Orphism or (more rarely) Orphicism seems to have been a mystery religion in the ancient Greek world. Its founder was alleged to be the mythical poet Orpheus. Nevertheless, its historical roots have been traced back to the 6th century BC. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The head of Orpheus, from an 1865 painting by Gustave Moreau. ...

Peculiarities

The main elements of Orphism differed from popular ancient Greek religion in the following ways: Greek religion encompasses the collection of beliefs and rituals practiced in Ancient Greece in form of cult practices, thus the practical counterpart of Greek mythology. ...

• by characterizing human souls as divine and immortal but doomed to live (for a period) in a "grievous circle" of successive bodily lives.
• by prescribing an ascetic way of life which, together with secret initiation rites, was supposed to guarantee not only eventual release from the "grievous circle" but also communion with god(s).
• by warning of postmortem punishment for certain transgressions committed during life.
• by being founded upon sacred writings about the origin of gods and human beings.

The word ascetic derives from the ancient Greek term askesis (practice, training or exercise). ...

Evidence

Though distinctively Orphic views and practices are attested as early as Herodotus, Euripides, and Plato, most of the sources to the teachings and practices of Orphism are late and ambiguous, and some scholars have claimed that Orphism is in fact a construction of a later date.^{[citation needed]} However the recently discovered Derveni papyrus allows Orphic mythology to be dated back to the 4th century BC, and it is probably even older. Other inscriptions found in various parts of the Greek world testify to the early existence of a movement with the same core beliefs that were later associated with the name of Orphism. Bust of Herodotus at Naples Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: , Herodotos) was a historian who lived in the 5th century BC (484 BC-ca. ... A statue of Euripides Euripides (Greek: Ευριπίδης) (c. ... For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation). ...

Mythology

The Orphic theogonies are genealogical work like the Theogony of Hesiod, but the details are different. They are possibly influenced by Near Eastern models. The main story is this: Dionysus (in his incarnation as Zagreus) is the son of Zeus and Persephone; he is murdered and boiled by the Titans. Zeus hurls a thunderbolt on the Titans, as Hermes snatches Zagreus' heart to safety. The resulting ashes, from which sinful mankind is born, contain the bodies of the Titans and Dionysus. The soul of man (Dionysus factor) is therefore divine, but the body (Titan factor) holds the soul in bondage. It was declared that the soul returned repeatedly to life, bound to the wheel of rebirth. Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins of the gods of ancient Greek religion. ... Hesiod (Hesiodos, ), the early Greek poet and rhapsode, presumably lived around 700 BCE. Historians have debated the priority of Hesiod or of Homer, and some authors have even brought them together in an imagined poetic contest. ... Dionysus with a panther and satyr, in the Palazzo Altemps (Rome, Italy) Dionysus or Dionysos or Dionysius (Ancient Greek: Διώνυσος or Διόνυσος; also known as Bacchus in both Greek and Roman mythology and associated with the Italic Liber), the Thracian god of wine, represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but... In Greek mythology, Zagreus was sometimes used as a name for Dionysus. ... Statue of Zeus Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BCE. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th-century engraving. ... Persephone, the Maiden: the late Archaic Kore of Antenor from the Acropolis, Athens In Greek mythology, Persephone (Greek Περσεφόνη, Persephónē) was the queen of the Underworld, the Kore or young maiden, and the daughter of Demeter. ... In Greek mythology, the Titans (Greek Τιτάν, plural Τιτάνες) were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age. ... Hermes bearing the infant Dionysus, by Praxiteles Hermes (Greek IPA ), in Greek mythology, is the god of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of orators, literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures and invention and commerce in general, of liars, and of...

The heart of Dionysus is implanted into the leg of Zeus; he then makes the mortal woman Semele pregnant with the re-born Dionysus. Many of these details are referred to sporadically in the classical authors. In Greek mythology, Semele, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, was the mother of Dionysus (the god and his votaries were both identified as Bacchus) by Zeus. ...

• The "Protogonos Theogony", lost, composed ca. 500 BC which is known through the commentary in the Derveni papyrus and references in classical authors (Empedocles and Pindar).
• The "Eudemian Theogony", lost, composed in the 5th cent. BC. It is the product of a syncretic Bacchic-Kouretic cult.
• The "Rhapsodic Theogony", lost, composed in the Hellenistic age, incorporating earlier works. It is known through summaries in later neo-Platonist authors.
• Orphic hymns. 87 hexametric poems of a shorter length composed in the late Hellenistic or early Roman Imperial age.

