Orphism

An innovative movement within ancient polytheism, Orphism transformed the mystery religions.

Date: c. 500 b. c.e.-400 c. e.

Category: Religion and mythology Locale: The Greek-speaking world

Summary Orphism (AWR-fih-zm) presented radical modifications of traditional Greek religion by granting authority to the mythical poet Orpheus and his reputed books; by professing the soul’s immortality, its punishment for previous transgressions, and its reincarnation; and by requiring an ascetic vegetarian lifestyle that eschewed animal sacrifice. Starting from the earliest testimonia, Orphism was inextricably conflated with Pythagoreanism and Bacchic mysteries.

In Orphic myth, Zeus mated with Demeter and then with their daughter Persephone to produce Dionysus or Zagreus. In a shocking development, the Titans dismembered, boiled, roasted, and ate the infant. However, Zeus blasted them with lightning, reconstituted his divine son, and created humanity from the soot. Thus mortals, sharing in both Dionysus’s noble lineage and that of the troublesome Titanic brood, must pay penance to Persephone, queen of the dead.

Significance Authors ranging from fifth century b. c.e. Athenians to Christian apologists resented the missionary zeal of Orphic initiators and presented biased descriptions. Scholars seriously doubt that the various rites and writings attributed to Orpheus from the sixth century b. c.e. to the fourth century c. e. and beyond represent a coherent movement. Archaeological finds from Olbia (1978) and Derveni (1982) have dramatically confirmed the relatively early presence of people called Orphics and cosmogonic Orphic texts.

Further Reading

Alderink, L. J. Creation and Salvation in Ancient Orphism. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Scholars Press, 1981.

Edmonds, Radcliffe G., III. Myths of the Underworld Journey: Plato, Aristophanes, and the “Orphic” Gold Tablets. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Guthrie, W. K. C. Orpheus and Greek Religion. Reprint. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1993.

Linforth, I. M. The Arts of Orpheus. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1941.

West, M. L. The Orphic Poems. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1983.

Jonathan Fenno

See also: Cosmology; Mythology; Religion and Ritual.