Orpheus attempted to rescue his wife Eurydice from the underworld after she was bitten by a ...?

• A. Poisonous snake
• B. Scorpion
• C. Dragon
• D. Basilisk

Answer: (A)

The key idea here is Eurydice’s death result from a venomous snake bite, which sets Orpheus's desperate journey to the underworld in motion. In the traditional telling, her fatal bite comes from a poisonous snake after their wedding, not from any other creature. That detail anchors the entire myth: if Eurydice hadn’t died from a snake’s venom, Orpheus wouldn’t have attempted the impossible rescue. The other options—scorpion, dragon, basilisk—do not appear in the standard account of this tragedy, so they don’t fit the source material. Remembering the snake bite helps you recall why Orpheus goes to the underworld and what drives the action of the story.