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{{Short description|Legendary musician, poet, and prophet in Greek mythology}}
{{Other uses|Orpheus (disambiguation)}}
{{redirect|Orphée|other meanings of Orphée|Orphée (disambiguation)}}
{{distinguish|Morpheus}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Greek
| name = Orpheus
| image = DSC00355 - Orfeo (epoca romana) - Foto G. Dall'Orto.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Orpheus, wearing a [[Phrygian cap]], is surrounded by animals, who are charmed by his lyre-playing. Roman [[Orpheus mosaic]] from [[Palermo]], 2nd century AD<ref>Garezou, p. 91.</ref>
| god_of =
| birth_place = [[Pimpleia]], [[Pieria (regional unit)|Pieria]]
| death_place = [[Pangaion Hills]], [[Odomantice]]
| abode = Pimpleia, Pieria
| symbol = [[Lyre]]
| consort =
| parents = [[Oeagrus]] and [[Calliope]]
| siblings =
| children = [[Musaeus of Athens|Musaeus]]
| mount =
| spouse = [[Eurydice]]
}}
In [[Greek mythology]], '''Orpheus''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɔr|f|iː<!--long /iː/-->|ə|s|,_|ˈ|ɔr|f|juː|s|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Orpheus.wav}}; {{langx|grc|Ὀρφεύς}}, classical pronunciation: {{IPA|el|or.pʰeú̯s|}}) was a [[Thracians|Thracian]] [[bard]],<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":7" /><ref name=":8" /><ref name=":9" /> legendary musician and [[prophet]]. He was also a renowned [[Ancient Greek poetry|poet]] and, according to legend, travelled with [[Jason]] and the [[Argonauts]] in search of the [[Golden Fleece]],<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.9.16&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Orpheus 1.9.16].</ref> and descended into the [[Greek underworld|underworld]] to recover his lost wife, [[Eurydice]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Cartwright|first=Mark|date=2020|title=Orpheus|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Orpheus/|access-date=2021-07-26|website=[[World History Encyclopedia]]|language=en}}</ref>
The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music (the usual scene in [[Orpheus mosaic]]s), his attempt to retrieve his wife Eurydice from the underworld, and his death at the hands of the [[maenad]]s of [[Dionysus]], who got tired of his mourning for his late wife Eurydice. As an archetype of the inspired singer, Orpheus is one of the most significant figures in the [[classical reception studies|reception]] of [[classical mythology]] in [[Western culture]], portrayed or [[allusion|alluded]] to in countless forms of art and popular culture including poetry, film, opera, music, and painting.<ref>Geoffrey Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology'' (Routledge, 1999), p. 54.</ref>
For the Greeks, Orpheus was a founder and prophet of the so-called [[Orphism (religion)|"Orphic" mysteries]].<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:2.30.2 2.30.2]</ref> He was credited with the composition of a [[Orphic literature|number of works]], among which are a number of now-lost theogonies, including the theogony commented upon in the [[Derveni papyrus]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Janko |first=Richard |date= 2001|title=The Derveni Papyrus ("Diagoras of Melos, Apopyrgizontes Logoi?"): A New Translation |journal=Classical Philology |language=en |volume= 96|issue= |pages= 1–32|doi=10.1086/449521 |s2cid=162191106 |issn=0009-837X}}</ref> as well as extant works such the ''[[Orphic Hymns]]'', the ''[[Orphic Argonautica]],'' and the ''[[Orphic Lithica|Lithica]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gunk |first=Wretch |url=https://www.academia.edu/42010690 |title=The Lithica -"Orpheus on Gems" taken from Natural History of Precious Stones and Gems by Charles William King |date=January 1865}}</ref> Shrines containing purported [[Relic#In classical antiquity|relics]] of Orpheus were regarded as [[oracle]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Guthrie |first=William Keith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-C6wNyrxUO8C&q=shrine&pg=PR13 |title=Orpheus and Greek Religion: A Study of the Orphic Movement |date=1993-10-10 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-02499-8 |language=en}}</ref>
==Etymology==
Several etymologies for the name ''Orpheus'' have been proposed. A probable suggestion is that it is derived from a hypothetical [[Proto-Indo-European language|PIE]] root {{lang|ine-x-proto|*h₃órbʰos}} 'orphan, servant, slave' and ultimately the verb root {{lang|ine-x-proto|*h₃erbʰ-}} 'to change allegiance, status, ownership'.<ref>Cf. "Ὀρφανός" in: ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', ed. Robert S. P. Beekes. First published online{{where|date=September 2023}} October 2010.</ref> Cognates could include {{Langx|grc|ὄρφνη}} ({{Lang|grc-Latn|órphnē}}; 'darkness')<ref name="Archetypal Imagination page 240">Cobb, Noel. ''Archetypal Imagination'', Hudson, New York: Lindisfarne Press, p. 240. {{ISBN|0-940262-47-9}}</ref> and {{Lang|grc|ὀρφανός}} ({{Lang|grc-Latn|orphanós}}; 'fatherless, orphan')<ref>{{cite journal | title= Orpheus: A Fugue on the Polis | first1= William K. | last1= Freiert | editor-first=Dora Carlisky | editor-last= Pozzi | editor2-first= John M. |editor2-last= Wickersham | journal= Myth and the Polis | page= 46 | publisher= Cornell University Press | year = 1991 | isbn= 0-8014-2473-9}}</ref> from which comes English 'orphan' by way of Latin.<!--''Orpheus'' would therefore be semantically close to ''goao'' "to lament, sing wildly, cast a spell",<ref name="Archetypal Imagination page 240" />{{clarify|date=January 2016}} uniting his seemingly disparate roles as disappointed lover, transgressive musician and mystery-priest into a single lexical whole. The word "orphic" is defined as mystic, fascinating and entrancing, and, probably, because of the oracle of Orpheus, "orphic" can also signify "oracular".<ref>"Orphic", ''Macmillan Dictionary for Students'', Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 1984, p. 711. {{ISBN|0-02-761560-X}}</ref> [The connection is not clear at all and what is "goao"?]-->
[[Fabius Planciades Fulgentius|Fulgentius]], a mythographer of the late 5th to early 6th century AD, gave the unlikely etymology meaning "best voice", "Oraia-phonos".<ref>Miles, Geoffrey. ''Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology'', London: Routledge, 1999, p. 57. {{ISBN|0-415-14755-7}}</ref>
==Background==
{{Greek mythology sidebar}}
Although [[Aristotle]] did not believe that Orpheus existed, all other ancient writers believed he once was a real person, though living in remote antiquity. Most of them believed that he lived several generations before [[Homer]].<ref name=":0">Freeman 1946, [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.219050/page/n19/mode/2up p. 1].</ref> The earliest literary reference to Orpheus is a two-word fragment of the 6th-century BC lyric poet [[Ibycus]]: {{Lang|grc-Latn|onomaklyton Orphēn}} ('Orpheus famous-of-name'). He is not mentioned by Homer or [[Hesiod]].<ref>Ibycus, ''Fragments'' 17 (Diehl); [[M. Owen Lee]], ''Virgil as Orpheus: A Study of the Georgics'' State University of New York Press, Albany (1996), p. 3.</ref> Most ancient sources accept his historical existence; Aristotle is an exception.<ref>Freeman 1948, [https://archive.org/details/ancilla-to-the-pre-socratics-freeman/page/1/mode/2up p. 1].</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/worksofaristotle12arisuoft#page/80/mode/2up|title=The Works of Aristotle|year=1952|publisher=Clarendon Press|___location=Oxford|volume=XII – Fragments|author=Aristotle|editor1=[[W. D. Ross]]|editor2=[[John Alexander Smith]]|page=80}}</ref> [[Pindar]] calls Orpheus 'the father of songs'<ref>[[Pindar]], ''Pythian Odes'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Aabo%3Atlg%2C0033%2C002&redirect=true 4.176]</ref> and identifies him as a son of the [[Thracian mythology|Thracian mythological]] king [[Oeagrus]]<ref>[[Pindar]], fr. 126.9</ref> and the [[Muse]] [[Calliope]].<ref>[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], 1.3.2; ''[[Argonautica]]'' 1.23 & ''[[Orphic Hymn]]'' 24.12</ref>
Greeks of the [[Classical Greece|Classical age]] venerated Orpheus as the greatest of all poets and musicians; it was said that while [[Hermes]] had invented the [[lyre]], Orpheus perfected it. Poets such as [[Simonides of Ceos]] said that Orpheus's music and singing could charm the birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance,<ref>Apollodorus, 1.3.2; [[Euripides]], ''[[Iphigeneia at Aulis]]'' 1212 and ''[[The Bacchae]]'', 562; Ovid, ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' 11: "with his songs, Orpheus, the bard of Thrace, allured the trees, the savage animals, and even the insensate rocks, to follow him."</ref> and divert the course of rivers.
