Orphism

Complete English translation of the article published originally in Russian (2015).
                              Summary
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 descendance 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 with 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 thesources 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 Idaen cave and the region around it (Orphic golden plates and epistomia from Eleutherna 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.

Madrid 2006 i PREFACIO La presente tesis doctoral ha podido realizarse gracias a la concesión de una beca FPU del Ministerio de Educación otorgada en Abril de 2002. Dicha ayuda me ha permitido colaborar en los proyectos dirigidos por el Dr. Alberto Bernabé Pajares, centrados en el estudio del orfismo, así como el estudio en las universidades de Chicago y Venecia.

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.

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 Greek Gold Tablets (also called "Orphic Gold Tablets"), have often been compared with Egyptian funerary texts, especially those comprising the Book of the Dead. At the same time, North-West Semitic gold and silver leaves (Phoenician-Punic and Hebrew) with protective formulae offer a close parallel to them in aspects of their function and form. Although this group of funerary amulets are also said to follow Egyptian models, the three corpora have never been discussed together. Egyptian afterlife motifs and magical technologies may have indirectly influenced Greek Orphic funerary ideas and practices. I suggest, however, that this transmission happened through adaptations of Egyptian materials in the Phoenician-Punic realm, with evidence pointing to southern Italy and Sicily (Magna Graecia) as likely scenarios for this exchange. Intersections between Orphic and Phoenician cosmogony and the selective use of Egyptian iconography in Phoenician funerary amulets reinforce this hypothesis. for their help or feedback regarding different aspects of this project, and the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments. 53 near eastern precedents of the "orphic" gold tablets Journal of ancient near eastern religions 15 (2015) 52-91 54 lÓpez-ruiz Journal of ancient near eastern religions 15 (2015) 52-91

Entre Dioniso y Orfeo existen relaciones de diversa índole: obras órficas en que Dioniso tiene un papel importante, mitos sobre Orfeo en los que interviene el dios o coincidencias en detalles de los mitos referidos a ambos o en sus funciones. Hay también interrelación entre los ritos báquicos y los órficos, que aparecen con frecuencia como entidades intercambiables, si bien no todos los ritos báquicos son órficos. Los ritos órficos se diferencian de los dionisíacos en el uso de libros, en la creencia de un mito antropológico asociado al desmembramiento del dios y en una existencia ultramundana, sujeta a premios y castigos. Igualmente hay una serie de tabúes y preceptos alimentarios y de vestido que son en exclusiva órficos y de un modo de vida que convierte el baccheuein transitorio dionisíaco en un estado permanente. El ritual orgiástico dionisíaco, eventualmente sangriento, es, en cambio, ajeno a lo órfico. El ritual órfico tampoco parece haber adquirido nunca la forma de celebración cívica dentro de un calendario con una clase sacerdotal estable, como otros cultos mistéricos.

Los procesos que signaron los orígenes de la tradición occidental pertenecen a la categoría de polythrýleta, “cosas muy discutidas”. La causa de ello radica en que la experiencia griega está transida de una mutación conceptual de surgimiento paulatino y recreación vertiginosa. En efecto, el acervo griego semeja a veces un animal mitológico constituido por partes inauditas y cualidades proteicas de transformación. Sin embargo, si se abandonan las perspectivas estáticas y compartimentadas, es posible desmontar esta apariencia monstruosa y encontrar en la base conformaciones germinales del imaginario ocultadas progresivamente por la sedimentación de ideas. Los trabajos que integran este volumen repasan en esta clave y con un enfoque dinámico distintas encrucijadas de mutación conceptual con el propósito de revelar los núcleos que constituyeron el pensamiento posterior.

