Orpheus, Orphism, Orphic literature

The palimpsest manuscript Sin. ar. NF 66 is one of the treasures of the Monastery of Saint Catherine located in the Sinai Peninsula. Nowadays it consists of a few fragmentary parchment sheets, but originally it was a larger codex of ca. 300 folia. Some of these leaves have been purloined from the Sinai and are now kept in Cambridge, Leipzig, and Saint Petersburg, while others have been lost. The codex contained the Lives of Palestinian monastic Saints in Arabic translation and was copied at the Monastery of Mar Saba near Jerusalem in the first quarter of the 10th century. It was later brought, under unknown circumstances, to the Sinai. All preserved folia are palimpsests, with scriptiones inferiores in Greek and Christian Palestinian Aramaic. This article focuses on one of the Greek erased texts – a previously unknown classical text in hexameters of mythological content – and offers its editio princeps. Based on an analysis of codicological and palaeographical features, combined with that of linguistic and stylistic elements, it will be suggested that the Sinai hexameters might originate from the Hieroi Logoi in 24 Rhapsodies, i.e. the longest lost Orphic poem we know of.

Many of the fascinating little gold leaves which have come to light by now are characterized by a peculiar mixture of verse and rhythmical prose. The lines in rhythmical prose have a distinctly performative ring and may be divided into two groups: one serving as a kind of secret password and commemorating an initiation ritual; the other issuing from an adaption of the poetical narration in order to be used as a libretto for a performance in the course of the initiation. In the second case, it seems justified to include them in an attempt at reconstructing not the words, to be sure, but at least the rough outline of the ‘story’ which was narrated in the original “Sacred discourse”.

El libro que aquí reseñamos demuestra cómo la historia de Orfeo ha ejercido una seducción singular en la tradición mítica y en la cultura occidental, desde los poetas y artistas griegos hasta nuestros días. El mítico cantor tracio se ha convertido en un auténtico símbolo universal, el poeta inspirado por excelencia que, con los sones mágicos de su música y de su canto consigue encantar a la propia naturaleza: convocaba y amansaba a animales salvajes, hacía andar a los árboles, atraía a los pájaros, detenía el fluir de los ríos y el soplar de los vientos, conmovía las duras piedras, dulcificaba el carácter de los hombres e incluso, por amor, descendió al mundo de los muertos para rescatar a su mujer Eurídice. El mito de Orfeo, a secas, incide por tanto en el carácter mágico de su música, presente en todos los episodios de su historia: su aventura con los argonautas, su catábasis en pos de su esposa y su muerte y despedazamiento a manos de las mujeres tracias. Música, amor y muerte son, por tanto, los temas que configuran su mito y que los profesores Carlos García Gual y David Hernández de la Fuente, buenos conocedores de los entresijos de la mitología griega y su tradición, analizan de un modo claro y elegante en la primera parte del libro: «El mito de Orfeo. Encrucijada de la música, el amor y la muerte» (pp. 9-84). El estudio se detiene en el origen del héroe y en esos capítulos míticos de su historia, pero también analiza su estructura, sus temas, su simbolismo e interpretaciones (entre lo apolíneo y lo dionisíaco, los aspectos chamánicos, el orfismo, la asimilación cristiana), y, sobre todo, su tradición mítica y literaria (ecos literarios de los motivos órficos, Orfeo en la literatura española y Orfeo en Pavese, Süskind y Magris -que nos han legado unas reescrituras diferentes y originales de la historia). El estudio concluye con una bibliografía que no pretende ser exhaustiva, pero que contiene, además de las referencias bibliográficas citadas en el trabajo, los títulos de mayor relevancia referidos al mito de Orfeo y su recepción en la literatura posterior, especialmente en la de nuestro país. El artículo aparece salpicado con imágenes iconográficas que ilustran muy bien diversos aspectos abordados a lo largo del trabajo, de las que se seleccionan tres vasos griegos de figuras rojas del siglo V a.C. (dos representan la muerte del héroe y otro su cabeza cortada emitiendo oráculos), dos bajorrelieves de los siglos V-IV a.C. (Orfeo y Pitágoras entre animales y la conocida copia romana de Orfeo, Eurídice y Hermes), dos frescos de catacumbas (que aluden a la asimilación de Orfeo-Cristo -echamos en falta, porque representa muy bien este sincretismo, la reproducción del controvertido sello cilíndrico de hematita, desaparecido del Altes Museum durante la II Guerra Mundial, que mostraba a un ΟΡΦΕΟC ΒΑΚΚΙΚΟC crucificado) y una estatua tardorromana de Orfeo entre animales del siglo IV d.C. No se incluyen imágenes posteriores, a pesar de contar el mito con una larga tradición iconográfica con la que poder seguir ilustrando las otras páginas del volumen, sobre todo si queda alguna en blanco (173). Tan sólo debemos sumar, ya en color, la portada y la tarjeta-regalo que viene con el libro, obras del artista gráfico Max (autor de un cómic, Katábasis, y de varios grabados sobre el mítico héroe).

Sinaiticus arabus NF 66 is made up of six fragmentary folia and three tiny parchment scraps. These were originally part of a codex of ca. 300 folia containing the Arabic translation of several lives of monastic Saints connected to the Monastery of Mar Saba. It was copied at Mar Saba (near Jerusalem) in the first quarter of the 10th century and later brought, under unknown circumstances, to St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai. A number of folia from this manuscript are now dispersed, and have been identified in several libraries:
• Leipzig, Univ. gr. 2 [22 folia] = Codex Tischendorf 2
• Saint Petersburg, NLR, gr. 26 [6 folia]
• Cambridge, Add. 1879.5 [a small piece of parchment]
All preserved folia are palimpsests, with scriptiones inferiores in Greek and Christian Palestinian Aramaic. Among the folia with Greek scriptio inferior three different texts can be recognized: one biblical, one grammatical, and one poetical.
This paper focuses on the poetical text in the Sinai manuscript. Based on an analysis of codicological and palaeographical features, combined with that of linguistic and stylistic elements, I will suggest a possible date and authorship for the content of these poetical fragments.

