Misplaced Pages

#10989

29-635: Erato is the Muse of lyric poetry, particularly erotic poetry, and mimic imitation. In the Orphic hymn to the Muses, it is Erato who charms the sight. Since the Renaissance she has mostly been shown with a wreath of myrtle and roses , holding a lyre , or a small kithara , a musical instrument often associated with Apollo . In Simon Vouet 's representations, two turtle-doves are eating seeds at her feet. She

58-463: A bride and by him became the mother of Cleophema who bore Aegle ( Coronis ) by Phlegyas . Erato was named with the other muses in Hesiod 's Theogony . She was also invoked at the beginning of a lost poem, Rhadine ( Ῥαδινή ), that was referred to and briefly quoted by Strabo . The love story of Rhadine made her supposed tomb on the island of Samos a pilgrimage site for star-crossed lovers in

87-463: A few similarities. Others argue that the two traditions share a common origin and can even be considered a single entity, termed " Orphico-Pythagoreanism ." The belief that Pythagoreanism was a subset or direct descendant of Orphic religion existed by late antiquity, when Neoplatonist philosophers took the Orphic origin of Pythagorean teachings at face value. Proclus wrote: In the fifteenth century,

116-461: A mythological figure. Despite this, even these authors of the 5th and 4th centuries BC noted a strong similarity between the two doctrines. In fact, some claimed that rather than being an initiate of Orphism, Pythagoras was actually the original author of the first Orphic texts. Specifically, Ion of Chios claimed that Pythagoras authored poetry which he attributed to the mythical Orpheus, and Epigenes, in his On Works Attributed to Orpheus , attributed

145-502: A number of beliefs about the afterlife similar to those in the "Orphic" mythology about Dionysus ' death and resurrection. Bone tablets found in Olbia (5th century BC) carry short and enigmatic inscriptions like: "Life. Death. Life. Truth. Dio(nysus). Orphics." The function of these bone tablets is unknown. Gold-leaf tablets found in graves from Thurii , Hipponium , Thessaly and Crete (4th century BC and after) give instructions to

174-510: A philosophical treatise that is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem in hexameters, a theogony concerning the birth of the gods, produced in the circle of the philosopher Anaxagoras , written in the second half of the fifth century BC. Fragments of the poem are quoted making it "the most important new piece of evidence about Greek philosophy and religion to come to light since the Renaissance". The papyrus dates to around 340 BC, during

203-522: A shorter length composed in the Roman Imperial age. The Orphic Argonautica ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ὀρφέως Ἀργοναυτικά ) is a Greek epic poem dating from the 4th century CE of unknown authorship. It is narrated in the first person in the name of Orpheus and tells the story of Jason and the Argonauts . The narrative is basically similar to that in other versions of the story, such as

232-523: Is named after the legendary poet-hero Orpheus , who was said to have originated the Mysteries of Dionysus . However, Orpheus was more closely associated with Apollo than to Dionysus in the earliest sources and iconography. According to some versions of his mythos, he was the son of Apollo, and during his last days, he shunned the worship of other gods and devoted himself to Apollo alone. Poetry containing distinctly Orphic beliefs has been traced back to

261-562: Is not certain. Orphic views and practices have parallels to elements of Pythagoreanism , and various traditions hold that the Pythagoreans or Pythagoras himself authored early Orphic works; alternately, later philosophers believed that Pythagoras was an initiate of Orphism. The extent to which one movement may have influenced the other remains controversial. Some scholars maintain that Orphism and Pythagoreanism began as separate traditions which later became confused and conflated due to

290-490: Is sometimes depicted holding a golden arrow, symbolizing "eros", the feeling she inspires in everybody; at times she is accompanied by Eros , holding a torch. In Hesiod's genealogy , Erato is the daughter of Zeus and the Titaness Mnemosyne , and the sister to Calliope , Clio , Euterpe , Melpomene , Polyhymnia , Terpsichore , Thalia and Urania . Her father gave Erato to Malus (eponym of Malea ), as