Índice
Mapa de ruta:
Caminos entre los hircociervos antiguos
CLAUDIA MÁRSICO - Ejes para pensar lo griego
LUIS ÁNGEL CASTELLO - El alfabeto griego.
Sistema, desarrollo y consecuencias
LEANDRO PINKLER - Consideraciones sobre el orfismo
ANDRÉS RACKET - Acerca de un uso específico del término phýsis
en el Filoctetes y el Edipo en Colono de Sófocles.
La phýsis y las determinaciones provenientes del padre
RODRIGO ILLARRAGA - "Debemos entregar los asuntos
de la ciudad a las mujeres". Algunas notas sobre
política y sociedad en Asambleístas de Aristófanes
CARLOS MARTÍN - El precio de la felicidad: justicia social
y economía en la filosofía griega
MARISA DIVENOSA - Entre oralidad y escritura. Una
aproximación a los Dissoì Lógoi
ADRIÁN LASTRA - La poesía entre cuerdos y Locos:
reflexiones sobre el dialogo platónico Ion
YOLANDA PERUGINI - ¿Técnicos o inspirados?
Poesía y epistemología a la luz de la argumentación
del Ion
HERNÁN INVERSO - Ontología y verdad: la dimensión
antepredicativa y el problema de los simples
en Antístenes, Platón y Aristóteles
PABLO MARZOCCA - La unidad de la causa final
en Aristóteles y sus consecuencias
ESTEBAN BIEDA Y VICTORIA JULIÁ - Aristóteles,
Sobre virtudes y vicios. Introducción, traducción y notas

Prima edizione: maggio 2017 Volume pubblicato dal Dipartimento di Storia, Culture, Religioni e con il contributo della Sapienza-Università di Roma www.morcelliana.com I diritti di traduzione, di memorizzazione elettronica, di riproduzione e di adattamento totale o parziale, con qualsiasi mezzo (compresi i microfilm), sono riservati per tutti i Paesi. Le fotocopie per uso personale del lettore possono essere effettuate nei limiti del 15% di ciascun volume/fascicolo di periodico dietro pagamento alla SIAE del compenso previsto dall'art. 68, commi 4 e 5, della legge 22 aprile 1941, n. 633. Le fotocopie effettuate per finalità di carattere professionale, economico o commerciale o comunque per uso diverso da quello personale possono essere effettuate a seguito di specifica autorizzazione rilasciata da CLEARedi, Centro Licenze e Autorizzazioni per le Riproduzioni Editoriali, Corso di Porta Romana n. 108, 20122 Milano, e-mail [email protected] e sito web www.clearedi.org.

RESUMEN: El mito del descenso de Dioniso al Hades para rescatar a su madre Sémele es narrado o mencionado por varios autores griegos y latinos desde el final del helenismo y sobre todo en la época imperial. Además, la iconografía ofrece unos pocos testimonios sobre la apoteosis de Sémele, llevada en un carro al Olimpo por su hijo.

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.

This article tackles the most controversial issue of the Derveni Papyrus: the meaning of the the αἰδοῖον that Zeus swallows in the Orphic poem (fr. 8 Bernabé, col. XIII 4). Two interpretations have been proposed: that it is Uranus’ phallus or that it means ‘venerable’ and is an epithet of the Orphic god Protogonus. A thorough analysis of the remains of the poem, of the commentator’s interpretation and of related texts (archaic and Orphic poetry) demonstrates that the second option has decisive arguments in favour while the first one is marred by serious difficulties.

En los testimonios órficos teleté se perfila como una celebración ritual en la que participan fieles y oficiantes, que reciben denominaciones específicas y están obligados a llevar un modus vivendi propio de iniciados. La descripción de las actividades del ritual se articula en tres apartados. El primero está dedicado a ritos de naturaleza preeminentemente práctica. El segundo se centra en textos que denotan la relevancia de la palabra en el ritual. En el último apartado se reúnen los elementos que denotan la ejecución de un drama sacro durante el ritual. Asimismo, se analizan las posibles alteraciones fisiológicas y anímicas, transitorias o perdurables, que los fieles experimentan como consecuencia de la celebración ritual. La finalidad del rito es la búsqueda de un conocimiento escatológico que permita al iniciado librarse de su condición de mortal una vez superada la etapa terrenal. Puede establecerse una definición de teleté como experiencia anímica, fundamental e inolvidable donde se ensaya una representación de lo que sucederá tras la muerte del cuerpo. Al final del trabajo se compendian los textos y la bibliografía pertinentes para el estudio de los rituales.