Pochi hanno indagato con solerzia gli intimi legami fra mitologie greche e fenomeni estatici quali lo "sciamanesimo". Gli orfici conoscevano delle "mappe" per aggirarsi nell'aldilà: erano geografie della coscienza affini ai sentieri invisibili percorsi dagli sciamani nelle loro trance. In Grecia come nelle steppe siberiane, il viaggio diventava mito: Odisseo legato a un albero cosmico ascoltava il linguaggio segreto delle Sirene, mentre gli iniziati varcavano le soglie di Ade certi di poter acquisire una vita paradisiaca. Come gli sciamani ricreavano universi sonori, Orfeo modulava nello spazio un suono incantatorio. Chi può giungere a una tale perfezione? Colui che si è purificato nell'acqua che zampilla dalle gelide fonti di Mnemosyne, il "ricordo" che risveglia la memoria antica e cancella l'angoscia della vita terrena.

The late Antique mosaic of Orpheus decorated a small room, approximately 18 m2 in area, connected with two even smaller ones, in 4 m2 and the other 2 m2 in area, belonging most likely to a small funerary chapel (or tomb) discovered in the ancient necropolis by the Damascene Gate in Jerusalem; it was discovered in 1901 by H. Vincent.
The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographic program of the Orpheus myth used by wealthy Christians in a sepulchral context (see Olszewski M.T. «Orphée endeuillé de la mosaïque funéraire de Jérusalem», in Rey Mimoso-Ruiz, B. ed., Actes du colloque «Orphée entre Soleil et ombre», à l’Institut Catholique de Toulouse du 16 au 17 novembre 2007, Inter Lignes, numéros spécial – mars 2008, pp. 205-214, 226). He also proposes a new interpretation of the role Orpheus played in Roman funerary art, concentrating on the importance of the play on words and the visual and textual punning that was popular in ancient art and especially in funerary art. He rejects the popular interpretation of Orpheus as Christ in the Roman catacombs and proposes to interpret the image as that of Orpheus, bard of the departed souls, without any ahistorical connection with Christ. The program of the mosaic from Jerusalem is thus explained as a play on the words Orpheus-orphanos and Chiron (Chi-Rho) and Pan [Παν(τοκράτωρ)].The frequently used Christian funerary formula of resting in peace, Christ or the Lord corresponds
perfectly with the mood created around the mythical bard.
Orpheus’ universal role as singer and musician moving even the most stony of hearts, extolling the beloved departed, is absolutely justified in the context of a 6th-century Christian tomb. Orpheus is a popular and neutral figure, meaning that in effect it does not constitute a threat to Christian theology and can be tolerated by the educated Christians of Jerusalem.

The figure of Orpheus has been a constant source of fascination, sparkling the imagination of philosophers, artists, theologians, and laypeople alike. He has been variously presented as a dubious and possibly menacing fringe character, an awe-inspiring cult figure enjoying a privileged relation to the gods through his divine ancestry, one of the founders of Greek culture and the transmitter of ancient wisdom, the inventor of religious cults, or the emblem of arts and their special relation to love. Stories about Orpheus can condense such fundamental aspects of our existence as the immense and transformative power of music and poetry, love that persists against all odds and defies even death, fame and marginality, secrecy and anxieties about what we can hope for after our earthly life. His figure has offered an inexhaustible opportunity to give expression to such elemental concerns through the entire tradition from the archaic age to the current day.

The Theogony of Epimenides of Crete and the origin of the Orphic-Pythagorean doctrine of reincarnation
It is commonly believed that the epic Theogony of Epimenides of Crete derives from the corpus of pseudepigrapha under his name and that it was composed by anonymous author (with Pythagorean background) after 500 B.C. We demonstrate (mainly on the basis the reconstruction of the proem of the Theogony) that such influences do not exist and we arrive at the conclusion that the Theogony was written by Epimenides himself around 600 B.C. Aristotle who was sceptical about the authorship of the poems attributed to Orpheus and Musaeus, cites Epimenides without reservations as the real author of the verses he cites. Therefore the common elements between Epimenides on the one hand, and the Orphics and Pythagoreans on the other (Night as the first principle, the cosmic egg, the immortality and reincarnation of the soul), should be interpreted as borrowings by the latter from Epimenides, not vice versa. As a “priest of Zeus and Rhea” Epimenides belongs to the ancient Cretan hieratic clan that claimed discendance from Aiakos, son of Zeus; in view of the extreme conservatism of Cretan cultural, political and religious traditions, the sources of Epimenides’ divine wisdom should be sought not in the hypothetical “northern” or eastern quarters, but in the local oral traditions that go back the Late Minoan times and are closely tied to the cults and myths of the region around Mount Ida and similar oracular caves. The discussion of Epimendes’ herbal medicine shows that it is connected both with therapeutuc use of herbs and with cathartic rituals; Indian Ayurveda provides a close typological parallel to this, so common Indo-European roots are possible. After this we address the problem of the origin and the
sources of the Orphic Theogony and propose a new solution. Taking at its face value Aristotle’s information on Onomacritus as the author of the Orphic epic Theogony, we discuss the “Cretan connections” of Onomacritus and adduce in favour of our hypothesis numerous literary and epigraphical- archeological pieces of evidence that connect early Orphism and the belief in the reincarnation with the Idaean cave and the region around it (Orphic golden plates and epistomia from Eleuphtherna and Sfakaki near Rethymno collected and studied by Tzifopoulos). Inter alia, we also propose a new interpretation of the Orphic graffiti written on bone plates from Olbia as divinatory devices (mantic cards, the oldest known ancestor of the cards Tarot) that probably belonged to the “diviner of Hermes” Pharnabazos of Olbia and were connected with the dice divination (astragalomanteia), the proper art of Hermes. The divinatory dodecahedron found in the Idaean cave seems to be connected with astragalomanteia, as well.
Keywords: Epimenides of Crete, Theogony, early Greek philosophy, divination, oniromancy, epic poetry, ritual slendering, rite de passage, Orphism, Orphic gold plates, pythagoreism, Pythagoras, soul, immortality, longevity, reincarnation, metempsychosis, Onomacritus, Aristotle, Euripides, Theopompus, Lion of Nemea, liar’s paradox, phytotherapy, history of herbal medicine, Ayurveda, Crete, Idaean cave, Eleutherna, Sfakaki, origin of the cards Tarot, astragalomancy (dice divination), Hermes, Apollo, Zeus.

