Orpheus Myths of North American Indigenous People

From: Near Death Experience in Indigenous Religions - Gregory Shushan PhD

The myth of Orpheus is a Greek story about a musician, poet, and prophet who journeys to the underworld to bring back his lost wife, Eurydice.

One of the most frequently recurring narrative types among North American indigenous afterlife accounts is the so-called Orpheus myth, involving protagonists who travel to an afterlife realm while still alive in order to retrieve a loved one (spouse, lover, parent, child, sibling, or friend).

One of the most common types is the Orpheus myth, involving a living individual who travels to an afterlife realm in order to retrieve a loved one (spouse, lover, parent, child, sibling, or friend), as discussed earlier. Taboos on eating or sexual relations in the otherworld, or on relating the experience to others upon return, are typically imposed on the individual by a deity or spirit, and are ultimately broken. This results in the deceased being unable to return to Earth, or dying again (i.e., returning to the realm of the dead) after a period of time back on Earth. Hultkrantz (1957) found approximately 120 examples from 79 widely distributed societies. While many are discussed here, so abundant and structurally consistent are these narratives that there is neither space nor purpose to review them all.

The French Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf (1636: 141–53) lived with the Wyandot for fifteen years, learned their language fluently, and was a careful chronicler of their culture. He was told that their afterlife beliefs originated in reports of individuals who had died and were “brought back to life,” and were maintained by the retelling of such narratives. Brébeuf also recorded an Orpheus myth in which a man followed his sister to the other world after prolonged mourning.

In 1929, the Ojibwe of Queen Elizabeth Islands stated that their knowledge of the afterlife came from a woman named Gizikkwedanjiani, who followed her dead husband there. Though he told her to go back and take care of their child, she persisted. She encountered a bloody-mouthed canine “that devours the souls of those who have tormented dogs.” At the “river of death” she paid her passage by sprinkling tobacco on the water, causing phosphorescent logs to remain still for her to cross. Those who could not pay became crayfish, though witches would burn on the log. At “the storehouse of brains” Gizikkwedanjiani was interrogated and asked what she was doing there. When she explained her intention of retrieving her husband’s soul, she was told to go ask Djibweabuth, brother of the underworld ruler Nanibush. Djibweabuth agreed to give Gizikkwedanjiani her husband’s soul and brains. Though the husband did not wish to return with her, she took him anyway, and succeeded in reanimating him back on Earth

In a shamanic-themed Orpheus legend recounted by Blowsnake, a man named Wakisha followed his deceased wife to the spirit land. Assisted by an old man covered in hair, he overcame various obstacles on his journey, only to face a series of taunts and humiliations from his deceased relatives for attempting to rescue his wife. He succeeded, however, and returned with her to Earth. He also brought back a drum given to him by the old man, which had the power to restore souls of the sick and dying.

A Seneca Orpheus legend tells of a woman who traveled to the “land of the Mother of Ghosts” to retrieve her dead husband, Djengo’se. After following him for four days, she was stopped at a “narrow passageway” and interrogated by two men. They asked what she was doing there since she was not dead, and after hearing her story they decided to help her. They warned her that the next passageway would be guarded by panthers and gave her two pheasants as a toll for them. At a third passageway she was again interrogated. The warder gave her a gourd containing “the fat or oil of a man,” with a tendon as a stopper. The woman was told that upon reaching a strawberry field she should rub the oil on her hands, at which point the Mother of Ghosts would appear. After interrogating the widow, the Mother of Ghosts helped to hide her until evening, when Djengo’se and the other spirits arrived for a dance. When they smelled the widow, the spirits became suspicious, but the Mother of Ghosts succeeded in trapping Djengo’se in the gourd. She told the widow to hurry back to the first passage, where she would be given further instructions. Retracing her path, the widow eventually reached home and prepared her husband’s body as she had been directed, by stopping every orifice except the mouth with a mixture of deer fat, human fat, and clay. When she released the soul from the gourd, it entered her husband’s body and he returned to life.