A Beautiful Retelling of the Orpheus Myth: Read Our Review of Orphia and Eurydicius by Elyse John

Their love transcends every boundary. Can it cheat death?

Orphia dreams of something more than the warrior crafts she’s been forced to learn. Hidden away on a far-flung island, her blood sings with poetry and her words can move flowers to bloom and forests to grow… but her father, the sun god Apollo, has forbidden her this art.

A chance meeting with a young shield-maker, Eurydicius, gives her the courage to use her voice. After wielding all her gifts to defeat one final champion, Orphia draws the scrutiny of the gods. Performing her poetry, she wins the protection of the goddesses of the arts: the powerful Muses, who welcome her to their sanctuary on Mount Parnassus. Orphia learns to hone her talents, crafting words of magic infused with history, love and tragedy.

When Eurydicius joins her, Orphia struggles with her desire for fame and her budding love. As her bond with the gentle shield-maker grows, she joins the Argonauts on their quest for the Golden Fleece. Facing dragons, sirens and ruthless warriors on the voyage, Orphia earns unparalleled fame, but she longs to return to Eurydicius.

Yet she has a darker journey to make – one which will see her fight for her love with all the power of her poetry.

This is a stunning, gender-flipped novel about love, creativity and the power of speaking out, which has the biggest names in Australian literature swooning with praise. It’s perfect for fans of Madeline Miller and Pat Barke

There are retellings and there are retellings. Elyse John weaves words into gold in this superb gender reversed reinvention of the Orpheus myth. Equal parts intimate and meta, it tells the tale of creativity finding its voice and its place. This is a story of a love that conquers all and the meeting of the two via our heroine, Orphia, daughter of Apollo, warrior goddess and trailblazing poetess.

Elyse John is a writer and a poet. She’s published a collection of poetry and her poems feature in international journals. So it comes as no surprise that John’s language is truly beautiful and deeply evocative. Heightened and elegiac in tone, Orphia and Eurydicius sings to the poet within us all. John’s descriptions are rich, intricate and possess the ability to stir the soul. Her word rhythms are mesmerising. Her poetry steers her prose in the loveliest and most lyrical of ways.

Orphia and Eurydicius is a heart song to creativity, female empowerment, true love and the quest for authenticity through courage. It’s a swoonworthy, breathtakingly exquisite, poignant masterpiece.  In the words of Holly Ringland, Orphia and Eurydicius is ‘vivid, consuming, potent, and poetic … A moving, magical ode to the power of using our voices‘. Amen to that.

Buy a copy of Orphia and Eurydicius here.