The iconography of Bronzino’s sexually explicit Portrait of Cosimo I de’ Medici as Orpheus has long challenged scholars, especially since scientific analysis revealed a fully-conceived underpainting below the portrait’s surface, depicting a different moment from the story of Orpheus.  First, I suggest that this change was associated with Cosimo’s military victory at the Battle of Montemurlo, where the duke’s army finally extirpated his political opposition. Second, I contend that Cosimo’s nudity should be interpreted within the milieu of the Accademia Fiorentina, where the painting’s eroticism suggested to court literati that the duke had achieved the highest state of Platonic spirituality, known as “erotic furor.” Finally, I argue that although Bronzino’s Cosimo as Orpheus seemingly aggrandizes the duke, it is a polysemous image that former-Republican, antiducal literati could likewise interpret as a scathing critique of the young ruler and an embodiment of the hope that political demise was close at hand.

Ἡ ἑλληνική μυθολογία ἀποτελοῦσε πάντοτε ἕνα γοητευτικό θέμα καί ταυτοχρόνως ἕνα πεδίο ἀντιπαραθέσεων ἀνάμεσα στούς λάτρεις καί τούς κατακριτές της, ἀφοῦ οἱ μῦθοι της, παρά τήν γοητεία τους, γέμουν ἀπό «αἰσχρές» πράξεις. Πρόκειται, ὅμως, γιά κάτι τέτοιο, ἤ οἱ μῦθοι διηγοῦνται μέ ἀλληγορικόν τρόπο ἀληθινά γεγονότα; Στό πρῶτο μέρος, τόν Ὀρφισμό, ὁ Κ. Χασάπης ἀνασύρει ἐν μέρει τόν πέπλο τῆς ἀλληγορίας τῶν μύθων καί δίνει τίς κατευθύνσεις γιά τίς ἀληθινές ἑρμηνεῖες τους. Ἐκπλήσσεται κανείς μέ τό πόσο ἀβίαστα καί λογικά συνάγονται αὐτές οἱ ἑρμηνεῖες, οἱ ὁποῖες δίνουν μιά ἄλλην διάσταση στήν ἑλληνική μυθολογία. Βλέπει κανείς σύγχρονες ἀνθρώπινες ἱστορίες καί ἐπιτεύγματα πίσω ἀπό τούς ἀτυχεῖς ἔρωτες τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος ἤ τίς πολυπληθεῖς ἐρωτοδουλειές τοῦ Διός. Ἐπί πλέον, ἀναλύοντας τίς γενεαλογίες τῶν Ἀργοναυτῶν ἡρώων καί συσχετίζοντάς τες μεταξύ τους, δείχνει τήν χρονολογική συνέπειά τους καί συμπεραίνει, ὅτι πρόκειται γιά ὑπαρκτά πρόσωπα καί γεγονότα καί ὄχι ἀποκυήματα τῆς φαντασίας. Τό δεύτερο μέρος περιλαμβάνει τούς Ὀρφικούς ὕμνους στό ἀρχαῖο πρωτότυπο καί τήν ποιητική ἀπόδοσή τους στή νεοελληνική ἀπό τόν ἴδιο, κατά τρόπον πού νά γίνεται κατανοητό τό νόημά τους, γοητεύοντας μέ τήν ἁπλότητα καί τήν ἀμεσότητα τῆς γλώσσης του. Σ’ αὐτό συμβάλλουν καί οἱ σχετικές ὑποσημειώσεις τῆς Μ. Παπαθανασίου γιά κάθε ὕμνο.
Greek mythology is a fascinating topic for all who admire his gods and heroes, but there are also people who criticize his myths related to gods' erotic adventures. The question is, whether the myths mean such acts or they narrate real facts allegorically? In the first part of this book, C. Chassapis unveils partially the allegory of Greek myths and traces directions to their true explanation surprising everyone with the simplicity and logic of his arguments. He unveils human stories and achievements behind Apollo's unhappy loves or Zeus' numerous erotic adventures. Moreover, he examines the genealogies of the most famous Argonauts and shows that they constitute a chronological system that would be an argument pro the historical existence of these heroes. The second part of the book contains his poetic version of the Orphic hymns (the ancient Greek text included) written in a delightful style, with the notes of M. Papathanassiou.

El presente trabajo se basa en una clasificación y comentario de todos los epítetos que recibe el dios griego Dioniso en los Himnos órficos. Este corpus hímnico se caracteriza por presentar una extensa lista de epítetos que pretende recoger aspectos variados de la divinidad destinataria. La composición literaria pertenece a la religión órfica, menos atestiguada en la literatura que la religión griega canónica. Por ese motivo el análisis de todos los epítetos que se aplican al dios principal del panteón órfico y, por tanto, al que goza de mayor presencia en los Himnos órficos, nos sirve de ayuda para comprender cómo se concibe a Dioniso en el orfismo: los diferentes nombres que se le aplican, la mitología asociada a él, sus atributos o aspectos rituales. El estudio se basa en el análisis del texto griego, que también se facilita en las páginas finales en su totalidad, apoyado en otras fuentes de la literatura griega.

This work is based on a classification and review of all epithets that receives the Greek god Dionysos in Orphic Hymns. This hymnic corpus is characterized by a long list of epithets that aims to capture various aspects of the addressed deity. This literary composition belongs to the Orphic religion, less attested in literature that the canonical Greek religion. For this reason, the analysis of all epithets applied to the main god of the Orphic pantheon and, therefore, to the one more frequent in the Orphic
Hymns, can help to understand how is Dionysus conceived in Orphism: the different names applied to him, the mythology associated with him, his attributes and ritual
aspects. This study is based on the Greek text, which is also given overall in the final pages, and supported by other sources of Greek literature.

