The Works of Virgil

THE GEORGICS

BOOK IV

A late antique manuscript miniature is framed in a thick red border with a black interior line. The painting illustrates the descent into the Underworld. At the top center, Cerberus, the three-headed hound, is shown in profile. On the far right, Orpheus stands wearing a tunic and a Phrygian cap, a style of headwear associated with the East. He plays a lyre. In the center-right, a dark cave opening contains two figures, likely Eurydice being restrained or seated. In the center-left, the figure of Ixion is bound to a circular, golden wheel. On the far left, a dense group of shaded figures represents the souls of the departed in the gloom of Tartarus. The background uses earthy, subterranean tones of brown and grey. Several library stamps from the Vatican are visible on the parchment.

Indeed, the very halls and the deepest regions of Death, Tartarus original: "Tartara"; the deep abyss that used as a dungeon of torment and a receptacle for the dead., were struck with awe,
And the Furies original: "Eumenides"; the goddesses of vengeance, often depicted with snakes for hair. who have dark blue snakes woven into their hair were stunned.
Cerberus The three-headed watchdog of the Underworld. held his three mouths open in a frozen gape,
And the turning of Ixion’s A king punished by being bound to a forever-spinning wheel. wheel came to a halt as the wind ceased.
And now, turning back his steps, he had escaped all perils,
And Eurydice, having been returned to him, was approaching the breezes of the world above.? The text here is faint. It describes the moment Orpheus almost succeeds in leading his wife back to the land of the living.