The Derveni Papyrus has been often misread and misunderstood for six main reasons. (1) First, because the papyrus was falsely labeled as ‘Orphic’ in the very first report. (2) Second, because another misleading label – ‘Presocratic’ – was soon after that attached to its author. (3) Third, because the rhetorical/grammatical terms of the Derveni author τὰ κοινά καὶ τὰ ἴδια (sc. ὀνόματα or ῥήματα) “common and peculiar names” that provide a clue for understanding his theory of language and the origin of religion have been misunderstood as alleged ‘echoes’ of Heraclitus’ own terminology. (4) Fourth, because of the failure to distinguish between two types of pantheism in early Greek thought, the naturalistic and the ethico-religious. (5) Fifth, because of the failure to distinguish between two types of allegoresis of myth: constructive (friendly and apologetical in purpose) and deconstructive (polemical or atheistic). (6) And, last but not least, the widespread (after Tsantsanoglou [1997]) misinterpretation of πάριμεν in PDerv., col. V as an alleged indication of the author’s religious profession. Mistake (1) is addressed in § (II), mistake (3) in § (IV), mistake (5) in § (II), mistake (6) in § (XI).
    The attribution of PDerv. to Prodicus of Ceos proposed in this article is based on verbal coincidences of peculiar phrases and terms in PDerv. and Prodicus’ fragments; Prodicus’ peculiar theory of the origin of the names of gods and religion from agriculture and other τέχναι ‘useful’ for human race is directly attested in PDerv.; there is also the evidence found in both Aristophanes and Themistius that Prodicus wrote an allegorical interpretation of the Orphic theogony.
  The demonstration of our thesis is presented in 11 sections (§) and three appendices (App.). After preliminary remarks on the necessary distinction of the two types of pantheism and allegoresis in Greek thought (§ [I]) we define in § (II) the literary genre, the general purpose, and the hermeneutical method of the Derveni treatise, and draw a preliminary intellectual portrait of its author describing his peculiar features, a kind of ‘composite image.’ In § (III), we argue for Prodicus as the author of PDerv. and present the 19 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 language and style.
  In § (IV), we propose a reconstruction and interpretation of the text of col. IV that contains a quotation from Heraclitus. This column is of primary importance for understanding the aims and allegorical method of the author in general, as well as for his theory of names. In § (V), the problems of the original title and the date of the Derveni treatise are addressed, as well as its relation to the psephisma of Diopeithes (432 BC). In § (VI), the philosophical sources of Derv.T are discussed. Apart from the Anaxagorean source of the Derveni author’s cosmology and theory of matter recognized long ago, we discuss the possible influence of Democritus while dismissing “Leucippus”, Diogenes of Apollonia, and the Eleatics. We point to Protagoras as an important source of anthropology for the Derveni author and to Heraclitus as the source of his philosophy of language (including functionalist semantics) and criticism of popular religion. In § (VII), we briefly present our reasons for rejecting the ascription of PDerv. to other authors (Epigenes, Stesimbrotos, Euthydemus, Diagoras of Melos). § (VIII) expands the discussion of Prodicus’ atheistic sobriquet ‘Tantalos’ in § (III) by focusing on two cryptic Tantalos passages in Euripides’ Orestes. Taking the torture of Anaxagoras before his trial as a historical fact (which the new reconstruction of Philodemus’ account by Eduardo Acosta Méndez has brought to light, and which Christian Vassallo confirms in this volume, DAPR, T7), we interpret the tortures of Tantalos as an allusion to Anaxagoras’ trial, a cryptic commemoration of the 20th anniversary of his death, and a makarismos of the heroic martyr of science, analogous to Euripides’ cryptic commemoration of Protagoras’ death in Ixion. § (IX) searches for further reflections of the ‘avian’ theme (ὀρνίθειον in PDerv., cols. ΙΙ and VI) in Aristophanes’ Birds and Clouds. It starts with the attribution of a neglected comedy fragment in the Suda Lexicon to Aristophanes’ Seasons and connects the comic passages in the Clouds on ἀλεκτρυών with Prodicus’ orthoepeia. The passage on ‘Persian cock’ as a prehistoric king in Birds 481–492 is interpreted as a parody of Prodicus’ theory of the origin of religion and civilization. § (X) discusses three ‘Heraclitizing’ passages (apart from col. IV) in cols. V, XX, and XXII, and arrives at the conclusion that cols. V and XX contain either hidden verbatim quotations from Heraclitus or paraphrases close to the original text with authentic terms and phrases, whereas col. XXII contains a summarizing exposition of Heraclitus’ philosophy of lan- guage and religion (the invention of polytheism by poets due to their ‘ignorance’). In § (XI), the hypothesis that Euripides may have taken with him to Macedonia a copy of Prodicus’ work on religion, since he quotes it in the Bacchae on which he worked at that time, is advanced. A copy of it may have been made for the library of Archelaus in Pella. In App. (1) we defend the traditional 5th cent. date and the Preplatonic character of PDerv. in response to Luc Brisson’s Stoic hypothesis. App. (2) clarifies our use of the term peritrope and explains the Derveni treatise as a naturalistic peritrope of a religious text. App. (3) identifies a neglected reflection of Prodicus’ benefaction theory of religion in Xenophon’ Memorabilia with parallels from PDerv.

