This was just the beginning of my journey though. The gods gave me another task. Just as I've told a thousand tales and sung a thousand songs, so too would I need to live a thousand lives, searching for clues to get my dear wife back.
The first time I woke up, I was a man, a sculptor, and I spent day and night perfecting my craft, thinking the gods be merciful if I could create a gift pleasing enough to them. The gods had something else in mind. My greatest work was a statue so lifelike you could almost see the air enter and leave its chest and its nostrils flair with every breath. The marble woman was so real I forgot about my love in another life and, instead, fell in love with my own work. The gods planned for this and made marble give way to flesh. The statue that seemed to move soon began to actually move. I held my new love in my arms and that's the last I remember of that life.
Pygmalion. Source
Several lives passed and I eventually found myself in the body of a young girl. Light of foot, nothing could match my pace. Thus, I sought to please the gods by remaining pure and vowed only to marry they man who could best me in a contest of speed. In order to deter more suitors, I added the condition that any man whom I defeat will have their life taken as punishment. This did little to stop the torrent. Just as the number of proposals grew, so too did the number of lives I'd extinguished. This continued until one day a man came bearing three golden apples challenged me and proposed, all in the same breath. I agreed and the race began. I will admit, he put up a good fight, but he was no match for my legs. That is, until he threw the first golden apple. I don't know why, but I was completely compelled to retrieve it and carry it with me. I caught the man despite the delay but, just as I was passing, he threw the next apple. The whole sequence took place again, and with the third godly fruit, my fate was sealed. I married the man and we lived our lives. The gods were not done with this life, however. They compelled my husband and I to do various insane things, including angering an old goddess in her most sacred temple. In her rage, the goddess changed us into lions to continue carrying out her rage.
My journey through lives continued, each raising and destroying my hope for freedom. I thought I'd finally be free when I woke in the body of a man in the prime of his life. Surely I'd meet my love again now, since even the goddess Venus herself loves this man more than anything. Alas, my fate is not so clear. This life, too, was cut short, this time by a boar's tusk. I laid there dying and the goddess of love could do nothing but change the blood flowing from my body into a flower, so all the world could remember.
I have told a thousand tales and sung a thousand song and lived twice as many lives, and I'll continue to do it just to get her back.
Author's Note:
All of these classic stories (Pygmalion, Atalanta, and Adonis) are narrated by Orpheus, so I thought it'd be interesting if it was actually Orpheus in the story. He's telling his own history, not just stories he's learned over the years.
Bibliography:
Metamorphoses by Ovid, Link