The Orphic Lithica of Pseudo-Orpheus is dated most probably from the IV c. AD and is considered as an example of the Late Antiquity lapidary treatises describing the magical and therapeutic properties of about 30 'stones' (minerals, varieties, aggregates and rocks). Based on an English translation from 1865, a contemporary from mineralogical point of view interpretation of their possible identification has been listed and discussed.

El presente trabajo se enmarca en un proyecto más amplio, mi tesis doctoral,  cuyo objetivo principal es clasificar los símbolos órficos según la metodología propuesta por Gilbert Durand en 1960 en su obra Las Estructuras Antropológicas del Imaginario, Introducción a la arquetipología general.  Durand propone, para superar los problemas de preeminencia ontológica entre el sujeto y el objeto, centrarse en el trayecto antropológico, el “incesante intercambio que existe en el nivel imaginario entre las pulsiones subjetivas y asimiladoras y las intimaciones objetivas que emanan del medio cósmico y social”. De esta forma, desde la hermenéutica Durand pretende superar la paradoja entre Verdad y Método que Gadamer planteaba y sobre la que Ricoeur retorna. 
Tomando como “excusa” los más primitivos conjuntos sensiromotores que constituyen los sistemas de acomodación de las representaciones,  el sociólogo propone una clasificación simbólica basada en las tres dominantes reflejas que considera fundamentales: 1) la de “posición”, que se refleja en el erguirse humano; 2) la de “nutrición”, que en los bebés se manifiesta, por ejemplo, en los reflejos de succión labial; 3) y  la “sexual” o “copulativa”, propia de los mamíferos adultos, y cuyo carácter cíclico y rítmico es el más evidente. El abismo previo a la filtración de lo nouménico aparece en el imaginario representado por símbolos de muerte y del tiempo que nos devora. Los símbolos restantes convergen entorno a una de las tres dominantes mencionadas, y todos tienen en común que son reacción a la infinitud de la realidad. Como defendía Jung, los arquetipos, más que símbolos ejemplares, son tendencias instintivas de ordenación. 
Entre las imágenes inspiradas por el reflejo del erguirse humano, cabe distinguir entre símbolos ascensionales, espectaculares y diairéticos. Tales símbolos están caracterizados por tender a ordenar lo dado mediante la clarificación, separación, geometrización, medición, etc., y tal proceder Durand lo bautiza como Régimen Diurno de la imagen. Es en este proceder concreto en el que nos centraremos en este trabajo, pero no sin antes recordar que el mismo no anula los mecanismos del Régimen Nocturno de la imagen que, por un lado, mediante los mecanismos de eufemización y conversión, convierte al monstruo devorador en madre y a la caída en descenso revitalizador y, por el otro lado, encuentra la promesa de futuro en lo cíclico y rítmico de la naturaleza. De esta forma, las imágenes del Régimen Nocturno de la imagen se inspiran en el reflejo de succión y en el instinto sexual. Aquí presentamos aquellos símbolos órficos que funcionan mediante el Régimen Diurno de la imagen, pero dejamos claro que otros muchos caen fuera del mismo, rindiéndose ante los mecanismos del claro-obscuro nocturno.
Si la hermenéutica propone analizar la historia del pensamiento griego irguiéndose en el trinomio conceptual del Ser, No-Ser y Entes,  inspirados en Durand nosotros reformulamos el modelo interpretativo acudiendo a los símbolos del Padre, la Madre y el Hijo.  Así, mientras el padre ordena, juzga, manda y rige, mediante su espada, y la Madre protege, oculta e incuba, mediante sus infinitos velos, el Hijo inspira la figura del rey del mundo, el conector entre los dioses y los hombres.  Así, en el mundo “real”, encontramos una referencia a un más allá que nos conecta, por un lado, con la forma  de nuestro mundo, nuestro Padre y, por el otro, con la materia del mismo, nuestra madre. Teniendo en cuenta tales metáforas, el título del presente trabajo toma consistencia, a la vez que el motivo filosófico del mismo queda explicitado.
A modo de escueta introducción imprescindible, resumimos los rasgos generales del corpus sobre el que aplicamos el método explicado, a saber, los textos órficos. El orfismo es una corriente de pensamiento heterogéneo de límites confusos y origen incierto. Muchas de sus razones fundamentales son compartidas por los ritos dionisíacos, los eleusinos, los mitraicos, etc. Su aparición en la historia espiritual de Grecia se fecha, según los autores, entre la Grecia arcaica  y el helenismo,  y se encuentran comunidades en lugares muy dispares (por ejemplo, en Olbia póntica y en la Magna Grecia).
Precisamente por esa heterogeneidad y falta de límites concretos, tanto temporales como culturales y espaciales, nos pareció interesante aplicar un método como el Durand a un corpus como el órfico. Con ello nos beneficiamos de un método interesante para clasificar un corpus literario notablemente fragmentado, e intentar dotar de sentido algunos de sus pasajes mediante la mitología comparada. Además, y confrontándolo puntualmente con pasajes de filósofos griegos notables, confirmamos la hipótesis de Gaston Bachelard  y retomada por Durand  según la cual todo discurso racional está regido por imágenes míticas que lo motorizan. Así, observamos cómo algunas de las ideas fundamentales de la filosofía de, por ejemplo, Platón o Anaximandro son desarrollos de imágenes míticas.
Para nuestra tarea hemos utilizado fundamentalmente la traducción de textos órficos publicada por Alberto Bernabé bajo el título de Hieros Logos.  Citamos según esta traducción (“fr.” seguido del número pertinente), que a su vez cita según la edición del mismo autor en la Biblioteca Tevbneriana.  Si usamos otra traducción lo indicamos. Cuando citamos textos de los presocráticos, lo hacemos escribiendo KyR y un número, refiriéndonos así a la conocida obra de Kirk y Raven sobre filosofía presocrática,  dado que nos hemos basado en su traducción. En el resto de citas indicamos desglosadamente su procedencia.