"According to this paper, the Athenian Neoplatonic idea that there was a deep accordance between Orpheus, Pythagoras and Plato about the method and the definition of soul salvation (see Syrianus) is not fully erroneous. It just has to be put in a dynamic perspective instead of a static one. Authentic Orphism may indeed be defined as the cultural process — neither a fixed doctrine nor an organized church —  that leads from the positive valuation of an external memory concerning epic or theogonic old paterns, working as a condition of the kleos aphthiton for heroes and poets, toward the positive valuation of the internal memory which is conceived off as bringing the philosopher’s soul in touch with eternal realities. Orphism does not deny the authority of Homeric or Hesiodic tradition, which makes immortal the names of heroes, but Orphism gradually transfers it inside the soul and thus discovers a new level of immortality, which concerns the ego and is independent from the surviving part of human society, just like the common immortality of soul demonstrated by Plato in the Phaedo does paradoxically not prevent certain souls being more subject to death than other ones (see for example the end of the Timaeus, 90c)! In certain “Orphic” gold tablets, Mnemosyne is not invocated in order to keep alive an oral tradition through succesive generations but for an individual soul to re-assume its own divine origin. This soteriological interpretation of the role payed by memory is confirmed by the cyclical sequence bios thanatos bios found in the Olbia bones fragments (OF 463.1 Bernabé). Such a mental power makes the soul able to escape an ever-lasting re-birth and re-death cycle, just like the anamnèsis in Plato does, athough the divine part of soul is identified only with rationality in Plato, and no longer with any vitalizing spirit correlated with body. The life of soul, according to Plato, is overall an adequate relationship to itself, which is called intellection (nous; Sophist, 249a; Laws X). But Orphism has already overcome the idea that the sole material ritual could work as a sufficient means for salvation. Moreover, there is no historical family tradition in Orphism unlike in the Homeric tradition. There are no Orphēidai like the Homēridai of Chios. Lineage in the Orphic tradition is only ritual and is only a matter of initiation. One self’s connection with Orpheus depends on will and on undertaking of a re-birth ritual, not on blood. The whole humanity is potentially in connection with Orpheus just like the Orphic Zeus contains everything and is contained by everything. For example, Pythagoras was re-enacting Orpheus although he was not Orpheus’ natural son (see Gregory Nagy’s Homer the Preclassic, E§116). In the same way, Plato asserts that every human being has seen the Ideas and can remember them by practicing dialectics. Finally, in Orphism, the self-identification of the rhapsode with the mythical proto-poet occurs during the whole life, and not only during the oral performance. This is why there is a real Orphic “way of life” (vegetarian food, non-violence, saying truth; see Plato, Leges, 782 c-d), and not only an Orphic way of singing. Moreover, since the Orphic poems were written quite early and thus became protected against oral variations, the initiate could not identify himself with Orpheus as a creative poet. The very process of improvisation during an oral performance was forbidden to him. Therefore the ritual and ethic behavior, or the rationalizing interpretation of Orphic poems just like in the Derveni Papyrus, became the only way of re-enacting Orpheus. On one hand Orpheus’ powerful living voice was admitted as definitely remoted in the past, but on the other hand the inner and spiritual life became the most important factor of continuity in the Orphic tradition.
So Orphism might be the analogy-generating tradition in which Plato found the first connection between different kinds of memory and different levels of immortality (see especially Diotima’s speech during the Symposium, 208c-d, 212a). Such a connection was the condition for dialectics, so that it could not be the result a dialectics. Of course, following Plato himself, modern scholars have accepted this hierarchy as a distinctive feature through which one could isolate Plato from other salvation traditions in Greek culture, as if to conceive off the genuine immortality as an instantaneous return to our metaphysical origin were the special innovation of philosophy. But, as we said, Plato might have just continued the process inaugurated by Orphism, and this process might also be not later than the Homeric poetry. Indeed, on the basis of many data excerpted from comparative poetics dealing with Indian and Iranian sacred poetry, we may assume that such a growing complexity of immortality and memory was a permanent trend in some ancient cultures, synchronically organized rather than diachronically, just like the Neoplaonic thinkers believed.
"

