- 2 days ago
Jim Henson's The Storyteller S02E03 Orpheus and Eurydice
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CreativityTranscript
01:00Yes.
01:11Orpheus.
01:15Orpheus, don't go!
01:18Eurydice.
01:19What did it say?
01:21Eurydice.
01:23The woman Orpheus loved.
01:26Orpheus and Eurydice.
01:29Two names that will always belong together.
01:32Two people who loved each other even beyond the shadow of death itself.
01:36Orpheus was the son of Calliope, one of the nine muses who sang to the gods on Mount Olympus.
01:58She was the muse of poetry and music, and her son became the greatest musician the world had ever known.
02:06For the sake of his music, Jason took Orpheus on the quest for the Golden Fleece.
02:11His lyre could soothe the waves themselves.
02:14His lyre?
02:14This is a lyre.
02:16The lyre of Orpheus.
02:18Huh.
02:19Orpheus had a kingdom in Thrace, in the far north of Greece, where the olive trees are bent by the wind.
02:26And when he came home from his travels, and was once again among his people, he sat upon the stones at the edge of the forest and played.
02:33It was the beginning of spring, but there had been no rain for two months.
03:03His people danced, and as their bare feet hit the stones, he would have said the stones were moving as they danced.
03:18Not just the stones.
03:19As the king played on, his music seemed to weave into the sounds of the hillside,
03:24as if the birdsong and the riverfall, the goats' bells and the wind in the grasses had been brought into being by his playing.
03:31It makes you want to move.
03:34When Orpheus played, the whole world wanted to move.
03:37It seemed that the roots of the trees would haul themselves up from the earth and dance to his rhythm.
03:48His music gave them new life, for as he played, the rain started to fall.
03:55Children tugged at their mother's arms and whispered,
03:58Persephone, Persephone, Persephone, Persephone.
04:02For while they danced, the goddess who dances in the spring came among them.
04:11His music stirred the natural world, and the earth's sound spoke to him.
04:16One day, he was walking in the wilderness beyond the farms, listening to the sound of the wind in the trees.
04:27And then there was one sound that drew him.
04:43It came from an older tree.
04:45It came from an older tree.
04:46It came from an older tree.
04:47It came from an older tree.
04:48It came from an older tree.
04:49It came from an older tree.
04:50It came from an older tree.
04:51It came from an older tree.
04:52It came from an older tree.
04:53It came from an older tree.
04:54It came from an older tree.
04:55It came from an older tree.
04:56It came from an older tree.
04:57It came from an older tree.
04:58It came from an older tree.
04:59It came from an older tree.
05:00It came from an older tree.
05:01It came from an older tree.
05:02It came from an older tree.
05:03It came from an older tree.
05:04It came from an older tree.
05:05It came from an older tree.
05:06It came from an older tree.
05:07It came from an older tree.
05:08It came from an older tree.
05:09It was the wood nymph, Eurydice, and his music had brought her into the world of men.
05:39I'm Orpheus, Orpheus.
05:55I have sung storms to sleep.
06:00I have made the clashing rocks move away from our ship.
06:09I've been to the end of the world and seen things more terrible, more beautiful, than I thought could be.
06:19But you, listen to the silence, is that what you hear?
06:31Say your name. Say your name to me, and I'll pick it out of the air, and I'll make a tune of it, and I'll give it back to you, more beautiful than you.
06:48Eurydice. Eurydice, Eurydice, Eurydice, Eurydice, Eurydice, Eurydice.
06:56That was how he led her back to his people, walking before her in the wilderness, playing as he went, like a child with a new gift to show his parents.
07:06And as he looked back at her, she smiled for happiness.
07:10What a beautiful story.
07:12I'm afraid it isn't over yet.
07:14Sometimes the story doesn't end with two people falling in love.
07:18It starts there.
07:19So she went back into the tree?
07:21No, no, no.
07:22They were married.
07:23They lived together all that spring and summer.
07:26Eurydice loved Orpheus and he loved her as if there never had been love before they met and never would be love afterwards.
07:39Why are you looking over there?
07:43You miss the forest.
07:45No.
07:49I'm... I'm looking towards the trees.
07:51Sometimes the wind moves them and I hear noises that call me, the way you did once.
08:04Orpheus wanted to keep her away from the untrimmed trees and the ragged depths of the forest because he knew who was there.
08:10Who was?
08:12Centaurs.
08:13Forms.
08:14Satyrs.
08:15Creatures given up to pleasure.
08:17Hairy and unpredictable.
08:19Like me.
08:22Hairy, anyway.
08:24And out there in the forest of Thrace was Aristaios himself, who lopes in and out of the deepest woods.
08:31The corn was ripe, the branches were heavy with fruit, and the men and women of that country gathered in the harvest and danced a grateful dance to the goddess Demeter.