Orpheus was one of the handful of [[Greek hero]]es<ref>Others to brave the ''[[nekyia]]'' were [[Odysseus]], [[Theseus]] and [[Heracles]]; [[Perseus]] also overcame [[Medusa]] in a [[chthonic]] setting.</ref> to visit the [[Greek underworld|underworld]] and return; his music and song had power even over [[Hades]]. The earliest known reference to this [[descent to the underworld]] is the painting by [[Polygnotus]] (5th century BC) described by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] (2nd century AD), where no mention is made of Eurydice. [[Euripides]] and [[Plato]] both refer to the story of his descent to recover his wife, but do not mention her name; a contemporary relief (about 400 BC) shows Orpheus and his wife with Hermes. The elegiac poet [[Hermesianax (poet)|Hermesianax]] called her [[Argiope (mythology)|Agriope]]; and the first mention of her name in literature is in the ''Lament for [[Bion of Smyrna|Bion]]'' (1st century BC).<ref name=":0" />
Some sources credit Orpheus with further gifts to humankind: medicine, which is more usually under the auspices of [[Asclepius]] (Aesculapius) or [[Apollo]]; writing,<ref>A single literary epitaph, attributed to the [[sophist]] [[Alcidamas]], credits Orpheus with the invention of writing. See [[Ivan Mortimer Linforth]], "Two Notes on the Legend of Orpheus", ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'' '''62''', (1931):5–17.</ref> which is usually credited to [[Cadmus]]; and agriculture, where Orpheus assumes the [[Eleusinian Mysteries|Eleusinian]] role of [[Triptolemus]] as giver of [[Demeter]]'s knowledge to humankind. Orpheus was an [[augur]] and seer; he practiced magical arts and [[astrology]], founded cults to [[Apollo]] and [[Dionysus]],<ref name="Apollodorus1.3.2">Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.3.2 1.3.2]. "Orpheus also invented the mysteries of Dionysus, and having been torn in pieces by the Maenads he is buried in Pieria."</ref> and prescribed the mystery rites preserved in Orphic texts. Pindar and [[Apollonius of Rhodes]]<ref>Apollonius, ''Argonautica'' passim</ref> place Orpheus as the harpist and companion of [[Argonautica|Jason and the Argonauts]]. Orpheus had a brother named [[Linus of Thrace|Linus]], who went to [[Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)|Thebes]] and became a Theban.<ref>Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Apollod.+2.4.9#fn1 ''Library and Epitome''], 2.4.9. This Linus was a brother of Orpheus; he came to Thebes and became a Theban.</ref> He is claimed by [[Aristophanes]] and [[Horace]] to have taught cannibals to subsist on fruit, and to have made lions and tigers obedient to him. Horace believed, however, that Orpheus had only introduced order and civilization to savages.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/livesnecromance04godwgoog|title=Lives of the Necromancers|first=William |last=Godwin|year=1876|page=44}}</ref>
[[Strabo]] (64 BC – c. AD 24) presents Orpheus as a mortal, who lived and died in a village close to [[Mount Olympus|Olympus]].<ref name="Strabo">[[Strabo]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0198:book=7:chapter=7&highlight=orpheus 7.7]: "At the base of Olympus is a city Dium. And it has a village near by, Pimpleia. Here lived Orpheus, the Ciconian, it is said – a wizard who at first collected money from his music, together with his soothsaying and his celebration of the orgies connected with the mystic initiatory rites, but soon afterwards thought himself worthy of still greater things and procured for himself a throng of followers and power. Some, of course, received him willingly, but others, since they suspected a plot and violence, combined against him and killed him. And near here, also, is Leibethra."</ref> "Some, of course, received him willingly, but others, since they suspected a plot and violence, combined against him and killed him." He made money as a musician and "wizard" – Strabo uses {{Lang|grc|αγυρτεύοντα}} ({{Lang|grc-Latn|agurteúonta}}),<ref>Gregory Nagy, ''Archaic Period'' (''Greek Literature'', Volume 2), {{ISBN|0-8153-3683-7}}, p. 46.</ref> also used by [[Sophocles]] in ''[[Oedipus Tyrannus]]'' to characterize [[Tiresias]] as a trickster with an excessive desire for possessions. {{Lang|grc|Αγύρτης}} ({{Lang|grc-Latn|agúrtēs}}) most often meant '[[charlatan]]'<ref>Index in Eustathii commentarios in Homeri Iliadem et Odysseam by Matthaeus Devarius, p. 8.</ref> and always had a negative connotation. [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] writes of an unnamed [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] who considered Orpheus a {{Lang|grc|μάγευσε}} ({{Lang|grc-Latn|mágeuse}}), i.e., magician.<ref>[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0160%3Abook%3D6%3Achapter%3D20%3Asection%3D18 6.20.18]: "A man of Egypt said that Pelops received something from Amphion the Theban and buried it where is what they call Taraxippus, adding that it was the buried thing which frightened the mares of Oenomaus, as well as those of every charioteer since. This Egyptian thought that Amphion and the Thracian Orpheus were clever magicians, and that it was through their enchantments that the beasts came to Orpheus, and the stones came to Amphion for the building of the wall. The most probable of the stories in my opinion makes Taraxippus a surname of Horse Poseidon."</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=January 2016}}
"Orpheus ... is repeatedly referred to by Euripides, in whom we find the first allusion to the connection of Orpheus with [[Dionysus]] and the infernal regions: he speaks of him as related to the [[Muses]] (''[[Rhesus (play)|Rhesus]]'' 944, 946); mentions the power of his song over rocks, trees, and wild beasts (''[[Medea (play)|Medea]]'' 543, ''[[Iphigenia in Aulis]]'' 1211, ''[[The Bacchae|Bacchae]]'' 561, and a jocular allusion in ''[[Cyclops (play)|Cyclops]]'' 646); refers to his charming the infernal powers (''[[Alcestis (play)|Alcestis]]'' 357); connects him with Bacchanalian orgies ([[Hippolytus (play)|''Hippolytus'']] 953); ascribes to him the origin of sacred mysteries (''[[Rhesus (play)|Rhesus]]'' 943), and places the scene of his activity among the forests of Olympus (''[[The Bacchae|Bacchae]]'' 561.)"<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=William|title=Dictionary of Greek And Roman Biography And Mythology|publisher=Little, Brown, and Company|year=1870|volume=3|___location=Boston|pages=60|id=ark:/13960/t23b60t0r}}</ref> "Euripides [also] brought Orpheus into his play ''[[Hypsipyle (play)|Hypsipyle]]'', which dealt with the [[Lemnian deeds|Lemnian episode]] of the Argonautic voyage; Orpheus there acts as [[coxswain]], and later as guardian in Thrace of Jason's children by [[Hypsipyle]]."<ref name=":0" />
[[File:OARottweil-b000.jpg|thumb|left|Orpheus mosaic at Dominican Museum, [[Rottweil]], [[Germany]], 2nd c. AD]]
"He is mentioned once only, but in an important passage, by Aristophanes (''[[The Frogs|Frogs]]'' 1032), who enumerates, as the oldest poets, Orpheus, [[Musaeus of Athens|Musaeus]], [[Hesiod]], and Homer, and makes Orpheus the teacher of religious initiations and of abstinence from murder ..."<ref name=":1" />
"Plato (''[[Apology (Plato)|Apology]]'', ''[[Protagoras (dialogue)|Protagoras]]''), ... frequently refers to Orpheus, his followers, and his works. He calls him the son of Oeagrus (''[[Symposium (Plato)|Symposium]]''), mentions him as a musician and inventor ''([[Ion (dialogue)|Ion]]'' and ''[[Laws (dialogue)|Laws]]'' bk 3.), refers to the miraculous power of his lyre ([[Protagoras (dialogue)|''Protagoras'']]), and gives a singular version of the story of his descent into Hades: the gods, he says, imposed upon the poet, by showing him only a phantasm of his lost wife, because he had not the courage to die, like [[Alcestis]], but contrived to enter Hades alive, and, as a further punishment for his cowardice, he met his death at the hands of women (''[[Symposium (Plato)|Symposium]]'' 179d)."<ref name=":1" />