The poem Sir Orfeo bends the classical story of Orpheus almost beyond recognition: the medieval Orfeo is a king whose wife does not die, but is abducted by the Fairy King. After ten years during which Orfeo wanders in the wilderness, he rescues his beloved Heurodis (Eurydice)—he does not lose her by looking back—and takes her back to his own land, where they reign once more as king and queen. The paper argues that, although most critics take for granted the medieval romance’s happy ending, the fairy kingdom and Heurodis’s rescue should be read as fantasy--a misrepresentation of an otherwise tragic story. With this reading, the parallels between Orfeo and Ovid become much more precise, and make better sense of the romance’s dark ambiguities. The fairy kingdom is no longer just an Otherworld but an afterlife, and the re-emergence of the medieval king and queen from it constitutes a wished-for resolution, not simply a new happy ending.

The aim of this paper is to analyze both sections of Clement of Alexan‐ dria’s Protrepticus (1, 2‐5) and Eusebius of Caesarea’s Laus Constantini (14, 5) in which the Christian authors allude to the figure of Orpheus in light of the so‐called orphic traditions attested in Greco‐Roman culture (including Jew‐ ish and Proto‐Christian groups). The methodological background from which the analysis starts is the concept of «indigenization», a well‐known category debated in contemporary anthropological research. In this article, the author compares the Christian texts under analysis with other Greco‐Roman treat‐ ments of the figure of Orpheus, as well as with archaeological remains rep‐ resenting a male figure (identified with Orpheus by scholars) in the mean‐ while he is tranquilizing beasts with his music. The comparison with such elements appears as really central in this essay: the musical imagery em‐ ployed by Clement and Eusebius emerges as a specific discursive practice in order to carry out a program of indigenization as regards the Christian ideo‐ logical proprium.

Las numerosas fuentes literarias e iconográficas grecorromanas que tratan de la muerte de Orfeo suelen discrepar en el modo y la motivación de ésta, pero coinciden en que fue violenta, en fuerte contraste con las actividades del personaje (principalmente, la música) y su carácter, no sólo pacíficos, sino conciliadores y moderadores de la violencia, tanto en los animales como en la naturaleza e incluso entre los dioses. Este contraste está muy acentuado en las representaciones gráficas, en las que Orfeo suele ser atacado mientras está cantando e intenta defenderse, inútilmente, con su lira. Como es común en los episodios trágicos de los mitos, la muerte es un castigo por una infracción cometida por la víctima, en este caso diferente según las versiones 1 .

More than 20 years after presenting his first interpretation of the mosaic from the House of Aion in a paper entitled “Uwagi na temat mozaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr)” (Meander 9/10, 1987, p. 421-438, in Polish, and translated to English: « The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory [in Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from the “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus]»), where he proposed reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis, the author now enhances his initial interpretation with numerous reflections concerning the historical context of this work of art, created in the years 320-360.
If, according to the author, the mosaic is a “Hymn” in honour of the pagan gods, Man (his soul) and his place in the (pagan) universe, then at the same time it polemicises with the Christian faith and its God, Jesus Christ.
The author puts forward numerous new solutions relating to the mosaic’s iconography and iconology. Analysis of the mosaic also leads him to propose a solution to the as-yet unanswered question regarding the absence of images of the crucified Christ in Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries, up until 420/430, when the first images of Christ on the cross appear.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
1. Research to-date (recap)
2. Description of mosaic (recap)
2.1. Composition of five mythological scenes
2.2. Brief iconographic description of mythological panels
2.3. Outline of individual iconographic elements and their respective roles
2.4. The pagan gods’ air of majesty and dignity as an expression of piety
3. A few words about the pagan reaction
4. An apology of pious human life according to pagan principles and a polemic on the Christian model of Man and his theological idol, Jesus Christ
4.1. Divine intervention in the act of human conception (allusion to/polemic on the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary)
4.2. The Epiphany of Dionysus (an allusion to the Epiphany of Christ – Theou Pais)
4.3. The procession and dissemination of Dionysian order (allusion to/polemic on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem)
4.4. The error of Marsyas (polemic on/allusion to the error of Jesus the Messiah): arrest, sentencing for arrogance and lack of piety (asebeia) and condemnation to a martyr’s death
4.5. The anabasis (or anagoge psyches) of a ‘beautiful soul’ (allusion to/polemic on the Ascension of Christ)
5. A few words on the mosaic programme prior to final conclusions
Final conclusions
Key words: mythological mosaic, House of Aion, Nea Paphos, Late Antiquity, Roman art, allegorical narrative, allusive language of mythological pictures, wordplay (Marsyas-Messias), Jesus Christ, anti-Christian polemic, Dionysos, Cassiopeia, Apollon, Nereides, Abstract Personifications, Greek Mythology, ΚΥΠΡΟΣ

Çeviren: Murat Erşen

Yunanlıların dini, bizim bugün anladığımız anlamda bir din olarak düşünülebilir mi? Yazarın bu soruya cevabı hayır, vahyedilmiş tektanrıcı dinler ile Yunan çoktanrıcılığı birbirine karıştırılmamalıdır. Tektanrıcı dinler kilise dolayımıyla kişinin bireysel kurtuluşunu sağlamayı amaçlarken Yunan çoktanrıcılığı antik kentin politik sınırlarında hareket eder. Din, kentlerin kurumları içerisine yerleşerek dünyevi bir yaşama yönelir: yurttaşları, kurtuluşları başka bir dünyada sağlanacak insanlar olarak değil, varlıkları tamamen bu dünyada olan insanlar olarak görmeyi amaçlar. Din, mezhepçi akımları ve marjinalleri kendi alanı dışına atar, bu atılanları ise felsefe sahiplenir.