08:42But Eurydice was drawn to the wilderness.
08:50Aristaios.
08:52Who's there?
08:56Aristaios.
08:57I can see you.
09:07Hello.
09:09Oh, oh, what a mess of unscratchable itch.
09:13Oh, shake a leg.
09:15Oh, if there was a wall I could get up against, if there was a rat police I could rub up against and have a really good itch.
09:20can you scratch my
09:23let go
09:27who are you
09:31I'm a goat
09:32I'm a man
09:34I'm the brother of Penn
09:36I'm a goat
09:38I'm a goat
09:40I'm a goat
09:45I'm a man
09:45but as she ran through the forest
09:49the snake bit her head
09:50Eurydice
09:54Eurydice
09:58satyrs understand only pleasure
10:00in the face of pain
10:01they are like children alone in the dark
10:03I'm a man
10:05it wasn't me
10:07just a snake
10:08just a snake
10:09Eurydice
10:10speak to me
10:13Eurydice
10:15don't leave me
10:20but her eyes just stared past him
10:23and her mouth gaped as wide as it made
10:25he took his wife in his arms
10:28and carried her out of the forest
10:29to where his people were still dancing
10:32and his words chilled their hearts
10:36Eurydice is dead
10:38we will give her body to the woods laid out for harvest fires
10:45and when we have done with our lament
10:47I will break my lyre
10:50for since she is dead
10:52there will be no more music
10:53bring her back
10:58don't let her die
11:00help me
11:01please help me
11:02you
11:03you can do it
11:04your music can do anything
11:05can't it
11:06make it bring her back
11:07use this to bring her back
11:09please please
11:10you must
11:11you must help me
11:13Zeus and the immortals
11:16hear me
11:17I
11:18who have calmed the seas
11:21and made rocks move with my music
11:24I will charm death himself
11:27I will go down to Hades and bring her back
11:31do you hear me
11:33I will bring her back from the arms of death himself
11:38and so armed only with his music
11:40Orpheus went down into the underworld
11:43the land from which no one has ever returned
11:47there is almost no sound in Hades
11:54they have a dog there don't they
11:55they have a three-headed dog
11:57Cerberus if you must know
11:59but this isn't a story about dogs
12:01this is the story of Orpheus
12:04who went down into Hades itself
12:06to bring back his loved one
12:08he picked his way down towards the river Styx
12:11the river you must cross to reach the underworld
12:14and there below he saw his wife
12:16walking towards Charon
12:19the ferryman of Hades
12:21one oboe
12:24drink
12:33Eurydice
12:33don't drink
12:35this is the water of Muthi
12:38the water that makes you forget
12:41everyone must drink it
12:43it's sweet
12:45Eurydice
12:46can't you feel all those painful things
12:50glowing
12:51glowing
12:55Eurydice didn't turn as the boat drifted off through the mists
12:59Orpheus
13:00Orpheus could only wait for the ferry to return
13:03knowing there was no other way across
13:06one oboe
13:07the crossing is one oboe
13:10no oboe no crossing
13:13Caron
13:15Caron
13:19the boat it moved
13:21I know
13:22the souls of the dead have no weight
13:24your hands
13:27your hands
13:28they're warm
13:28I'm alive
13:30yes
13:31your lips
13:33your skin
13:33Caron
13:37Caron
13:40I haven't heard music
13:44oh I don't know
13:46so long
13:47didn't it soothe you
13:52eh sir
13:53huh
13:54reaching the far side of the river
13:57Orpheus stumbled on through the cold marshes
14:00with Eurydice gliding ahead of him
14:02always just out of reach
14:04he called to her
14:05but as he did so
14:06the mists rolled back before his eyes
14:09and there in front of him
14:12was Hades
14:13the king of the underworld
14:15with Persephone his queen by his side
14:18who comes uninvited to my kingdom
14:25I'm Orpheus
14:26king of Thrace
14:28son of Calibert
14:29and what does king Orpheus seek from Hades
14:34a soul now before you in judgment
14:36Eurydice my wife
14:39no soul returns from my kingdom
14:43love is stronger than death
14:45nothing is stronger than death
14:51little musician
14:59fear me
15:24I am the bold audience at the theater
15:29the knock at the door when you least expect it
15:33I am the one whose name must not be spoken for fear
15:38I hear it and sit next to you
15:41I am the pain in your arm at four in the morning
15:45the headache that will not shift
15:48the sour taste in your mouth
15:52of everything you ever did
15:55I am waiting little musician
16:00and one day I shall come for you also
16:04then you will see your wife once more
16:08but Orpheus would not give up Eurydice
16:16he played again
16:18this time to the queen
16:21he will not listen
16:31or if he pretends to listen
16:35he is lying
16:36oh death cheats too
16:39each year mankind endures the winter
16:43while I stay here
16:45because he tricked me long ago
