10 Sandman Fates Worse Than Death

Orpheus was the son of Dream, then called Oneiros, and the muse, Calliope. The young bard disavowed his father when the latter refused to help resurrect his bride, Eurydice after she is bitten by a snake on their wedding day.

Begging help from his uncle Destruction and his aunt Death, Orpheus travels to Hell to plead his case to Hades. The Ruler of the Underworld agreed to let the woman go as long as they leave without the bard looking back to make certain she is following. In a moment of weakness, he glances over his shoulder and she is yanked back to the Underworld. Devastated, he avoided human company and referred to join the Bacchanal when he encountered them, so the women ripped him to shreds in a sexual frenzy, leaving only his immortal disembodied head.

In 1789, Dream tasks Lady Johanna Constantine to recover Orpheus' head and entrusts an order of priests to care for him. The Sandman finally visits his son for the first time in centuries to discover the location of his long departed brother, Destruction. At the end of the Brief Lives story arc, Morpheus helps Orpheus die, which was the cost of the information, and from dreams, directs the priests to bury his head under a cherry tree.