"Earlier than the literary references is a sculptured representation of Orpheus with the ship ''[[Argo]]'', found at [[Delphi]], said to be of the sixth century BC."<ref name=":0" />
==Mythology==
[[File:Orpheus & Linus parentage.svg|thumb|500px|Orpheus's genealogy]]
=== Origin ===
Some ancient Greek authors, such as [[Strabo]] and [[Plutarch]], write of Orpheus as having a [[Thracians|Thracian]] origin (through his father, [[Oeagrus]]).<ref name=":3">''Orpheus's Thracian origin, already maintained by Strabo and Plutarch, has been adopted again by E. Rohde (Psyche), by E. Mass (Orpheus), and by P. Perdrizet (Cultes et mythes du Pangée). But A. Boulanger has discerningly observed that “the most characteristic features of Orphism—consciousness of sin, need of purification and redemption, infernal punishments—have never been found among the Thracians”.'' For more see: Mircea Eliade (2011) History of Religious Ideas, Volume 2: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity, translated by Willard R. Trask, University of Chicago Press, p. 483, {{ISBN|022602735X}}.</ref><ref name=":7">Anthi Chrysanthou, Defining Orphism: The Beliefs, the ›teletae‹ and the Writings, (2020) Volume 94 of Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes, Walter de Gruyter, {{ISBN|3110678454}}: ''Orpheus's place of origin was Thrace and according to most ancient sources he was the son of [[Oeagrus]] and muse [[Kalliope]].''</ref><ref name=":8">''Androtion, an Attidographer writing in the fourth century BCE, focused precisely on Orpheus's Thracian origin, and the well-known illiteracy of his people...''For more see: {{cite book | first=Barbara | last=Graziosi | author-link=Barbara Graziosi | chapter=Still Singing: The Case of Orpheus |editor1=Nora Goldschmidt |editor2=Barbara Graziosi |year=2018 |title=Tombs of the Ancient Poets: Between Literary Reception and Material Culture |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=182 |isbn=978-0192561039}}</ref> Although these traditional accounts have been uncritically accepted by some historians,<ref name=":3" /> they have been put into question by others, since it was only in the mid-/late 5th century that Orpheus acquired Thracian attributes.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Watson |first=Sarah Burges |date=2013 |title=Muses of Lesbos or (Aeschylean) Muses of Pieria? Orpheus' Head on a Fifth-century Hydria |url=https://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/view/14541 |journal=Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies |language=en |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=441–460 |issn=2159-3159}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Lissarague |first=François |author-link=François Lissarrague |date=1993 |title=«Musica e storia», II, 1994 |url=https://www.fondazionelevi.it/editoria/musica-e-storia-ii-1994/ |website=Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi |pages=273–274 |language=it-IT}}</ref> Additionally, as [[André Boulanger]] notes, "the most characteristic features of Orphism—consciousness of sin, need of purification and redemption, infernal punishments—have never been found among the Thracians"''.''<ref name=":3" /> Indeed, the introduction of the worship of the [[Muses]] in the times of [[Archelaus I of Macedon|Archelaos]], the genealogies featuring [[Apollo]], [[Pierus of Emathia|Pierus]] and [[Methone (Greek myth)|Methone]], Orpheus's tomb in [[Leibethra]] and the importance of this gesture as a part of the king's cultural policy, makes the hypothesis of the [[Pierians|Pierian]], or [[Ancient Macedonians|Macedonian]], roots of Orpheus, highly probable.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Mojsik |first=Tomasz |date=2020 |title=The "Double Orpheus": between Myth and Cult |url=https://journals.openedition.org/mythos/1674 |journal=Mythos. Rivista di Storia delle Religioni |language=en |issue=14 |doi=10.4000/mythos.1674 |issn=1972-2516|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Mojsik |first=Tomasz |url= |title=Orpheus in Macedonia: Myth, Cult and Ideology |date=2022 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-350-21319-7 |pages=93, 137 |language=en}}</ref> The testimonies referring to his death, grave and heroic worship, for example early attestations to the existence of a real, or fictitious, gravestone epigram of Orpheus, point most strongly to his Macedonian links.<ref name=":5" /> Nevertheless, the Pierians were a Thracian tribe, while the origin of the Ancient Macedonians is obscure.
===Early life===
[[File:Life of Orpheus Greek Mythology.svg|thumb|Important sites in the life and travels of Orpheus]]
According to [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]]<ref name=":9">Son of Oeagrus and Calliope: Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.3.2 1.3.2] & [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.9.16&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:boo=0:chapter=0&highlight=Orpheus 1.9.16]</ref> and a fragment of Pindar,<ref>Kerényi, p. 280; [[Pindar]] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-fragments/1997/pb_LCL485.377.xml fr. 128c Race (''Threnos'' 3) 11–12].</ref> Orpheus's father was [[Oeagrus]], a [[Thrace|Thracian]] king.<ref>compare Apollonius Rhodius, [https://topostext.org/work/126#1.23 1.23–25]</ref> His mother was (1) the [[muse]] [[Calliope]],<ref>Apollonius Rhodius, [https://topostext.org/work/126#1.23 1.23–25]</ref> (2) her sister [[Polyhymnia|Polymnia]],<ref>Scholia ad Apollonius Rhodius, 1.23 with [[Asclepiades of Tragilus|Asclepiades]] as the authority</ref> (3) a daughter of [[Pierus (king of Macedonia)|Pierus]],<ref>In Pausanias, 9.30.4, the author claimed that "... There are many untruths believed by the Greeks, one of which is that Orpheus was a son of the Muse Calliope, and not of the daughter of Pierus."</ref> son of [[Makednos]] or (4) lastly of [[Menippe (mythology)|Menippe]], daughter of [[Thamyris]].<ref>[[John Tzetzes|Tzetzes]], ''Chiliades'' [http://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades1.html#12 1.12 line 306]</ref> Pindar, however, seems to call Orpheus the son of [[Apollo]] in his ''Pythian Odes'',<ref>Gantz, p. 725; [[Pindar]], ''Pythian'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-pythian_odes/1997/pb_LCL056.289.xml 4.176–7].</ref> and a scholium on this passage adds that the mythographer [[Asclepiades of Tragilus]] considered Orpheus to be the son of Apollo and Calliope.<ref>Gantz, p. 725; ''[[Brill's New Jacoby|BNJ]]'' 12 F6a = [Scholia on [[Pindar]]'s ''Pythian'', 4.313a].</ref> According to [[John Tzetzes|Tzetzes]], he was from [[Bisaltia]].<ref>Tzetzes, ''Chiliades'' [http://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades1.html#12 1.12 line 305]</ref> His birthplace and place of residence was [[Pimpleia]]<ref>William Keith Guthrie and L. Alderlink, ''Orpheus and Greek Religion (Mythos Books)'', 1993, {{ISBN|0-691-02499-5}}, p. 61 f.: "[…] is a city Dion. Near it is a village called Pimpleia. It was there they say that Orpheus the Kikonian lived."</ref><ref name = "Greek Religion 1991, page 469">Jane Ellen Harrison, ''Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (Mythos Books)'', 1991, {{ISBN|0-691-01514-7}}, p. 469: "[…] near the city of Dium is a village called Pimpleia where Orpheus lived."</ref> close to the [[Mount Olympus|Olympus]]. [[Strabo]] mentions that he lived in Pimpleia.<ref name="Strabo" /><ref name= "Greek Religion 1991, page 469" /> According to the epic poem ''[[Argonautica]]'', Pimpleia was the ___location of Oeagrus's and Calliope's wedding.<ref>''The Argonautica'', book I (ll. 23–34), "First then let us name Orpheus whom once Calliope bare, it is said, wedded to Thracian Oeagrus, near the Pimpleian height."</ref> While living with his mother and her eight beautiful sisters in [[Parnassus]], he met [[Apollo]], who was courting the laughing muse [[Thalia (muse)|Thalia]]. Apollo, as the god of music, gave Orpheus a golden [[lyre]] and taught him to play it.<ref>Hoopes And Evslin, ''The Greek Gods'', {{ISBN|0-590-44110-8}}, {{ISBN|0-590-44110-8}}, 1995, p. 77: "His father was a Thracian king; his mother the muse Calliope. For a while he lived on Parnassus with his mother and his eight beautiful aunts and there met Apollo who was courting the laughing muse Thalia. Apollo was taken with Orpheus, gave him his little golden lyre and taught him to play. And his mother Calliope, the muse presiding over epic poetry, taught him to make verses for singing."</ref> Orpheus's mother taught him to make verses for singing. He is also said to have studied in Egypt.<ref>[[Diodorus Siculus]], [http://www.theoi.com/Text/DiodorusSiculus4B.html 4.25.2–4]</ref>