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.

the strength from his father, etc."). This is precisely what he does arguing that Zeus does not listen to the oracles of his father but takes his strength from him (ll. 9-10). Moreover, while paraphrasing the verses he has just quoted (col. 8.7, 10 and col. 9.4) D repeats three times ἀλκήν, never ἀρχήν, and we have θέϲφατα at l. 11 as in θέϲφατ᾽ ἀκούϲαϲ, not θέϲφατον as in θέϲφατον ἀρχήν, and μαθών in l. 14 seems to echo the ἀκούϲαϲ of the poetic text. In short, there is no trace of θέϲφατον ἀρχήν.

Con la scoperta del Papiro di Derveni, la secolare storia delle teogonie di ‘Orfeo’ acquisì di colpo una nuova profondità cronologica: quella che allora veniva alla luce era una cosmogonia assai più antica di quanto non lasciasse presumere la tradizione indiretta, una narrazione in esametri che affondava le sue radici nel V (secondo alcuni addirittura nel VI) secolo a.C.
Il carattere frammentario di tale narrazione non permette purtroppo di farsi un’idea precisa del contenuto, rendendo molto spesso congetturale ed ostico qualsiasi tentativo di comparazione con le altre tradizioni cosmogoniche antiche. Protagonista della teogonia di Derveni è Zeus, il quale occupa una posizione di centralità assoluta rispetto alle altre divinità dell’Olimpo: Gli eventi che portarono all’intronizzazione di Zeus non sono del tutto comprensibili: Zeus avrebbe inghiottito l’aidoion, un principio di potenza generativa di natura non chiara, e la conseguenza di tale atto sarebbe stata l’acquisizione della regalità universale, che si dispiegava come unificazione ed interiorizzazione del cosmo nel corpo del nuovo sovrano. Mentre le implicazioni cosmologiche e teologiche di tale rappresentazione della divinità risultano almeno a grandi linee comprensibili, anche grazie alla possibilità di confrontare questo episodio con un suo sviluppo successivo contenuto nelle Rapsodie orfiche, lo stesso non può dirsi riguardo alle vicende precedenti, in particolare alla questione dell’inghiottimento dell’aidoion, che ha costituito (e costituisce) un vero rompicapo per gli studiosi che si sono occupati della teogonia di Derveni. Al di là della proliferazione delle ipotesi ricostruttive (che in questo contributo ricevono una dettagliata analisi filologica), vi è un tratto che emerge dal confronto tra i frammenti del mito di Derveni, il contenuto dell’esegesi del suo commentatore e il sèguito della tradizione orfica: l’esistenza di una linea di sostanziale continuità che comprendeva alcuni tratti profondi dell’immaginario mitico (e poi filosofico) orfico. L’enfasi sul tema della solarità, legato a quello della sessualità e della generazione, ne costituisce un esempio macroscopico, insieme, per esempio, all’interesse per i significati più riposti dei vocaboli, alla passione per l’analisi del linguaggio e per i giochi di parole.

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.

The mysteries of Dionysos and of Meter and the teachings of the Pythagoreans play a crucial role in Herodotos’ Histories in general and in the Scythian logos in particular. The mysteries are, however, not referred to overtly, but concealed in disparate details in the narrative. It will be the ambition of the present article to combine these details into a complete and coherent picture. I shall argue that Herodotos' Book 4 is pervaded by an “eschatological ideology” which serves to illustrate the fundamental difference between Scythian nomadism and Greek civilisation.

There are two versions of the beinning of Orpheus' Theogony. This double version immediately raises several questions: What was its place in the poem? Which version is the older one or are both equally old? How do we explain the difference? What does it tell us about the Orphic Mysteries? And, last but not least, where were these performed?

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.

