A/N: I was thinking about the end of S2 (since it starts airing on BBC America this Saturday. Yes!) I dozed off and dreamed of a scene. And when I woke up, it struck me—Robin and Marian fit very nicely into the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. As a bride, Eurydice is bitten by a snake and dies, Orpheus descends into the underworld, pleads for her life with music that "makes the phantoms weep" but loses her when he turns to look upon her on their way back to earth.
"I am asking a loan and not a gift. If fate denies us this privilege for my wife, one thing is certain: I do not want to go back either; triumph in the death of two." Orpheus to Hades and Persephone, asking for the return of Eurydice, Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Robin had seen countless breathless bodies, unmoving, grey shells of people, drained of blood and life. But he never thought he would see the same body die twice. Or that it would be the body he coveted most, with the desperation of a man doomed to give everything to everyone and have nothing for himself.
She died on their wedding day, slipped away from him at the moment they were bonded most closely together. In that instant of union, he hovered in a state of elation, looking down on reality from the distance his happiness afforded him. It was a frightening fall back to earth to find her eyes closed, forever.
The snake who took her life crawled back to the protection of his keeper, and Robin was left with emptiness.
In a fever of grief, he saw himself standing before God and Allah, the string of his bow held taut, poised to destroy that which only seemed to take away. Trapped in his sights, the gods offered him his heart's desire.
Robin asked for her, only her.
They led her to him. Her insubstantial form flickered like a candle in a strong draft. Robin reached for her and felt only cold air. He turned to lead her away, his heart swelling as he took each step back to life. She filled with color and depth until he could feel her presence behind him strengthening.
He was never to hold her, though. She was gone when the light of dawn hit his eyes.
And as the world went dark for her again, Marian called for him in love, her voice on the air, an echo infinitely resounding.
"Dying the second time, she had no reproach to bring against her husband, what was there to complain of? One thing, only: he loved her. He could hardly hear her calling farewell! when she was gone." Eurydice is lost to the underworld, Ovid's Metamorphoses.