Orpheus is said to have established the worship of [[Hecate]] in [[Aegina]].<ref>Pausanias, Corinth, 2.30.1 [2]: "Of the gods, the Aeginetans worship most Hecate, in whose honor every year they celebrate mystic rites which, they say, Orpheus the Thracian established among them. Within the enclosure is a temple; its wooden image is the work of Myron, and it has one face and one body. It was Alcamenes, in my opinion, who first made three images of Hecate attached to one another, a figure called by the Athenians Epipurgidia (on the Tower); it stands beside the temple of the Wingless Victory."</ref> In [[Laconia]] Orpheus is said to have brought the worship of [[Demeter Chthonia]]<ref>Pausanias, Laconia, 3.14.1,[5]: "[…] but the wooden image of Thetis is guarded in secret. The cult of Demeter Chthonia (of the Lower World) the Lacedaemonians say was handed on to them by Orpheus, but in my opinion it was because of the sanctuary in Hermione that the Lacedaemonians also began to worship Demeter Chthonia. The Spartans have also a sanctuary of Serapis, the newest sanctuary in the city, and one of Zeus surnamed Olympian."</ref> and that of the {{Lang|grc|Κόρες Σωτείρας}} ({{Lang|grc-Latn|Kóres Sōteíras}}; 'Saviour Maidens').{{Clarify|date=January 2010}}<ref>Pausanias, Laconia, 3.13.1: "Opposite the Olympian Aphrodite the Lacedaemonians have a temple of the Saviour Maid. Some say that it was made by Orpheus the Thracian, others by Abairis when he had come from the Hyperboreans."</ref> Also in [[Taygetus|Taygetos]] a wooden image of Orpheus was said to have been kept by [[Pelasgians]] in the sanctuary of the Eleusinian Demeter.<ref>Pausanias, Laconia, 3.20.1,[5]: "Between Taletum and Euoras is a place they name Therae, where they say Leto from the Peaks of Taygetus […] is a sanctuary of Demeter surnamed Eleusinian. Here according to the Lacedaemonian story Heracles was hidden by Asclepius while he was being healed of a wound. In the sanctuary is a wooden image of Orpheus, a work, they say, of Pelasgians."</ref>
According to [[Diodorus Siculus]], [[Musaeus of Athens]] was the son of Orpheus.<ref>Diodorus Siculus, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4B*.html#25 4.25.1–2]</ref>
===Adventure as an Argonaut===
{{Main|Argonautica}}
[[File:Orpheus' oracle.jpg|thumb|Cave of Orpheus's oracle in Antissa, Lesbos]]The ''[[Argonautica]]'' ({{Lang|grc|Ἀργοναυτικά}}) is a [[Greek literature|Greek]] [[epic poem]] written by [[Apollonius of Rhodes|Apollonius Rhodius]] in the 3rd century BC. Orpheus took part in this adventure and used his skills to aid his companions. [[Chiron]] told Jason that without the aid of Orpheus, the [[Argonauts]] would never be able to pass the [[Siren (mythology)|Siren]]s—the same Sirens encountered by [[Odysseus]] in [[Homer]]'s epic poem the ''[[Odyssey]]''. The Sirens lived on three small, rocky islands called [[Sirenum scopuli]] and sang beautiful songs that enticed sailors to come to them, which resulted in the crashing of their ships into the islands. When Orpheus heard their voices, he drew his [[lyre]] and played music that was louder and more beautiful, drowning out the Sirens' bewitching songs. According to 3rd century BC [[Hellenistic]] [[elegiac]] poet [[Phanocles]], Orpheus loved the young Argonaut [[Boreads|Calais]], "the son of Boreas, with all his heart, and went often in shaded groves still singing of his desire, nor was his heart at rest. But always, sleepless cares wasted his spirits as he looked at fresh Calais."<ref name="Crawford2010">{{cite book|author=Katherine Crawford|title=The Sexual Culture of the French Renaissance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z9TU7ZKzANkC&pg=PA28|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-76989-1|page=28}}</ref><ref name="Friedman2000">{{cite book|author=John Block Friedman|title=Orpheus in the Middle Ages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_56pgczDQ8sC&pg=PA9|date=2000-05-01|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-2825-5|page=9}}</ref>
===Death of Eurydice===
{{See also|Orpheus and Eurydice}}
[[File:Orfeu-atenas.jpg|upright|thumb|''Orpheus with the lyre and surrounded by beasts'' ([[Byzantine & Christian Museum]], Athens)]]
The most famous story in which Orpheus figures is that of his wife [[Eurydice]] (sometimes referred to as Euridice and also known as Argiope). While walking among her people, the [[Cicones]], in tall grass at her wedding, Eurydice was set upon by a [[satyr]]. In her efforts to escape the satyr, Eurydice fell into a nest of [[viper]]s and suffered a fatal bite on her heel. Her body was discovered by Orpheus who, overcome with grief, played such sad and mournful songs that all the [[nymph]]s and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus traveled to the [[underworld]]. His music softened the hearts of [[Hades]] and [[Persephone]], who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and [[Taboo#In religion and mythology|not look back]] until they both had reached the upper world. Orpheus set off with Eurydice following; however, as soon as he had reached the upper world, he immediately turned to look at her, forgetting in his eagerness that both of them needed to be in the upper world for the condition to be met. As Eurydice had not yet crossed into the upper world, she vanished for the second time, this time forever.
The story in this form belongs to the time of [[Virgil]], who first introduces the name of [[Aristaeus]] (by the time of Virgil's ''[[Georgics]]'', the myth has Aristaeus chasing Eurydice when she was bitten by a serpent) and the tragic outcome.<ref>M. Owen Lee, ''Virgil as Orpheus: A Study of the Georgics'', State University of New York Press, Albany (1996), p. 9.</ref> Other ancient writers, however, speak of Orpheus's visit to the underworld in a more negative light; according to [[Phaedrus (Athenian)|Phaedrus]] in [[Plato]]'s ''[[Symposium (Plato)|Symposium]]'',<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0174:text=Sym.:section=179d ''Symposium'' 179d]</ref> the infernal gods only "presented an apparition" of Eurydice to him. In fact, Plato's representation of Orpheus is that of a coward, as instead of choosing to die in order to be with the one he loved, he instead mocked the gods by trying to go to [[Greek underworld|Hades]] to bring her back alive. Since his love was not "true"—he did not want to die for love—he was actually punished by the gods, first by giving him only the apparition of his former wife in the underworld, and then by being killed by women. In [[Ovid]]'s account, however, Eurydice's death by a snake bite is incurred while she was dancing with [[naiad]]s on her wedding day.