319-451: Is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices originating in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic world, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus , who descended into the Greek underworld and returned. This type of journey is called a katabasis and is the basis of several hero worships and journeys. Orphics revered Dionysus (who once descended into

SECTION 10

#1732791934011

348-706: The Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius , on which it is probably based. The main differences are the emphasis on the role of Orpheus and a more mythological, less realistic technique of narration. In the Argonautica Orphica , unlike in Apollonius Rhodius, it is claimed that the Argo was the first ship ever built. The Derveni papyrus, found in Derveni , Macedonia (Greece) , in 1962, contains

377-564: The Sibyl . Of this vast literature, only two works survived whole: the Orphic Hymns , a set of 87 poems, possibly composed at some point in the second or third century, and the epic Orphic Argonautica , composed somewhere between the fourth and sixth centuries. Earlier Orphic literature, which may date back as far as the sixth century BC, survives only in papyrus fragments or in quotations. The Orphic Hymns are 87 hexametric poems of

406-572: The Titans to murder the child. Zagreus is then tricked with a mirror and children's toys by the Titans, who shred him to pieces and consume him. Athena saves the heart and tells Zeus of the crime, who in turn hurls a thunderbolt on the Titans . The resulting soot, from which sinful mankind is born, contains the bodies of the Titans and Zagreus. The soul of man (the Dionysus part) is therefore divine, but

435-478: The 6th century BC or at least 5th century BC, and graffiti of the 5th century BC apparently refers to "Orphics". The Derveni papyrus allows Orphic mythology to be dated to the end of the 5th century BC, and it is probably even older. Orphic views and practices are attested as by Herodotus , Euripides , and Plato . Plato refers to "Orpheus-initiators" ( Ὀρφεοτελεσταί ), and associated rites, although how far "Orphic" literature in general related to these rites

464-492: The Neoplatonic Greek scholar Constantine Lascaris (who found the poem Argonautica Orphica ) considered a Pythagorean Orpheus. Bertrand Russell (1947) noted: Study of early Orphic and Pythagorean sources, however, is more ambiguous concerning their relationship, and authors writing closer to Pythagoras' own lifetime never mentioned his supposed initiation into Orphism, and in general regarded Orpheus himself as

493-704: The Titans, and a divine spark or soul ( Ancient Greek : ψυχή , romanized :  psukhḗ ), inherited from Dionysus. In order to achieve salvation from the Titanic, material existence, one had to be initiated into the Dionysian mysteries and undergo teletē , a ritual purification and reliving of the suffering and death of the god. Orphics believed that they would, after death, spend eternity alongside Orpheus and other heroes. The uninitiated ( Ancient Greek : ἀμύητος , romanized :  amúētos ), they believed, would be reincarnated indefinitely. Orphism

522-465: The Underworld and returned) and Persephone (who annually descended into the Underworld for a season and then returned). Orphism has been described as a reform of the earlier Dionysian religion , involving a re-interpretation or re-reading of the myth of Dionysus and a re-ordering of Hesiod 's Theogony , based in part on pre-Socratic philosophy . The suffering and death of the god Dionysus at

551-678: The authorship of several influential Orphic poems to notable early Pythagoreans, including Cercops. According to Cicero , Aristotle also claimed that Orpheus never existed, and that the Pythagoreans ascribed some Orphic poems to Cercon (see Cercops ). Belief in metempsychosis was common to both currents, although it also seems to contain differences. Where the Orphics taught about a cycle of grievous embodiments that could be escaped through their rites, Pythagoras seemed to teach about an eternal, neutral metempsychosis against which personal actions would be irrelevant. The Neoplatonists regarded

580-648: The body (the Titan part) holds the soul in bondage. Thus, it was declared that the soul returns to a host ten times, bound to the wheel of rebirth . Following the punishment, the dismembered limbs of Zagreus were cautiously collected by Apollo who buried them in his sacred land Delphi . In Orphic theogonies, the Orphic Egg is a cosmic egg from which hatched the primordial hermaphroditic deity Phanes/Protogonus (variously equated also with Zeus , Pan , Metis , Eros , Erikepaios and Bromius ), who in turn created

