Studying for my test tomorrow:

From there [another marriage] through the immense sky, Hymen [god of love], wrapped in a saffron cloth, departed and headed for the lands of the Cicones [people of Thrace] and was called by the voice of Orpheus for nothing. He indeed was present, but not solemn words, nor joyful expressions, nor auspicious omen did he bring. The [marriage] torch too, which he held, was continuously hissing with tearful smoke and no fires were produced when it was shaken. The result was even graver than this omen: for while the new bride wanders through the grass accompanied by a crowd of naiads, she falls down, having received a bite in her ankle from a trod-upon snake. When the Rhodopeian poet (Orpheus) had mourned her sufficiently to the upper sky, lest he leave even the shades untried, he dared to descend to the Styx through the Taenarian gate and through the insubstantial populace and the ghosts from the grave he approached Persephone and the lord of the shades who holds sway over the unpleasant kingdom and strumming his strings with his song says this:

"O deities of the land placed below the earth, to which we all sink, any who are created mortal; if it is permitted and with the windings of false mouths put aside you allow truth to be spoken: not to here, that I might see shady Tartarus, have I descended, nor that I might bind the three throats, hairy with snakes, of the Medusa-like monster: the reason for my journey is my wife, into whom a stepped-on viper injected his venom and took away her budding years. I wanted to be able to endure, and I will not deny that I tried: Amor defeated me. This god is well-known in the upper world; whether he is so here, I am unsure: but even here I guess that he is, and if the story of the ancient abduction [of Persephone] is not made up, Amor joined you also. Through this place full of fear, through the huge Abyss and the silences of the enormous realms, I myself beg you, reveal the speedy fate of Euridice. All of us are indebted to you, and having delayed a little later or sooner we are sped to one final seat. We all head to here, this is our final home, and you hold the longest reign over the human race. When, mature, she too will have completed her just years, she will be in your power: we ask for use rather than a gift; but if the fates deny this favor for my wife, I am decided to refuse to return: rejoice in the death of both of us."