[[File:Orpheus Thracians Met 24.97.30.jpg|thumb|left|Orpheus (left, with lyre) among the Thracians, from an [[Attic red-figure pottery|Attic red-figure]] [[krater|bell-krater]] (c. 440 BC)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/24.97.30|title=Attributed to the Painter of London E 497: Bell-krater (24.97.30) – Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History – The Metropolitan Museum of Art|work=metmuseum.org}}</ref>]]
Virgil wrote in his poem that [[Dryads]] wept from [[Orithyia|Epirus]] and [[Maritsa|Hebrus]] up to the land of the [[Getae]] (north east [[Danube valley]]) and even describes him wandering into [[Hyperborea]] and [[Tanais]] (ancient Greek city in the [[Don (river)|Don river delta]])<ref name="Virgil">{{cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/virgil/geo/geo04.htm|title=The Georgics of Virgil: Fourth Book|website=www.sacred-texts.com|access-date=11 July 2017}}</ref> due to his grief.
The story of Eurydice may actually be a late addition to the Orpheus myths. In particular, the name ''Eurudike'' ("she whose justice extends widely") recalls cult-titles attached to [[Persephone]]. According to the theories of poet [[Robert Graves]], the myth may have been derived from another Orpheus legend, in which he travels to [[Tartarus]] and charms the goddess [[Hecate]].<ref>[[Robert Graves]], ''[[The Greek Myths]]'', Penguin Books Ltd., London (1955), Volume 1, Chapter 28, "Orpheus", p. 115.</ref>
The myth theme of not looking back, an essential precaution in [[Jason]]'s raising of [[chthonic]] [[Brimo]] [[Hecate|Hekate]] under [[Medea]]'s guidance,<ref>Apollonius of Rhodes, ''Argonautica'', book III: "Let no footfall or barking of dogs cause you to turn around, lest you ruin everything", Medea warns Jason; after the dread rite, "The son of Aison was seized by fear, but even so he did not turn round..." (Richard Hunter, translator).</ref> is reflected in the Biblical story of [[Lot (Biblical)|Lot]]'s wife when escaping from [[Sodom and Gomorrah|Sodom]]. More directly, the story of Orpheus is similar to the ancient Greek tales of Persephone captured by Hades and similar stories of [[Adonis]] captive in the underworld. However, the developed form of the Orpheus myth was entwined with the Orphic mystery cults and, later in Rome, with the development of [[Mithraism]] and the cult of [[Sol Invictus]].
===Death===
[[File:The Death of Orpheus.jpg|thumb|The Death of Orpheus, detail from a silver [[kantharos]], 420–410 BC, part of the Vassil Bojkov collection, [[Sofia]], [[Bulgaria]]]]
According to a [[Late Antique]] summary of [[Aeschylus]]'s lost play ''Bassarids'', Orpheus, towards the end of his life, disdained the worship of all gods except [[Apollo]]. One early morning he went to the oracle of [[Dionysus]] at [[Mount Pangaion]]<ref name="L. Alderlink page 32">William Keith Guthrie and L. Alderlink, ''Orpheus and Greek Religion'', {{ISBN|0-691-02499-5}}, p. 32</ref> to salute his god at dawn, but was ripped to shreds by Thracian [[Maenad]]s for not honoring his previous patron (Dionysus) and was buried in [[Pieria (regional unit)|Pieria]].<ref name="Apollodorus1.3.2" /><ref>Wilson, N., ''Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece'', Routledge, 2013, {{ISBN|113678800X}}, p. 702: "His grave and cult belong not to Thrace but to Pierian Macedonia, northeast of Mount Olympus, a region that the Thracians had once inhabited".</ref>
{{blockquote|But having gone down into Hades because of his wife and seeing what sort of things were there, he did not continue to worship Dionysus, because of whom he was famous, but he thought [[Helios]] to be the greatest of the gods, Helios whom he also addressed as Apollo. Rousing himself each night toward dawn and climbing the mountain called Pangaion, he would await the Sun's rising, so that he might see it first. Therefore, Dionysus, being angry with him, sent the [[Bassarids|Bassarides]], as [[Aeschylus]] the tragedian says; they tore him apart and scattered the limbs.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Iliad of Homer | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BT0uAQAAIAAJ | publisher=Ashmead | author1=Homer |first2=William Cullen |last2=Bryant | year=1809 }}</ref>}}[[File:Head of Orpheus.jpg|upright|thumb|right|''Thracian Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus on His Lyre'' (1865) by [[Gustave Moreau]]]]Here his death is analogous with that of [[Pentheus]], who was also torn to pieces by Maenads; and it has been speculated that the Orphic mystery cult regarded Orpheus as a parallel figure to or even an incarnation of Dionysus.<ref>Mark P. O. Morford, Robert J. Lenardon, ''Classical Mythology'', p. 279.</ref> Both made similar journeys into Hades, and [[Zagreus|Dionysus-Zagreus]] suffered an identical death.<ref>''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology'', volume 88, p. 211</ref> [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] writes that Orpheus was buried in [[Dion, Pieria|Dion]] and that he met his death there.<ref>Pausanias, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Paus.+9.30.4 9.30.1]
A more commonly accepted death of Orpheus was that after returning from the Underworld, without Eurydice, Orpheus fell into a great depression. Orpheus would only play sad music on his lyre, and took no interest in the *[[Maenads]], finding them a painful reminder of his past. Orpheus instead took romantic interest in men, which drove the Maenads to the point of insanity, and one day when they were drunk they tore him apart.
Orpheus's head sailed down the river to distant *[[Lesbos]] where it there lived on with the gift of prophecy.