609-409: The dead . Although these thin tablets are often highly fragmentary, collectively they present a shared scenario of the passage into the afterlife. When the deceased arrives in the underworld, he is expected to confront obstacles. He must take care not to drink of Lethe ("Forgetfulness"), but of the pool of Mnemosyne ("Memory"). He is provided with formulaic expressions with which to present himself to

SECTION 20

#1732791934011

638-511: The guardians of the afterlife. As said in the Petelia tablet : I am a son of Earth and starry sky. I am parched with thirst and am dying; but quickly grant me cold water from the Lake of Memory to drink. Other gold leaves offer instructions for addressing the rulers of the underworld: Now you have died and now you have come into being, O thrice happy one, on this same day. Tell Persephone that

667-440: The hands of the Titans has been considered the central myth of Orphism. According to this myth, the infant Dionysus is killed, torn apart, and consumed by the Titans. In retribution, Zeus strikes the Titans with a thunderbolt, turning them to ash. From these ashes, humanity is born. In Orphic belief, this myth describes humanity as having a dual nature: body ( Ancient Greek : σῶμα , romanized :  sôma ), inherited from

696-563: The other gods. The egg is often depicted with the serpent-like creature, Ananke , wound about it. Phanes is the golden winged primordial being who was hatched from the shining cosmic egg that was the source of the universe. Called Protogonos (First-Born) and Eros (Love) an ancient Orphic hymn addresses him thus: Ineffable, hidden, brilliant scion, whose motion is whirring, you scattered the dark mist that lay before your eyes and, flapping your wings, you whirled about, and through this world you brought pure light. There are two Orphic stories of

725-491: The primordial succession: But there are other differences, notably in the treatment of Dionysos: In later centuries, these versions underwent a development where Apollo's act of burying became responsible for the reincarnation of Dionysus, thus giving Apollo the title Dionysiodotes (bestower of Dionysus). Apollo plays an important part in the dismemberment myth because he represents the reverting of Encosmic Soul back towards unification. Surviving written fragments show

754-400: The rebirth of Dionysus : in one it is the heart of Dionysus that is implanted into the thigh of Zeus ; in the other Zeus has impregnated the mortal woman Semele , resulting in Dionysus's literal rebirth. Many of these details differ from accounts in the classical authors. Damascius says that Apollo "gathers him (Dionysus) together and brings him back up". The main difference seems to be in

783-523: The reign of Philip II of Macedon , making it Europe's oldest surviving manuscript. The Orphic theogonies are works which present accounts of the origin of the gods, much like the Theogony of Hesiod . These theogonies are symbolically similar to Near Eastern models. The main story has it that Zagreus , Dionysus' previous incarnation, is the son of Zeus and Persephone . Zeus names the child as his successor, which angers his wife Hera . She instigates

812-467: The theology of Orpheus, carried forward through Pythagoreanism, as the core of the original Greek religious tradition. Proclus , an influential neoplatonic philosopher, one of the last major classical philosophers of late antiquity, says (trans. Thomas Taylor, 1816) A number of Greek religious poems in hexameters were attributed to Orpheus, as they were to similar miracle-working figures, like Bakis , Musaeus , Abaris , Aristeas , Epimenides , and

841-580: The time of Pausanias and Erato was linked again with love in Plato 's Phaedrus ; nevertheless, even in the third century BC, when Apollonius wrote, the Muses were not yet as inextricably linked to specific types of poetry as they became. Erato is also invoked at the start of book 7 of Virgil 's Aeneid , which marks the beginning of the second half or "Iliadic" section of the poem. Orphism (religion) Orphism (more rarely Orphicism ; Ancient Greek : Ὀρφικά , romanized :  Orphiká )

#10989