Metamorphoses

by Ovid

Before the earth and the sea and the all-encompassing heaven came into being, the whole of nature displayed but a single face, which men have called Chaos: a crude, unstructured mass,

Yet a holier living creature, more able to think high thoughts, which could hold dominion over the rest, was still to be found. So Man came into the world.

And now, as she died for the second time, she never complained that her husband had failed her – what could she complain of, except that he’d loved her?

As he searched the Elýsian Fields, he found the wife he had lost and held her close in his arms. At last the lovers could stroll together, side by side – [65] or she went ahead and he followed; then Orpheus ventured in front and knew he could now look back on his own Eurýdice safely.