Empedocles of Agrigentum Empedocles (circa 490 BCE – c. ... Pindar Pindar (or Pindarus / Pindaros) (522 BC – 443 BC), considered the greatest of the nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, was born at Cynoscephalae, a village in Thebes. ... Bacchus is the name of: the Roman god Bacchus, known to the Greeks as Dionysus the Christian martyr Saint Bacchus, companion to Saint Sergius; see: Saint Sergius the asteroid 2063 Bacchus the Bacchus grape variety, grown predominantly in Germany the Bacchus (painting) by Leonardo da Vinci the comic book Bacchus... The Korybantes, called the Kurbantes in (Phrygia), are the crested dancers who worship the Phrygian goddess Cybele with drumming and dancing. ... The term Hellenistic (established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen) in the history of the ancient world is used to refer to the shift from a culture dominated by ethnic Greeks, however scattered geographically, to a culture dominated by Greek-speakers of whatever ethnicity, and from the political dominance... Neoplatonism (also Neo-Platonism) is a school of philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century A.D. Based on the teachings of Plato and the Platonists, it contained enough unique interpretations of Plato that some view Neoplatonism as substantively different from what Plato wrote and believed. ... The term Hellenistic (established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen) in the history of the ancient world is used to refer to the shift from a culture dominated by ethnic Greeks, however scattered geographically, to a culture dominated by Greek-speakers of whatever ethnicity, and from the political dominance... The Roman Empire was a phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by an autocratic form of government. ...

Eschatology

The epigraphical sources demonstrate that the "Orphic" mythology about Dionysus' death and resurrection was associated with beliefs in a blessed afterlife. Bone tablets found in Olbia (5th cent. BC) carry short and enigmatic inscriptions like: "Life. Death. Life. Truth. Dio(nysus). Orphics." The function of these bone tablets is unknown. Olbia, Ukraine is the site of Pontic Olbia in the Crimea, a colony founded from Miletus on the shores of the Bugh estuary, which lasted for a thousand years. ...

Gold leaves found in graves from Thurii, Hipponium, Thessaly and Crete (4th cent. BC) give instructions to the dead. When he comes to Hades, he must take care not to drink of Lethe, but of the pool of Mnemosyne, and he must say to the guards: Thurii, or Thueium, was a city of Magna Graecia on the Gulf of Taranto, near the site of the older Sybaris. ... Vibo Valentia is a town and comune (municipality) in the Calabria region of southern Italy, near the Tyrrhenian Sea. ... Map showing Thessaly periphery in Greece Thessaly (Θεσσαλια; modern Greek Thessalía; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is one of the 13 peripheries of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 prefectures. ... Crete (Greek: Κρήτη Kríti; Turkish: Girit) is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean Sea. ... In Classical Greek, Lethe (LEE-thee) literally means forgetfulness or concealment. The Greek word for truth is a-lethe-ia, meaning un-forgetfulness or un-concealment. In Greek mythology, Lethe is one of the several rivers of Hades. ... Mnemosyne (Greek , IPA in RP and in General American) (sometimes shortened to Mneme) was the personification of memory in Greek mythology. ...

"I am the son of Earth and Starry Heaven. I am thirsty, please give me something to drink from the fountain of Mnemosyne."

Other gold leaves say: Gaia (pronounced // or //) (land or earth, from the Greek ; variant spelling Gaea—see also Ge from ) is a Greek goddess personifying the Earth. ... Uranus is the Latinized form of Ouranos, Greek name of the sky. ...

"Now you are dead, and now you are born on this very day, thrice blessed. Tell Persephone, that Bacchus himself has redeemed you."

Persephone, the Maiden: the late Archaic Kore of Antenor from the Acropolis, Athens In Greek mythology, Persephone (Greek Περσεφόνη, Persephónē) was the queen of the Underworld, the Kore or young maiden, and the daughter of Demeter. ... Bacchus is the name of: the Roman god Bacchus, known to the Greeks as Dionysus the Christian martyr Saint Bacchus, companion to Saint Sergius; see: Saint Sergius the asteroid 2063 Bacchus the Bacchus grape variety, grown predominantly in Germany the Bacchus (painting) by Leonardo da Vinci the comic book Bacchus...

Pythagoreanism

Orphic views and practices have parallels to elements of Pythagoreanism. There is, however, too little evidence to determine the extent to which one movement may have influenced the other. Pythagoreanism is a term used for the esoteric and metaphysical beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans, who were much influenced by mathematics and probably a main inspirational source for Plato and platonism. ...

See also

• Derveni papyrus

Literature

• Albinus, Lars. 2000. The House of Hades. Aarhus.
• Betegh, Gábor. 2006. The Derveni Papyrus. Cosmology, Theology and Interpretation. Cambridge.
• Burkert, Walter. 2004. Babylon, Memphis, Persepolis: Eastern Contexts of Greek Culture. Cambridge, MA.
• Graf, Fritz. 1974. Eleusis und die orphische Dichtung Athens. Berlin, New York.
• Guthrie, W. K. C. 1952. Orpheus and Greek religion. London.
• Pugliese Carratelli, Giovanni. 2001. Le lamine doro orfiche. Milano.
• West, Martin L. 1983. Orphic Poems. Oxford.
• Robert Parker. 1995. "Early Orphism". In The Greek World, Anton Powell (ed.).

Walter Burkert (born Neuendettelsau (Bavaria), February 2, 1931), the most eminent living scholar of Greek myth and cult, is an emeritus professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland who has also taught in the United Kingdom and the United States. ... Martin Litchfield West (b. ...

External links

• Online Text: The Orphic Hymns translated by Thomas Taylor