Abstract: Individuation as the process of psychological maturation is associated with the way of the spirit, equal to the ‘narrow path’. Social and worldly adaptation as central aspects of individuation are overvalued. It is generally held that symbolic transformation of unconscious images fulfils a therapeutic function. This view is criticized as a way of upholding the stagnant ego. On the contrary, transformation must be authentic. The notion of ego abandonment in spiritual tradition should be taken seriously. Central to psychology is the integration of the unconscious. But equally important is the opposite process of ‘complementation’. Consciousness is not only synthetic; it has also a ‘sympathetic’ function. Consciousness can give life back to the unconscious and not only empty it of its goods. To this end, a creative form of contemplation is recommended, in the manner of painting or writing. The destruction of the stagnant state of personality, and the riddance of aspects of personality, are part and parcel of individuation. Today, adaptation and assimilation are overvalued whereas negation is undervalued. The Self in Jungian psychology is a towering ideal, a conglomerate of contradictory aspects of personality. At a point in time, the spiritual seeker must abandon the ideal of completeness and begin to negate his profane obsessions, which are nothing but meaningless games of life. At this juncture, the passionate game of creativity is ushered in.

Keywords: critique of Jungian psychology, integration, complementation, negation, destruction, spiritual path, art, individuation, apotheosis, alchemy, Gnosticism, Holy Grail, C. G. Jung, Emanuel Swedenborg, Poul Bjerre.

Partiendo de la postmodernidad como situación, y con la pregunta filofósica de fondo sobre la universalidad de algunos símbolos, la investigación estudia el fondo mítico del pensamiento arcaico y clásico griego a partir del corpus de textos órficos.  Para ello aplica a dichos textos el método de convergencia expuesto por Gilbert Durand en Las Estructuras Antropológicas del Imaginario, proponiendo una taxonomía simbólica concreta que permite dotar de sentido pasajes órficos oscuros.
En la primera parte se argumenta en favor de una metodología que privilegia la interpretación sobre la explicación y la imaginación sobre la demostración, y cuyo axioma fundamental es, según la hipótesis de Gaston Bachelard, que todo discurso racional se rige por imágenes míticas en él subyacentes. Para ello se retoman elementos de las principales corrientes historiográficas dedicadas al análisis del discurso simbólico: el ultradifusionismo, la Tradición Primordial, el psicoanálisis, la fenomenología de las religiones, el estructuralismo, etc. Esta parte se completa con una exposición de las principales teorías sobre la naturaleza de las fuentes órficas.
En la segunda parte se presenta la taxonomía que se obtiene con la aplicación mencionada, distinguiendo en el imaginario órfico entre: 1) símbolos que expresan el miedo al tiempo devorador (el caballo, el agua de olvido, el cuerpo como prisión del alma, etc.); 2) símbolos que ordenan el cosmos para superar tal desorden (el rayo, el árbol cósmico, los cuatro ríos, el alma aérea, las contraseñas, etc.); 3) símbolos que eufemizan lo infinito convirtiéndolo en receptor y generador (los titanes, los curetes, la noche, la crátera, la leche, etc.); 4) símbolos que eufemizan el paso del tiempo convirtiéndolo en regularidad (el andrógino, la luna, Core, el zodíaco, Dionisos, etc.). Se estudia un gran número de símbolos órficos y cómo la mayoría de ellos convergen entorno a uno de los tipos antedichos. Además, se comparan con pasajes filosóficos en los cuales se filtraron aquellas imágenes míticas, con mitos semejantes de otras culturas y con muestras iconográficas.
Sumariamente, los principales méritos de esta investigación son los siguientes.
1) Identifica elementos míticos que yacen latentes en pasajes fundamentales de la filosofía presocrática y platónica, inspirándolos: Anaximandro consideró que los antiguos humanos nacían de la panza de los peces; Anaxágoras defendía que el mundo se expandía ordenadamente en espiral; Parménides sujetó al Ser con cadenas, y se dirigió tirado por yeguas hacia donde se encuentran las puertas del día y de la noche; Platón ató dos caballos alados a un tronco, imitando la imagen arquetípica del árbol cósmico por el que las almas suben y bajan; Leucipo y Demócrito envolvieron el mundo en un manto, racionalizando el peplo de Perséfone; etc.
2) Propone una interpretación de lectura global del simbolismo órfico que permite dotar de sentido pasajes oscuros: la convergencia de ciclos cósmicos y humanos sirve para explicar la liberación del ciclo de las reencarnaciones; el isotopismo entre las figuras de Sémele, la luna, la barca de Dionisos, Perséfone, etc., hace compatibles el origen y muerte doble de los seres humanos: somos del cielo y de la tierra, como la luna; la mitología comparada permite integrar en un entramado mítico lleno de sentido el ciprés blanco del orfismo entendido como árbol de la vida; encontramos conocimientos empíricos velados en pasajes míticos (la serpiente multiforme con cabeza de diversos animales o el Tiempo llamado Heracles nos hablan explícitamente del zodíaco).
3) Demuestra la viabilidad, con matices, del método de convergencia de Durand.


Anthropologic Structures of the Orphic Imaginary. The Sceptre, the Vessel and the Kid

This investigation studies the mythic background of the archaic and classical Greek thought through  the orphic texts. We do it with the “convergence method” exposed by Gilbert Durand in Les Structures Anthropologiques de l’Imaginaire.  Consequently, we propose a symbolic taxonomy which allows to understand unclear orphic fragments.
In the first section, we argue that explication and demonstration must be completed with interpretation and intuition. We base our argument in the hypothesis of Gaston Bachelard which says that all rational speech is ruled by mythical images. Because of that, we focus our investigation in the main positions of the historiography dedicated to the symbolic analysis, paying special attention on T. Heyerdahl, C. G. Jung, R. Guénon, T. Burkhardt, A. Coomaraswamy, M. Eliade, J. P. Vernant, M. Detienne, M. Heidegger, P. Ricoeur, G. Bachelard and G. Durand. Finally, we enumerate the most important orphic poems and we summarize the different interpretations of them, nowadays represented by L. Brisson, A. Bernabé and M.L. West.
In the second section we applied the mentioned method to the orphic poems. We distinguish between: 1) symbols which express the fear to the devouring time (the horse, the forgetfulness’ water, the body as soul’s prison an so on); 2) symbols which put in order the disorder (the thunderbolt, the cosmic three, the four rivers, the aerial soul, etc.); 3) symbols which convert the infinite in receptor and generator (the titans, the night, the vessel, the milk an so on); 4) symbols which euphemize the horror to the time looking for the regularity (the androgen, the moon, Kore, the zodiac, Dionysus, etc.).
In the conclusions we summarize the merits of this investigation: 1) it identifies mythic elements laying in pre-Socratic and platonic philosophy; 2) it proposes a global interpretations of the orphic symbolism which allows to give sense to obscure fragments; 3) it demonstrate the productivity of the Durand’s method.

