GRGR(4) - Slothrop Orpheus

[David Morris]

I know the Orpheus parallel w/ Slothrop's toilet descent has been brought up
before, but the archives ain't working and I wasn't here then.

Some Parallels:
1.  The Harp
2.  Descent to an Underworld: The Lord of the Night is Hades, in the realm
of the dead.
3.  Their deaths:  Orpheus was torn to pieces by Thracian maidens
paralleling Slothrop's later dissolution.  This theme of a male being torn
to pieces (ttp) by females (or dogs owned by females) is recurrent:
Actaeon - ttp by his Mother's Maenadic hounds.  Aristaeus, Actaeon's father,
ttp by his own hounds after Artemis turns him into an antlered elk.
Aristaeus, BTW, is the beekeeper who chased Eurydice through the woods after
her marriage to Orpheus, causing her to step on the asp and die, thus
requiring Orpheus to travel to the Underworld to retrieve her.

Orpheus's death might be seen as the result of a battle between Apollo
(sky-god, male, purification through abstinence) and Dionysus (earth-god,
fertility/female, euphoric excess).

Anybody out there with thoughts re. how this works w/ GR?