Memory and legacy are tied closely together but also are very different. Both can last beyond the test of time and contain experiences that hold various meanings from the past. However, by definition, memory concerns remembering a person or event, while legacy concerns remembering what a person did. In Orpheus and Eurydice and Deathless, these two stories explore memory and legacy beyond their definitions, both having their similarities and differences on the ideas. In Orpheus and Eurydice, it follows a soon-to-wed couple, Orpheus and Eurydice. On their wedding day, Eurydice was being pursued by a beekeeper named Aristaeus and as she was absconding, she was bitten by a snake. Because of this, her soul travels to the Underworld, a place where no one leaves or escapes. Orpheus tries to save her, but because he was doubtful, he failed. Memory comes in after Orpheus failed in saving his fiance.
After failing his task, he finally properly mourns for her, who she was, and what she meant to him. For “... seven long months, under a windy crag of the lonely bank of the Strymon, chanting his story aloud to the icy caves of the northland, breaking the savage hearts of even the man-eating tigers, moving the rooted oak trees to follow
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Despite having his , his head still speaks. It is told that “the head continued to sing and prophesy even after it was washed ashore on the island of Lesbos” (297). It would cry out “Alas! my lost Eurydice” in its last breath, the name becoming an echo in the River Hebrus. The memory of Eurydice will live on because of this, in the lament of a man who has lost the love of his life. Here, memory is an active action due to Orpheus’ cry. Without it, Eurydice would fade away into nothing as time goes