to kill him. This is the reason why their husbands hereafter adopted the custom to march to battle drunk.

River remembered him

Some believe he was killed near Mount Pieria, and close to this place an urn was preserved, which was said to contain the bones of Orpheus. It is also told that when the women who killed Orpheus wished to wash off in a river the blood-stains, the river sank underground, not wishing to lend its waters to cleanse manslaughter.

Bones and nightingales

It is told that the city of Libethra had received an oracle concerning the bones of Orpheus, which stated that when the sun should see his bones the city would be destroyed by a boar. Nobody believed a boar able to cause such a huge destruction, but when one day by accident the urn fell and broke exposing the bones, that same night came a heavy rain, and the river Sys (Boar), one of the torrents about Olympus, destroyed the walls of Libethra, overturning sanctuaries and houses, and drowning the inhabitants and all the animals in the city.The Thracians used to say that the nightingales that build their nests on the grave of Orpheus sing more sweetly than others.

Constellation Lyra

It has also been said that Orpheus' scattered limbs were gathered by the Muses, who buried them and put the Lyre among the constellations as a memorial.