''Description of Greece: Boeotia''], 9.30.1. The Macedonians who dwell in the district below Mount Pieria and the city of Dium say that it was here that Orpheus met his end at the hands of the women. Going from Dium along the road to the mountain, and advancing twenty [[Stadion (unit)|stades]], you come to a pillar on the right surmounted by a stone urn, which according to the natives contains the bones of Orpheus.<!--Is this a quotation? If so, mark it as such with quotation marks--></ref> He writes that the river [[Helicon (river)|Helicon]] sank underground when the women that killed Orpheus tried to wash off their blood-stained hands in its waters.<ref>Pausanias, ''Boeotia'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Paus.+9.30.4 9.30.1]. There is also a river called Helicon. After a course of seventy-five stades the stream hereupon disappears under the earth. After a gap of about twenty-two stades the water rises again, and under the name of Baphyra instead of Helicon flows into the sea as a navigable river. The people of Dium say that at first this river flowed on land throughout its course. But, they go on to say, the women who killed Orpheus wished to wash off in it the blood-stains, and thereat the river sank underground, so as not to lend its waters to cleanse manslaughter<!--Is this a quotation? If so, mark it as such with quotation marks--></ref> Other legends claim that Orpheus became a follower of [[Dionysus]] and spread his cult across the land. In this version of the legend, it is said that Orpheus was torn to shreds by the women of [[Thrace]] for his inattention.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Orpheus |website=The Columbia Encyclopedia|url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/title/columency?institutionId=9190&tab=entry_view&heading=orpheus&sequence=0|access-date=2020-09-25}}</ref>
[[Ovid]] recounts that Orpheus
{{blockquote|had abstained from the love of women, either because things ended badly for him, or because he had sworn to do so. Yet, many felt a desire to be joined with the poet, and many grieved at rejection. Indeed, he was the first of the Thracian people to transfer his affection to young boys and enjoy their brief springtime, and early flowering this side of manhood.|author=Ovid, trans. A. S. Kline|source=[http://poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph10.htm ''Ovid: The Metamorphoses'', Book X]}}
Feeling spurned by Orpheus for taking only male lovers ({{lang|grc-Latn|[[eromenoi]]}}), the [[Ciconian]] women, followers of [[Dionysus]],<ref name="Johnson2008">{{cite book|author=Patricia Jane Johnson|title=Ovid Before Exile: Art and Punishment in the Metamorphoses|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tX9iAAAAMAAJ|year=2008|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-22400-4|page=103}} "by the Ciconian women".</ref> first threw sticks and stones at him as he played, but his music was so beautiful even the rocks and branches refused to hit him. Enraged, the women tore him to pieces during the frenzy of their Bacchic orgies.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ovid, trans. A. S. Kline|url=http://poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Metamorph11.htm|title=Ovid: The Metamorphoses|year=2000}} Book XI.</ref> In [[Albrecht Dürer]]'s drawing of Orpheus's death, based on an original, now lost, by [[Andrea Mantegna]], a ribbon high in the tree above him is lettered {{lang|de|Orfeus der erst puseran}} ("Orpheus, the first [[pederasty|pederast]]").<ref name="Wölfflin2013">{{cite book|author=Heinrich Wölfflin|title=Drawings of Albrecht Dürer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RDLmcOyWxgIC&pg=PA24|year=2013|publisher=Courier Dover |isbn=978-0-486-14090-2|pages=24–25}}</ref>
[[File:Albrecht Dürer - The Death of Orpheus, 1494 -Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett.jpg|thumb|left|''Death of Orpheus'' (1494) by [[Albrecht Dürer]]]]
His head, still singing mournful songs, floated along with his lyre down the River [[Maritsa|Hebrus]] into the sea, after which the winds and waves carried them to the island of [[Lesbos]],<ref>[http://www.maicar.com/GML/Orpheus.html Carlos Parada] "His head fell into the sea and was cast by the waves upon the island of Lesbos where the Lesbians buried it, and for having done this the Lesbians have the reputation of being skilled in music."{{full citation needed|date=September 2023}}</ref> at the city of [[Methymna]]; there, the inhabitants buried his head and a shrine was built in his honour near [[Antissa]];<ref>Recently{{when|date=September 2023}} a cave was identified as the oracle of Orpheus nearby the modern village of Antissa; see Harissis H. V. et al. "The Spelios of Antissa; The oracle of Orpheus in Lesvos" ''Archaiologia kai Technes'' 2002; 83:68–73 ([https://www.academia.edu/1510611/ article in Greek with English abstract])</ref> there his oracle prophesied, until it was silenced by Apollo.<ref>[[Flavius Philostratus]], ''[[Apollonius of Tyana|Life of Apollonius of Tyana]]'', [https://www.livius.org/sources/content/philostratus-life-of-apollonius/philostratus-life-of-apollonius-4.11-15/#4.14]</ref> In addition to the people of Lesbos, Greeks from [[Ionia]] and [[Aetolia]] consulted the oracle, and his reputation spread as far as [[Babylon]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/livesnecromance04godwgoog|title=Lives of the Necromancers|first=William |last=Godwin|year=1876|page=46}}</ref>
Orpheus's [[lyre]] was carried to heaven by the [[Muse]]s, and was placed [[Lyra|among the stars]]. The Muses also gathered up the fragments of his body and buried them at [[Leibethra]]<ref>Marcele Detienne, ''The Writing of Orpheus: Greek Myth in Cultural Context'', {{ISBN|0-8018-6954-4}}, p. 161</ref> below [[Mount Olympus]], where the [[nightingale]]s sang over his grave. After the river [[Sys]] flooded<ref>Pausanias, ''Boeotia'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Paus.+9.30.4 9.30.1] [11] Immediately when night came the god sent heavy rain, and the river Sys (Boar), one of the torrents about Olympus, on this occasion threw down the walls of Libethra, overturning sanctuaries of gods and houses of men, and drowning the inhabitants and all the animals in the city. When Libethra was now a city of ruin, the Macedonians in Dium, according to my friend of Larisa, carried the bones of Orpheus to their own country.<!--Is this a quotation? If so, mark it as such with quotation marks--></ref> Leibethra, the Macedonians took his bones to [[Dion, Greece|Dion]]. Orpheus's soul returned to the underworld, to the fields of the Blessed, where he was reunited at last with his beloved Eurydice.
Another legend places his tomb at Dion,<ref name="L. Alderlink page 32" /> near [[Pydna]] in [[Macedon]]. In another version of the myth, Orpheus travels to [[Aornum]] in [[Thesprotia]], [[Epirus]] to an old oracle for the dead. In the end Orpheus commits suicide from his grief unable to find Eurydice.<ref>Pausanias, ''Boeotia'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Paus.+9.30.4 9.30.1]. Others have said that his wife died before him, and that for her sake he came to Aornum in Thesprotis, where of old was an oracle of the dead. He thought, they say, that the soul of Eurydice followed him, but turning round he lost her, and committed suicide for grief. The Thracians say that such nightingales as nest on the grave of Orpheus sing more sweetly and louder than others.<!--Is this a quotation? If so, mark it as such with quotation marks--></ref>
"Others said that he was the victim of a thunderbolt."<ref>Freeman 1946, [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.219050/page/n21/mode/2up p. 3].</ref>
== Orphic poems and rites==
{{Main|Orphism}}
[[File:Nymphs finding the Head of Orpheus.jpg|thumb|upright|''Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus'' (1900) by [[John William Waterhouse]]]]
On the writings of Orpheus, [[Kathleen Freeman (classicist)|Freeman]], in the 1946 edition of ''The Pre- Socratic Philosophers'' writes:<ref>Freeman 1946, [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.219050/page/n21/mode/2up pp. 4–5].</ref>
{{blockquote|In the fifth and fourth centuries BC, there existed a collection of [[Hexameter|hexametric]] poems known as [[Orphic literature|Orphic]], which were the accepted authority of those who followed the Orphic way of life, and were by them attributed to Orpheus himself. [[Plato]] several times quotes lines from this collection; he refers in the ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'' to a "mass of books of [[Musaeus of Athens|Musaeus]] and Orpheus", and in the ''[[Laws (dialogue)|Laws]]'' to the hymns of [[Thamyris]] and Orpheus, while in the ''[[Ion (dialogue)|Ion]]'' he groups Orpheus with Musaeus and [[Homer]] as the source of inspiration of epic poets and elocutionists. [[Euripides]] in the ''[[Hippolytus (play)|Hippolytus]]'' makes [[Theseus]] speak of the "turgid outpourings of many treatises", which have led his son to follow Orpheus and adopt the [[Bacchic mysteries|Bacchic]] religion. [[Alexis (poet)|Alexis]], the fourth century comic poet, depicting Linus offering a choice of books to [[Heracles]], mentions "Orpheus, [[Hesiod]], tragedies, [[Choerilus (playwright)|Choerilus]], Homer, [[Epicharmus of Kos|Epicharmus]]". [[Aristotle]] did not believe that the poems were by Orpheus; he speaks of the "so-called Orphic epic", and [[John Philoponus|Philoponus]] (seventh century AD) commenting on this expression, says that in the ''De Philosophia'' (now lost) Aristotle directly stated his opinion that the poems were not by Orpheus. Philoponus adds his own view that the doctrines were put into epic verse by [[Onomacritus]]. Aristotle when quoting the Orphic cosmological doctrines attributes them to "the ''theologoi''", "the ancient poets", "those who first theorized about the gods".
[...]
[[Aelianus Tacticus|Aelian]] (second century AD) gave the chief reason against believing in them: at the time when Orpheus is said to have lived, the [[Thracians]] knew nothing about writing. It came therefore to be believed that Orpheus taught, but left no writings, and that the epic poetry attributed to him was written in the sixth century BC by Onomacritus. Onomacritus was banished from Athens by [[Hipparchus]] for inserting something of his own into an oracle of Musaeus when entrusted with the editing of his poems. It may have been Aristotle who first suggested, in the lost {{lang|la|De Philosophia}}, that Onomacritus also wrote the so-called Orphic epic poems. By the time when the Orphic writings began to be freely quoted by [[Christianity|Christian]] and [[Neoplatonism|Neo-Platonist]] writers, the theory of the authorship of Onomacritus was accepted by many.
