=Or´pheus.= A son of OEger and the Muse Calliope. Some suppose him to be the son of Apollo. He received a lyre from Apollo, or, according to some, from Mercury, on which he played in such a masterly manner that the melodious sounds caused rivers to cease to flow, and savage beasts to forget their wildness. He married Eurydice, who died from the bite of a serpent. Orpheus felt her death acutely, and to recover her he visited the infernal regions. Pluto, the king of the infernal regions, was enraptured with the strains of music from the lyre of Orpheus, and, according to the poets, the wheel of Ixion stopped, the stone of Sisyphus stood still, Tantalus forgot his burning thirst, and even the Furies relented, so fascinating were the sounds extracted from the lyre. Pluto was moved by the sorrow of Orpheus, and consented to restore Eurydice to him, provided he forebore to look behind him till he had reached the extremity of his domain. Orpheus agreed to this, but forgot his promise, and turned round to look at Eurydice, who instantly vanished from his sight. After this he separated himself from the society of mankind, and the Thracian women, whom he had offended by his coldness, attacked him whilst they celebrated the orgies of Bacchus, and after they had torn his body to pieces they threw his head into the Hebrus. =Osi´ris.= A great deity of the Egyptians, husband of Isis. The ancients differ in opinion concerning this celebrated god, but they all agree that as ruler of Egypt he took care to civilize his subjects, to improve their morals, to give them good and salutary laws, and to teach them agriculture. =Ovid´ius, P. Na´so.= A celebrated Roman poet born at Sulmo. He was sent at an early age to Rome, and afterwards went to Athens in the sixteenth year of his age, where his progress in the study of eloquence was great. His natural inclination, however, was towards poetry, and to this he devoted his chief attention. His lively genius and fertile imagination soon gained him admirers; the learned became his friends; Virgil, Propertius, Horace, and Tibullus, honored him with their correspondence, and Augustus patronized him with unbounded liberality. These favors, however, were transitory, and he was banished to a place on the Euxine Sea by order of the emperor. The true cause of his banishment is not known. His friends ardently entreated the emperor to permit him to return, but in vain, and he died in the seventh or eighth year of his banishment, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, A.D. 17. A great portion of his works remains. These consist of the "Metamorphoses," "Fasti," "Epistolæ," etc. Whilst his works are occasionally disfigured by indelicacy, they are distinguished by great sweetness and elegance. =Pacto´lus.= A celebrated river of Lydia. It was in this river that Midas washed himself when he turned into gold whatever he touched.