16:47even Zeus was powerless to change it
16:50he'll trick you too musician
16:53still Orpheus played on
16:56but the king of the underworld
16:58was deaf to the beauty of his music
17:00Persephone was moved by an unbearable sadness
17:07everything must die Orpheus
17:09the people we love most have to die
17:13even the rocks
17:15the earth itself is eaten away by time
17:18everything must die Orpheus
17:24to live again
17:26people think of death like absence
17:31but absence isn't forever
17:32not while there is any life left at all in the world
17:37it is only cold on the earth for six months
17:42death is unimpressed
17:44husband
17:55I pray to you
17:57I am begging you
17:59give up this soul to Orpheus
18:02very well
18:08little musician
18:11take your bride
18:13take her to the upper world
18:16but always walk ahead of her
18:19and do not once look back
18:23to see if she is following
18:24for if you turn to look at her
18:28she will be mine once more
18:31you hear me
18:36imagine the love of his life behind him
18:42and yet he must not look at her
18:43with every step that he took he listened
18:46but the shades of the dead make no sound
18:49and he could not hear her tread behind him
18:51he walked
18:52grim as death itself
18:54on and on
18:55through the wastes of the underworld
18:57towards the nine looped river Styx
18:59by the time he reached Charon's boat
19:02he had started to doubt
19:03that Eurydice was behind him
19:05don't ask me questions
19:07don't see
19:07don't remind me of the world
19:11I have my duty
19:13that's enough
19:14Eurydice
19:21give me a sign
19:23just breathe
19:26I can't hear you
19:28don't look round
19:32oh how he longed to
19:34how he longed to
19:36as he started up the steep track
19:38that leads back to the world's light
19:40he kept his eyes on the ground
19:41he clenched his fists hard
19:44and willed himself not to think of her
19:46it wasn't far
19:47ahead of him he could see
19:49the daylight
19:49if only he could believe
19:51that she was behind him
19:52the silence of her death
19:54was not a real silence
19:55but had been redeemed by music
19:58he was almost at the entrance
19:59of the cave that leads to Hades
20:01and he could hear the birds
20:03singing outside
20:04and they walked out into the sunlight
20:05and were happy ever after
20:07they didn't
20:08they didn't
20:09they didn't
20:10it's always just when you think
20:12you have things in your grasp
20:14that you close your fingers
20:16and find they've gone
20:17because when we're in love
20:19it's our hearts that guide us
20:21and betray us all the time
20:23Orpheus could bear it no longer
20:25he turned
20:27and her soul
20:30fled back to Hades
20:31he had lost Eurydice
20:35forever
20:36Orpheus went out alone
20:41he went back to the land
20:44of his people
20:44and sat like a man
20:47who was dead already
20:48and the women gathered
20:51round him
20:52they felt his pain
20:54but they begged him to play
20:56for his music brought rain
20:58made crops grow
21:00no
21:02more
21:04music
21:07ever
21:09what happened?
21:19if you could have heard that sound
21:21that hateful
21:22ugly sound
21:23a sound that could make women barren
21:26stop love before it started
21:28on
21:29and on
21:29and on
21:30day after day
21:32and the women came to him
21:38from the fields
21:39knowing they must end
21:40this deathly noise
21:42they circled round him
21:44and beat their tools
21:45upon the ground
21:46they're really wild
21:48those women
21:49what do they do?
21:51they tore his body
22:11limb from limb
22:12they cast its fragments
22:15onto the river
22:16and his head
22:17and his head
22:17floated out to sea
22:18to the island of Lesbos
22:20and his head
22:22still sang her name
22:23will always sing her name
22:25Eurydice
22:27and some people say
22:29that the wild women
22:30were turned into trees
22:31where they stood
22:33that that was the last time
22:35that trees had souls
22:36and that from that day
22:38there was nothing in oaks
22:40or limes
22:40or silver birch
22:42but woody silence
22:44but Orpheus' head
22:46spoke prophecies
22:47and the love
22:48that he had had
22:49for Eurydice
22:49he was never forgotten
22:50never will be forgotten
22:52as long as there is life
22:54so maybe love
22:56is stronger than death
22:58and we've got his lyre
22:59it's here
23:00my lyre must always play
23:04for without music
23:06we are nothing
23:07we need the shapes
23:09out of nothing
23:10tunes out of silence
23:12love out of hate
23:14music that lasts forever
23:18to be heard
23:20nice
23:20music
23:22and
23:25just
23:28what
23:29is
23:33what
23:35what
23:37who
23:41who
23:43what
23:43what
23:44what
23:44what
23:44what
23:45who
23:45or
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