Eurydice

Eurydice was perhaps the most well-known Dryad, or tree nymph, who became the bride of Orpheus, a legendary hero known for his musical skills. While walking in the countryside, Eurydice met Aristaeus, the son of the god Apollo. Aristaeus tried to seize her. Eurydice fled but was bitten by a poisonous snake and died. Overcome with grief at his wife’s death, Orpheus decided to go to the underworld and bring her back.

Nymph

minor goddess of nature, usually represented as young and beautiful

Eurydice’s Descent

Orpheus gained entrance to the underworld by charming its guardians with his singing and playing of the lyre. The beauty of his music persuaded Hades, the ruler of the underworld, to allow Eurydice to return to the world of the living, but Hades made one condition: Orpheus must not look back as they left his realm. 

The story is that Orpheus turned around at the last minute because he loved Eurydice so much that he could not bear the thought that she might not be following him. But there may be another explanation. Perhaps, on his lonely trek up the path from the underworld, so movingly imagined by Rilke –

His senses felt as though they were split in two:
his sight would race ahead of him like a dog,
stop, come back, then rushing off again
would stand, impatient, at the path’s next turn,—
but his hearing, like an odour, stayed behind