[...]
The Neo-Platonists quote the Orphic poems in their defence against Christianity, because Plato used poems which he believed to be Orphic. It is believed that in the collection of writings which they used there were several versions, each of which gave a slightly different account of the origin of the universe, of gods and men, and perhaps of the correct way of life, with the rewards and punishments attached thereto.}}
In addition to serving as a storehouse of mythological data along the lines of [[Hesiod]]'s ''[[Theogony]]'', Orphic poetry was recited in mystery-rites and purification rituals. [[Plato]] in particular tells of a class of vagrant beggar-priests who would go about offering purifications to the rich, a clatter of books by Orpheus and [[Musaeus of Athens|Musaeus]] in tow.<ref>Plato. ''[[The Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]'' 364c–d.</ref> Those who were especially devoted to these rituals and poems often practiced [[vegetarianism]] and abstention from sex, and refrained from eating eggs and beans—which came to be known as the {{lang|grc-Latn|Orphikos bios}}, or "Orphic way of life".<ref>Moore, p. 56: "the use of eggs and beans was forbidden, for these articles were associated with the worship of the dead".</ref> [[W. K. C. Guthrie]] wrote that Orpheus was the founder of [[mystery religions]] and the first to reveal to men the meanings of the initiation rites.<ref>Guthrie, pp. 17–18. "As founder of mystery-religions, Orpheus was first to reveal to men the meaning of the rites of initiation ({{lang|grc-Latn|teletai}}). We read of this in both Plato and Aristophanes (Aristophanes, ''Frogs'', 1032; Plato, ''Republic'', 364e, a passage which suggests that literary authority was made to take the responsibility for the rites)". Guthrie goes on to write about "This less worthy but certainly popular side of Orphism is represented for us again by the charms or incantations of Orpheus which we may also read of as early as the fifth century. Our authority is [[Euripides]], a reference in the ''[[Alcestis (play)|Alcestis]]'' of Euripides to certain Thracian tablets which "the voice of Orpheus had inscribed" with pharmaceutical lore. [[Scholia|The scholiast]], commenting on the passage, says that there exist on [[Haemus Mons|Mt. Haemus]] certain writings of Orpheus on tablets. We have already noticed the 'charm on the Thracian tablets' in the ''Alcestis'' and in ''Cyclops'' one of the lazy and frightened Satyrs, unwilling to help Odysseus in the task of driving the burning stake into the single eye of the giant, exclaims: 'But I know a spell of Orpheus, a fine one, which will make the brand step up of its own accord to burn this one-eyed son of Earth' (Euripides, ''Cyclops'' 646 = Kern, test. 83)."</ref> There is also a reference, not mentioning Orpheus by name, in the [[Pseudo-|pseudo]]-Platonic [[Axiochus (dialogue)|''Axiochus'']], where it is said that the fate of the soul in Hades is described on certain bronze tablets which two seers had brought to [[Delos]] from the land of the [[Hyperborea]]ns.
[[File:Charles François Jalabert - Nymphs Listening to the Songs of Orpheus - Walters 3737.jpg|left|thumb|''Nymphs Listening to the Songs of Orpheus'' (1853) by [[Charles Jalabert]]]]
A number of Greek religious poems in [[hexameter]]s were also attributed to Orpheus, as they were to similar miracle-working figures, like [[Bakis]], [[Musaeus of Athens|Musaeus]], [[Abaris]], [[Aristeas]], [[Epimenides]], and the [[Sibyl]]. Of this vast literature, only two works survived whole: the ''[[Orphic Hymns]]'', a set of 87 poems, possibly composed at some point in the second or third century, and the epic ''[[Orphic Argonautica]]'', composed somewhere between the fourth and sixth centuries. Earlier Orphic literature, which may date back as far as the sixth century BC, survives only in [[papyrus]] fragments or in quotations. Some of the earliest fragments may have been composed by [[Onomacritus]].<ref>Freeman 1948, [https://archive.org/details/ancilla-to-the-pre-socratics-freeman/page/1/mode/2up p. 1].</ref>
[[File:Gabriel-Jules Thomas, Orphée. 1854. Paris, Cour Carrée, Palais du Louvre. Photo, Jamie Mulherron.jpg|thumb|''Orpheus'' (1854), by [[Gabriel Thomas]]|upright]]
The [[Derveni papyrus]], found in [[Derveni, Thessaloniki|Derveni]], [[Macedonia (Greece)]] in 1962, contains a philosophical treatise that is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem in hexameters, a theogony concerning the birth of the gods, produced in the circle of the philosopher [[Anaxagoras]], written in the second half of the fifth century BC.<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2006/2006-10-29.html | last= Janko| first= Richard |journal= Bryn Mawr Classical Review |year= 2006|editor1-first= K. |editor1-last=Tsantsanoglou |editor2-first= G. M. |editor2-last=Parássoglou |editor3-first=T. |editor3-last= Kouremenos | title= The Derveni Papyrus |___location= Florence: Olschki |series= Studi e testi per il 'Corpus dei papiri filosofici greci e latini' |volume= 13}}</ref> The papyrus dates to around 340 BC, during the reign of [[Philip II of Macedon]], making it Europe's oldest surviving manuscript.
==Post-Classical interpretations==
===Classical music===
[[File:Regius - Orpheus Beasts.jpg|thumb|Orpheus charming the beasts. Engraving by Regius for [[Ovid]]'s [[Metamorphoses]] Book X, 143]]The Orpheus motif has permeated [[Western culture]] and has been used as a theme in all art forms. Early examples include the [[Breton lai]] ''[[Sir Orfeo]]'' from the early 13th century and musical interpretations like [[Jacopo Peri]]'s ''[[Euridice (Peri)|Euridice]]'' (1600, though titled with his wife's name, the [[libretto]] is based entirely upon books X and XI of [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' and therefore Orpheus's viewpoint is predominant).