About forty years ago Walter Burkert, the great classical scholar, offered new definitions
of Orphism as a craft and of Pythagoreanism as a sect. Soon these two models pushed the traditional concepts applied to Orphics and Pythagoreans, such as ‘religious movement’ and ‘philosophical school’, into the background. This paper considers the origin of these models in the historiography of Greek religion and sociology of religion and explores further how valid they are today, after the unprecedented growth of new evidence on Orphism and a slow shift in views on Pythagoreanism. A theoretical and historical analysis of the two models shows that they are no longer suitable for describing the realia of the two movements, one of which was religious and the other socio-political and intellectual.

La place que tient Orphée dans la mythologie et la religion gréco-romaines est connue depuis fort longtemps. Ce qu'on savait moins jusqu'à une époque récente, c'est que le chantre thrace n'a jamais disparu de la culture occidentale. On le retrouve en effet dans la littérature pseudépigraphique de l'époque hellénistique et romaine, chez les Pères de l'Église, dans l'art paléochrétien, la philosophie médiévale et les littératures en langues latine et vernaculaires du Moyen Âge. Le livre de John Block Friedman s'interroge sur les raisons de cette survivance et étudie les métamorphoses de la figure mythique au cours quelque dix-huit siècles qui séparent le judaïsme hellénisé de la Renaissance écossaise.
Cet ouvrage ne met pas seulement à disposition des lecteurs francophones un classique des études médiévales, il présente en outre plusieurs traductions françaises inédites de textes écrits originellement en grec, en latin et dans diverses langues vernaculaires du Moyen Âge.
Une postface intitulée "De l'Orphée juif à l'Orfée écossais" propose un bilan des travaux effectués depuis la publication de l'ouvrage et fait le point sur les perspectives qui s'offrent encore aux chercheurs.

Note: The PDF does not exactly match with the printed book and the page references in the index are not right.

Although absent from early Archaic sources by the sixth century BCE Orpheus the poet had become synonymous with poetry and inspiration. This essay will examine the emergence of the myths of Orpheus in Archaic Greece with a view to understanding his place in society.
This will entail the exploration of the relationship between poetry and the evolving role of the individual in Archaic society in order to clarify the context in which Orpheus came to prominence. By examining the changing role of the poet within society one can understand ways in which the evolution of Archaic society, including the development of the polis and what has been termed ‘the rise of the individual,’ may have influenced the creation and performance of poetry. These factors, together with the absorption of new cultural influences into Greek society and the development of new attitudes to the afterlife created the social context in which the Orpheus myths took form. This work will clarify the extent to which changing values found expression in the figure of Orpheus and the ways in which the elements of the myths reflected contemporary social concerns.
Consideration will be given to claims of exotic influence made by modern scholars and the extent to which Orpheus’ mythology made him a suitable vehicle for the importation of exotic ideas such as reincarnation and metempsychosis and whether these myths expressed the concerns of a society increasingly preoccupied with the fate of the individual soul after death. Orpheus’ perceived otherness made him a liminal figure who crossed boundaries in transcending and uniting the divisions between the animal, human and divine worlds. This work will highlight ways in which the mythical Orpheus was essentially a construct of Archaic Greek society and reflected notions concerned with poetry, heroic identity and immortality inherent in this culture.

European literature of the late twentieth century usually appears as belonging to an atheistic, agnostic, materialistic worldview. In post-World War II France, major literary trends created new ways of thinking and writing that seemingly precluded all metaphysical concerns. The present study focuses on a particular French literary movement called Le Nouveau Roman (The New Novel). A posteriori critical approach nevertheless shows that novels generated by these authors remain deeply rooted in mythology, particularly in mythological ways of thinking. Directly or indirectly, they reactivate the Orphic myth, and more particularly Orphism as a literary tradition in which language becomes the ultimate, the absolute. With other writers from Le Nouveau Roman, Claude Simon (1913-2005), the 1985 Nobel Prize winner, is a typical example of this type of writing and of the aesthetic evolution of a novelist. Simon’s fiction had an enormous impact on contemporary intelligentsia, although it is still considered to be rather hermetic, quite extreme in its deconstruction of the traditional novel. Such a reading of mythical dimensions in Le Nouveau Roman  is indebted to Mircea Eliade and Gilbert Durand’s studies of myths and the “imaginary,” as well as the analysis of the Orphic myth by Elizabeth Sewell.

PhD Dissertation, defended in August 2015 / This is a study of Orphic literature that does two things: (1) reconstructs the tradition of Orphic theogonies (four poems about the births of the gods: Derveni, Eudemian, Hieronyman, Rhapsodies); and (2) attempts to explain how the Neoplatonists of later antiquity applied allegorical interpretation to Orphic theogonies, specifically the Rhapsodies.