In an addendum to an article on the then newly published Pelinna gold leaves, Fritz Graf draws attention to a newly published Apulian volute krater attributed to the Darius painter, now in the Toledo Museum of Art (Ohio, USA), whose motif, in his view, reveals an eschatology that "comes very close to what [the Pelinna gold leaves] presuppose, Dionysus interceding with the powers beyond on behalf of his initiate" ( ). 1 The initiate in question is argued to be the young man depicted on the reverse side of the vase, standing inside an aedicula which is surrounded by young men and women probably in mourning. This side, the reverse, according to Graf, is connected to the obverse where we see a unique scene from the Underworld: Dionysos approaching and shaking hands with Hades. Hades is seated inside his house together with a standing Persephone who is holding a torchcross with both hands. Dionysos, wearing a fawnskin cloak with a narthex staff in his left hand, is followed by his thiasos, comprised here of two maenads, one, Acheta, is dancing while holding a tambourine and a thyrsos, the other, Persis, slowly approaches the house of Hades holding a torch and a thyrsos. Seated between Persis and the house of Hades we find the satyr Oinops clutching a drinking horn. Elsewhere on the obverse are depicted various inhabitants of Hades, such as Kerberos and Hermes Psychopompos, and figures known from myths

La mosaïque funéraire d’Orphée de Jérusalem est la dernière représentation mythologique du chantre parmi les dix-sept exemples connus des mosaïques de l’Est de la Méditerranée de l’Antiquité. Nous ne connaissons que six mosaïques funéraires avec l’image du musicien thrace dans l’art funéraire antique. La mosaïque d’Orphée placée dans une tombe chrétienne au VIe siècle (l’époque de Justinien ?), devait répondre aux attentes des chrétiens pour lesquelles elle a été exécutée. Nous sommes loin (environ 160 ans après l’interdiction des cultes païens) de l’époque ou la réaction païenne s’exprimait dans l’art et il ne s'agit certainement pas ici de ce phénomène de contestation. Selon l’opinion de l’auteur, le personnage mythologique d’Orphée avait un sens universel dans un contexte funéraire à l’époque romaine qui perdurera longtemps à l’époque de l’Antiquité tardive. L’idée d’Orphée est liée d’une part avec celle d’un homme malheureux pleurant la perte de sa bien aimée Eurydice. D’autre part, le jeu de mots, si souvent pratiqué par les Anciens dans le langage courant ainsi que dans l’iconographie (par exemple des mosaïques d’Apamée interprétées par J. et J.-Ch. Balty) et dans les textes pourrait bien expliquer le sens universel de l’image du chantre dans le contexte funéraire. En grec, « orphanos » signifie une personne privée de son père, de sa mère ou de ses enfants, et « Orpheus » Orphée. Le chantre mythologique exprime dans un contexte funéraire, le deuil et la tristesse de la personne privée de l’être le plus cher. Il est probable que le jeu de mots, a la fois graphique et textuel, sous-entendu, s’est établie dans l’image mythologique du Centaure et du Pan. Nous savons que le Chrisme accompagne la majorité des tombes chrétiennes au Ve et VIe siècles. Sous le nom du Centaure Chiron [XIPO(N)] nous pouvons lire « XiPo » et sous le nom de Pan nous lisons le « Pantokrator ». Derrière la représentation graphique du Centaure Chiron et de Pan nous pouvons donc lire « Christo to Pantokrator ». Cette formule correspond bien à l’ambiance de paix crée par Orphée, sa musique et la formule chrétienne de paix en Christ ou en Dieu adressée à deux jeunes femmes mortes et enterrées dans la chapelle funéraire de Jérusalem. L’image d’Orphée est ici utilisée d’une façon inoffensive face à la religion chrétienne et ses dogmes. See also a pdf of M.T. Olszewski, The Orpheus Funerary Mosaic from Jerusalem in the Archaeological Museum at Istanbul, in: the 11TH INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON ANCIENT MOSAICS OCTOBER 16TH – 20TH, 2009, BURSA TURKEY: M. Şahin (ed. by), Mosaics of Turkey and Parallel Developments in the Rest of the Ancient and Medieval World: Questions of Iconography, Style and Technique from the Beginnings of Mosaic until the Late Byzantine Era, Bursa 2011 (2012), pp. 655-664.

The aim of the paper is to study the cosmogony of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, within the framework of the literary and philosophical tradition of cosmogonies. After a reflection on the cosmogonies in ancient literatures and on the role of the Ovidian in the poem, the proem of Metamorphoses and various aspects of the cosmogony are examined: (1) the description of the initial state of the cosmos and the concept of Chaos; (2) the proposed consideration of a new Greek model, viz Orphic Rhapsodies; (3) a quick reference to Met. I 9; (4) An allusion to the meaning of iners, and (5) reflections on deus et melior natura, to end with some concluding remarks.