Subsequent operatic and musical interpretations include:
* [[Claudio
* [[
* [[Marc-Antoine Charpentier]]'s {{lang|fr|[[La descente d'Orphée aux enfers]]}} H.488 (1686). Charpentier also composed a cantata, {{lang|fr|Orphée descendant aux enfers}} H.471, (1683)
* [[
* [[Joseph Haydn]]'s last opera {{lang|it|[[L'anima del filosofo]], ossia Orfeo ed Euridice}} (1791)
* [[Franz Liszt]]'s symphonic poem ''[[Orpheus (Liszt)|Orpheus]]'' (1854)
* [[Jacques Offenbach]]'s operetta {{lang|fr|[[Orphée aux Enfers]]}} (1858)
* [[Igor Stravinsky]]'s ballet ''[[Orpheus (ballet)|Orpheus]]'' (1948)
* Two operas by [[Harrison Birtwistle]]: ''[[The Mask of Orpheus]]'' (1973–1984) and [[The Corridor (opera)|''The Corridor'']] (2009)
* [[Vladimir Genin]]'s mono-opera (monodrama) ''Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes'' (2017) after the text by [[Rainer Maria Rilke]], premiered in 2023 in Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin
* Anaïs Mitchell's musical ''[[Hadestown]]'' (concept 2006 / Off-Broadway 2016 / Broadway 2019)
===Literature===
[[Rainer Maria Rilke]]'s ''[[Sonnets to Orpheus]]'' (1922) are based on the Orpheus myth. [[Poul Anderson]]'s Hugo Award-winning novelette "[[Goat Song (novelette)|Goat Song]]", published in 1972, is a retelling of the story of Orpheus in a science fiction setting. Some [[feminism|feminist]] interpretations of the myth give Eurydice greater weight. [[Margaret Atwood]]'s ''Orpheus and Eurydice Cycle'' (1976–1986) deals with the myth, and gives Eurydice a more prominent voice. [[Sarah Ruhl]]'s ''[[Eurydice (Ruhl play)|Eurydice]]'' likewise presents the story of Orpheus's descent to the underworld from Eurydice's perspective. Ruhl removes Orpheus from the center of the story by pairing their romantic love with the paternal love of Eurydice's dead father.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/theater/reviews/19seco.html|first=Charles|last=Isherwood|work=[[The New York Times]]|author-link=Charles Isherwood|date=2007-06-19|title=The Power of Memory to Triumph Over Death}}</ref> [[David Almond]]'s 2014 novel ''[[A Song for Ella Grey]]'' was inspired by the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, and won the [[Guardian Children's Fiction Prize]] in 2015.<ref>{{Cite news|author=<!--Not stated-->|date=2015-11-19|title=David Almond wins Guardian children's fiction prize|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/nov/19/david-almond-wins-guardian-childrens-fiction-prize|access-date=2020-11-24|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
===Film and stage===
[[File:Muerte de OrfeoGarciaVega.jpg|thumb|upright|''Death of Orpheus'' by Mexican artist [[Antonio García Vega]]]]
[[Vinicius de Moraes]]’s play {{lang|pt|[[Orfeu da Conceição]]}} (1956), later adapted by [[Marcel Camus]] in the 1959 film ''[[Black Orpheus]]'', tells the story in the modern context of a [[favela]] in [[Rio de Janeiro]] during [[Brazilian Carnival|Carnaval]]. [[Jean Cocteau]]'s [[Orphic Trilogy]] – ''[[The Blood of a Poet]]'' (1930), [[Orpheus (film)|''Orpheus'']] (1950) and ''[[Testament of Orpheus]]'' (1959) – was filmed over thirty years, and is based in many ways on the story. [[Philip Glass]] adapted [[Orpheus (film)|the second film]] into the [[chamber opera]] {{lang|fr|[[Philip Glass#Cocteau trilogy and symphonies|Orphée]]}} (1991), part of an homage [[triptych]] to Cocteau. [[Anaïs Mitchell]]'s 2010 folk opera musical ''[[Hadestown]]'' retells the tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice with a score inspired by American blues and jazz, portraying [[Hades]] as the brutal work-boss of an underground mining city. Mitchell, together with director [[Rachel Chavkin]], later adapted her album into a multiple Tony award-winning [[Hadestown (musical)|stage musical]].
==See also==
* [[Katabasis]]
* [[List of Orphean operas]]
* [[Pierian Spring]]
==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==
* Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheke]]'' I, iii, 2; ix, 16 & 25;
* [[Apollonius Rhodius]], ''[[Argonautica]]'' I, 23–34; IV, 891–909.
* Bernabé, Alberto (1996), ''Poetae epici Graeci: Testimonia et fragmenta, Pars I'', [[Bibliotheca Teubneriana]], Stuttgart and Leipzig, Teubner, 1996. {{ISBN|978-3-815-41706-5}}. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110936995 Online version at De Gruyter].
* Bernabé, Alberto (2005), ''Poetae epici Graeci: Testimonia et fragmenta, Pars II: Orphicorum et Orphicis similium testimonia et fragmenta, Fasc 2'', [[Bibliotheca Teubneriana]], Munich and Leipzig, K. G. Saur Verlag, 2005. {{ISBN|978-3-598-71708-6}}. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110918915 Online version at De Gruyter].
* [[Kathleen Freeman (classicist)|Freeman, Kathleen]] (1946), ''The Pre-Socratic Philosophers: Companion to Diels, Fragmente Der Vorsokratiker'', Oxford: [[Basil Blackwell]], 1946. [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.219050/page/n5/mode/2up Internet Archive].
* [[Kathleen Freeman (classicist)|Freeman, Kathleen]] (1948), ''Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers: A Complete Translation of the Fragments in Diels, Fragmente Der Vorsokratiker'', Oxford: [[Basil Blackwell]], 1948. [https://archive.org/details/ancilla-to-the-pre-socratics-freeman/mode/2up Internet Archive].
* [[Timothy Gantz|Gantz, Timothy]], ''Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5360-9}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5362-3}} (Vol. 2).
* Garezou, Maria-Xeni, "Orpheus", in ''[[Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae]] (LIMC). VII.1: Oidipous – Theseus'', Zurich and Munich, Artemis Verlag, 1994. {{ISBN|3760887511}}. [https://archive.org/details/limc_20210516/Lexicon%20Iconographicum%20Mythologiae%20Classicae/LIMC%20VII-1%20Oidipous-Theseus/mode/2up Internet Archive].
* [[W. K. C. Guthrie|Guthrie, William Keith Chambers]], ''Orpheus and Greek Religion: a Study of the Orphic Movement'', 1935.
* {{cite book | last=Kerenyi | first=Karl | author-link=Károly Kerényi | title=The Heroes of the Greeks | publisher=Thames and Hudson | ___location=New York/London | year=1959 }}
* [[Clifford Herschel Moore|Moore, Clifford H.]], ''Religious Thought of the Greeks'', 1916. Kessinger Publishing (April 2003). {{ISBN|978-0-7661-5130-7}}
* [[Margaret Fuller|Ossoli, Margaret Fuller]], ''Orpheus'', a sonnet about his trip to the underworld.
* [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' X, 1–105; XI, 1–66;
* [[Pindar]], ''Olympian Odes. Pythian Odes'', edited and translated by William H. Race, [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 56, Cambridge, Massachusetts, [[Harvard University Press]], 1997. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99564-2}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL056/1997/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* [[Pindar]], ''Nemean Odes. Isthmian Odes. Fragments'', Edited and translated by William H. Race. [[Loeb Classical Library]] No. 485. Cambridge, Massachusetts: [[Harvard University Press]], 1997. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99534-5}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL485/1997/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
* Christoph Riedweg, "Orfeo", in: S. Settis (a cura di), ''I Greci: Storia Cultura Arte Società'', volume II, 1, Turin 1996, 1251–1280.
* Christoph Riedweg, "Orpheus oder die Magie der musiké. Antike Variationen eines einflussreichen Mythos", in: Th. Fuhrer / P. Michel / P. Stotz (Hgg.), ''Geschichten und ihre Geschichte'', Basel 2004, 37–66.
* {{cite book|last=Segal|first=Charles|title=Orpheus : The Myth of the Poet|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|___location=Baltimore|year=1989|isbn=0-8018-3708-1}}
* [[William Smith (lexicographer)|Smith, William]]; ''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]'', London (1873). [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DO%3Aentry+group%3D8%3Aentry%3Dorpheus-bio-1 "Orpheus" ]
* [[Martin Litchfield West|West, Martin L.]], ''The Orphic Poems'', 1983. There is a sub-thesis in this work that early Greek religion was heavily influenced by Central Asian shamanistic practices. One major point of contact was the ancient Crimean city of [[Olbia]].
* Wise, R. Todd, ''A Neocomparative Examination of the Orpheus Myth As Found in the Native American and European Traditions'', 1998. UMI. The thesis explores Orpheus as a single mythic structure present in traditions that extend from antiquity to contemporary times and across cultural contexts.
* Wroe, Ann, ''Orpheus: The Song of Life'', The Overlook Press, New York, 2012.
==External links==
{{commons category|Orpheus}}
{{wikisourcelang|el|Ορφεύς|Ὀρφεύς}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.maicar.com/GML/Orpheus.html Greek Mythology Link, Orpheus]
* [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/category/vpc-taxonomy-000108 The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Orpheus)]
* ''[https://archive.org/details/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft Orphicorum fragmenta]'', [[Otto Kern]] (ed.), Berolini apud Weidmannos, 1922.
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Orpheus|author=Freese, John Henry|volume=20|pages=327–329}}
{{Orpheus and Eurydice}}
{{Greek religion}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Orpheus| ]]
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