Summary. Section (1) explains why the Derveni papyrus has often been misunderstood: among the main reasons are the wrong label «Orphic» and the confusion of two types of pantheism in Greek thought: the ethico- religious and the naturalistic. The Orphic hymn to Zeus is a classical example of the first type, the Derveni commentary – of the second which is incompatible with the immortality of the soul and afterlife. Section (2) deals with the literary genre, the general purpose and the hermeneutical method of the Derveni treatise, and draws a preliminary intellectual portrait of its author describing his peculiar features, a kind of a «composite image». In the section (3) we argue for Prodicus as the author of PDerv and present 18 testimonia on which this attribution is based. These include both the verbatim quotations with Prodicus’ name that find an exact correspondence in the text of PDerv and the common peculiar features of the language and style. In the section (4) we propose a reconstruction and interpretation of the text of the col. IV that contains a quotation from Heraclitus. This column is of primary importance for the understanding of the aims and allegorical method of the author in general as well as for his theory of names. Section (5) detects a neglected (polemical) peritrope of Prodicus’ benefaction theory of the origin of religion in Xenophon’s Memorabillia 4.4. In the section (6) the problems of the original title and date of the Derveni treatise are addressed, its relation to the Psephisma of Diopeithes (432 BC) as well as to the trial and death of Anaxagoras. The last section (7) clarifies our use of the term peritrope and explains the Derveni treatise as a polemical naturalistic peritrope of a religious text (Orphic theogony).
Key-terms: Ancient philosophy, Derveni papyrus, Prodicus, Sophists, Orphism, Orpheus, Anaxagoras, Archelaus, Heraclitus, theogony, origin of civilisation, origin of religion, origin of language, origin of mythology, allegory, psephisma of Diopeithes, ancient atheism, Greek Enlightenment, philosophy of language, ancient Athens.

Totenpässe, which may be translated from German as "passports of the dead," refer to the inscribed golden tablets, lamellae, and epistomia found in the context of various ancient cult burials. Lamellae are small plates of gold leaf, and epistomia refer to small gold bands generally found laid upon the corpse's body; "epistomia that have been unearthed during systematic excavations have been found either on or inside the mouth, on the chest, or in the hand of the deceased where they were placed during the inhumation-process; or, if the deceased was cremated, inside an urn where they were placed together with the deceased's remains after the latter were gathered from the pyre." 1 These items were found close to the deceased because the totenpässe often include instructions for the dead to perform once they arrived in the afterlife.

Las conquistas de Alejandro Magno y la configuración de los grandes reinos helenísticos generaron radicales cambios históricos motivados por la difusión de la cultura griega y su combinación con diversas tradiciones autóctonas. En este marco, las creencias y prácticas religiosas se conservan en gran medida, pero siguen nuevas orientaciones y se enriquecen con otros dioses y cultos propios de los territorios conquistados 1 . Como parte que eran de la cultura griega, también las formas de religiosidad mistérica, entre ellas el orfismo, alcanzan gran difusión y desarrollo en los nuevos reinos, en especial en el Egipto ptolemaico 2 . Los misterios, centrados en la purificación y la salvación personales, se ven favorecidos en su expansión por el predominio de lo individual frente a lo comunitario en esta nueva etapa de la cultura griega. Así se manifiesta en la filosofía y la religión, que buscan ahora sobre todo satisfacer las necesidades espirituales y morales del hombre como individuo y no como ciudadano, de forma que pueda orientarse en un mundo nuevo, cosmopolita, 1339 1 Para el sincretismo en la religión helenística, v. Nock, 1953; Nilsson, 1961, 119-131. El orfismo, sobre todo a partir de esta época, también adopta varios elementos orientales, de ahí que West, 1976, haya llegado a hablar de orfismo greco-oriental. Sobre elementos orientales en el orfismo, véase cap. 39.

Quest'articolo intende studiare il ruolo e il significato del mito di Orfeo nelle Consolazione di Filosofia di Boezio (III m. 12). Partendo dalla constatazione che l'opera del filosofo romano è costruita ad arte e segue un piano determinato, l'autore desidera mostrare che tanto la posizione del poema nella Consolazione, quanto la scelta del metro gliconico, come pure i rapporti tra il poema e le altre parti dell'opera, sono strettamente connessi e perseguono lo stesso obiettivo. Attraverso l'analisi filologica del testo e l'individuazione delle principali fonti letterarie e filosofiche si può recepire l'importanza del poema nella complessità dell'opera. In breve, si può dire che la fabula di Orfeo illustra il pericolo incontrato da chi cerca di elevarsi fino al sommo Bene, pericolo che consiste nell' interrompere, anche solo per un attimo, l'ascensione, per rivolgersi a guardare con rimpianto le realtà inferiori che sono sul punto d'essere abbandonate. Questa via conduce ad uno sacco e non deve essere seguita. Il poema, introdotto alla fine del terzo libro, invita il prigioniero, che può essere identificato tanto con Boezio quanto con il lettore dell'opera, a riflettere sul cammino già percorso, per trarne lezioni che lo aiutino ad affrontare il proprio futuro.

Si prende in esame il componimento poetico con cui si chiude il terzo libro della Consolatio (riprodotto, con traduzione francese a fronte, in appendice a pp. 65-66) per sostenere che sia la scelta del metro che la collocazione della fabula nell’opera boeziana mirano a porre in forte evidenza il pericolo corso da chi, nell’ascensione al sommo Bene, si volga a guardare con rimpianto il cammino già fatto. Bibliografia boeziana a pp. 67-72.

This chapter assesses the extent to which Hesiod’s Theogony influenced the Derveni poem, establishing which elements from the first poem have been adopted and reworked by the Orphic poet. The conclusion is that, in some cases, the Derveni poet follows Hesiod closely, while in others he diverges from the Theogony in order to temper certain details, to replace some aspects with others, or to emphasise and develop several features that were simply outlined or suggested in the Theogony. The main agenda of the Orphic poem is to highlight Zeus’ central role as organiser and father of the world.

My paper focuses on the relationship between religious studies and literature in the thought of Vittorio Macchioro, author of Zagreus, a well-known study on orphism, based on a peculiar interpretation of the frescos of Villa Item in Pompei. His theoretical research, which was deeply rooted on the cultural ad spiritual European crisis of the Twentieth Century, intended to seize the irrational core of the religious, seen as the last chance for a personal and collective regeneration. Certain of his role of intellectual and prophet at once, like a new Orpheus, he devoted his entire existence to literature, which he interpreted as the more effective means to provoke an experience of mystical communion with God. Nevertheless, Macchioro was too lucid to free his mystical inspiration, and yet too lost to be clear in his speculation, and, at the end, he failed to reach a real communication of such an irrational and irreductible experience.