The Derveni Papyrus contains a theogony, explicitly attributed to Orpheus. It also contains a more recent philosophical commentary which compares the Greek initiation rituals with the magoi's ones inasmuch as the latter care about the souls looking for a blissful afterlife. The commentary lays stress on the fact that the initiate has to know the meaning and the mechanism of the successful ritual in order to be really redeemed. In the same way the brahmán priest of the Vedic śrautaritual, by means of mere knowledge and silent attention, acts as the "physician of the sacrifice" and thus guarantees the sacrificer's ātman a safe trip until the blissful abode of dead, because the traveling ātman of the sacrificer identifies with the well

This article offers an interpretation of the enigmatic “kid-in-milk” formula which appears in four of the “Orphic” gold tablets from Thurii and Pelinna. These tiny tablets accompanied the dead in their graves and contained texts of various lengths which were believed to help the deceased on his or her journey to the otherworld. Many see the tablets as Orphic texts, but this question has been highly debated during the last century. The four tablets in question, from two sites in southern Italy and Greece, tell how the deceased has suffered in life, but that he or she has attained immortality through initiation. The immortalization was referred to and summed up in the “kid-in-milk” formula, where, it is argued, milk was a direct reference to immortality. Thus milk in this eschatological context is a symbol of immortality which served as a focal point for both the text and the initates.

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.

¿Cuál es el origen de todas las cosas? A pesar de su gran diversidad, ¿tienen una raíz común? ¿Tuvo el mundo un comienzo? ¿Cómo surgió la vida en la tierra? Tales preguntas, que aún provocan a los científicos, fueron formuladas por vez primera por los primeros pensadores griegos. Anaxágoras responde a ellas poniendo al inicio del tiempo una confusa mezcla de todas las cosas sobre la cual obró un ser llamado Intelecto, quien dio lugar al orden del mundo que hoy contemplamos. Con ello, este autor presocrático comienza a plantear algunas cuestiones filosóficas que perdurarán hasta nuestros días: la constitución de la materia, la naturaleza del conocimiento sensorial e intelectual, la intervención de Dios en el mundo… Este libro pretende analizar cuidadosamente la filosofía de Anaxágoras prestando atención a los dos aspectos principales de su doctrina: la mezcla e Intelecto. Su comprensión de la realidad física como una mezcla tiene consecuencias filosóficas de gran interés y constituye quizá la más sugestiva entre las primeras concepciones de la materia. Por otro lado, Intelecto es, según Anaxágoras, quien provoca la variedad de los seres a través del movimiento. Así, nuestro filósofo distingue del sustrato material la causa de sus cambios, la cual se hallaría, además, dotada de inteligencia. Tales rasgos de la filosofía de Anaxágoras atrajeron la atención de los grandes filósofos clásicos, particularmente de Aristóteles. El segundo gran objetivo de este libro es, pues, recorrer el camino por el cual discurrieron las enseñanzas de Anaxágoras, desde que fueron expuestas por él en Atenas, justo durante el siglo que definió la preponderancia intelectual de dicha polis durante siglos, hasta que llegaron a oídos de Aristóteles, el testigo más determinante para comprender a Anaxágoras.

This article examines two Euripidean references to the presence of Orphics in classical Athens: the one is a negative view, where Orphics are seen as false and dangerous (Hippolytus 948–957), and the other is a positive view, where Cretan priests are presented as pure and saintly men (Cretans 472). Both views give an idea of the contradictory reactions (admiration and rejection) that adherents to this form of religion inspired in the Athenians. The purpose of this paper is to examine two important Euripidean references to the presence of Orphics in classical Athens: Hippolytus 952–957 and Cretans 472 Kannicht. These Orphic echoes present polar opposite views, one negative, and the other positive, something which makes them particularly interesting. They seem to offer different perspectives of a complex phenomenon, while mirroring its contradictory reception by the Athenian society of the fifth century BCE, the theatre of which is a clear reflection of the Athenian polis. Before arriving to some conclusions both references will be first analysed, taking into consideration the special context within which each passage is framed, who presents the testimony, to whom it is addressed, the contents of the texts, and their positive or negative character.

The history of ancient Greek religion fortunately belongs to that branch of classical studies, that develops not only through lasting discussions, but also thanks to the discovery of some new material, which sometimes resolves old arguments. So the finds of the last years that concern Orphism make us turn once more to some disputed questions that have for a long time interested the students of this religious movement.