ORPHISM

Priests with their beggar-cups and itinerant soothsayers come to the doors of the rich, talking up the powers they claim to have gotten from the gods and their skills at sacrifice (thusia) and incantation (epaôdê). They declare that if a man — or any of his ancestors — has committed a misdeed, it can be atoned for by entirely pleasurable festivals. Or else, if a man has an enemy, whether justly or not, he only needs to pay a small fee to make his enemy suffer injury — all because these seedy characters claim knowledge of charms (epagôgai) and curses (katadesmoi) that constrain the gods themselves to do their bidding... —Plato (428-347 BCE), Republic 3564b-365a

Magic v. Religion MAGIC RELIGION coercion prayer privacy publicity marginality centrality deception/secrecy openness impiety piety

Greek Terms for Magic magos wise man, healer, purifier, cult priest, diviner, magician, quack mageia magic, deception goês charmer, diviner, sorcerer, quack goêteia spell-casting, enchantment, deception thelxis enchantment, (sexual) seduction, enslavement thaumatourgia wonder-working, miracle-working, illusionism, flimflam

Next they bring out a whole armful of books by Musaios and Orpheus, whom they call children of the Moon and the Muses. They use these in their rituals, which aim to persuade not only private individuals but whole societies that guilty deeds can be expiated and injustices forgiven. For the living, these objectives can be achieved by following a prescribed set of sacrifices interspersed with pleasant games. Nor do they neglect the dead. There are special rites for the departed that they call mysteries (teletai). These promise us deliverance from the evils of the other world; but if we disregard these rituals (thusiai), they say, terrible things await us. —Plato (428-347 BCE), Republic 3564b-365a

nekydaimones I call upon you, inhabitants of Chaos and Erebos, of the depth, of earth, watchers of heaven, of darkness, masters of things not to be seen, guardians of secrets, leaders of those beneath the earth, administrators of things which are infinite, those who wield power over earth, servants in the chasm, shudderful fighters, fearful ministers, inhabitants of dark Erebos, coercive watchers, rulers of cliffs, grievers of the heart, adverse daimons, iron-hearted ones BITHOURARA ASOUEMARA ... OTROUR MOURROUR APHLAU MANDRAROUROU SOU MARAROU, reveal concerning the matter which I am considering (add the usual).

Special Dead • ahôroi (untimely dead) • homicides • suicides • dioblêtoi (god-struck dead) • cf. Elysium < *enelysion? • deuteropotmoi (twice dead) • ataphoi (unburied dead)

Aition 1 • Zeus mates with daughter Persephone, who gives birth to Zagreus (=Dionysus). • At Hera’s instigation, Titans lure Zagreus with mirror and toys, then kill and eat him. • Athena saves heart, which Zeus swallows. • Zeus blasts Titans with thunderbolt; from ashes mankind is born, containing elements of both the soul of Zagreus and the body of the Titans. • Zeus impregnates Semele with Zagreus. • Tricked by Hera, Semele sees Zeus in his true form (thunderbolt) and is incinerated. • Zeus carries fetus of Zagreus to term in a slit within his thigh. • Zagreus descends into Hades to retrieve Semele, but is trapped there and dies. • Polyhymnus volunteers to die in Zagreus’ place; Zagreus ascends from Hades.

Aition 2 • Orpheus, son of Thracian King Oiagros and Muse Kalliope, given lyre by Apollo. • Orphic song charms both humans, animals, stones. • When wife Eurydice dies, Orpheus descends into Hades and plays for Persephone and Hades, who allow him to take Eurydice on condition that he not look at her until fully in world of living. • Orpheus violates injunction, Eurydice returns to Hades. • For rejecting Dionysus, Orpheus stoned and dismembered by Thracian Maenads. • Still singing, head floats down river into Aegean, then to Antissa on island of Lesbos. • Cephalomanteion established there, where singing head delivers oracles.

Orpheus

Cephalomanteion

Head of Orpheus

Orphic Tenets • Human soul is immortal. • Upon death, soul separated from body but condemned to “grievous cycle” of metempsychosis due to admixture of Titan corporeality. • Further punishments await souls of those who have committed wrongs in life. • Ascetic lifestyle (Orphikos bios) enjoins vegetarianism (especially abstention from eggs and beans) and chastity. • Initiation guarantees release from cycle of metempsychosis plus direct communion with gods. • Initiates buried with phylakteria or lamellae inscribed with map and instructions how to avoid rebirth, along with directions to site of blessed afterlife.

“Modern” Religious Authority epiphany/revelation founder(s) text interpretation (dogma) institutionalization clerical order laity

Derveni papyrus (ca. 340-320 BCE)

Orphic lamella

Orphic Instructions (1) This is the work of memory. When you are about to die [and enter] the well-built house of Hades, there is on the right a spring, and standing by it a white cypress. The souls of the dead go down to it and cool themselves. Do not go near this spring. Ahead you will find cold water flowing forth from the lake of memory, and there are guards at it. They will ask you, with cunning intent, what you are looking for in the darkness of murky Hades. Say: I am a son of Earth and starry Sky. I am parched with thirst, and I perish; quickly let me drink cold water from the lake of memory. Then they will speak of you to the king beneath the earth, and they will let you drink from the lake of memory. And when you have drunk, you will go along the holy road which the other glorious initiates and bakkhoi also travel, and you will rule among the heroes.

Orphic Instructions (3) But as soon as the soul has left the light of the sun, go to the right [...] being very careful of all things. "Greetings, you who have suffered the painful thing; you have never endured this before. You have become a god instead of a mortal. A kid you fell into milk. Rejoice, rejoice." Journey on the right-hand road to holy meadows and groves of Persephone.

Orphic Instructions (5) “I come from the pure, O queen of the earthly ones, Eukles, Eubouleus, and the other immortal gods. For I too claim to be of your happy race, but fate subdued me, and the other immortal gods and the thunderbolt hurling from the stars. I have taken flight away from the toilsome circle with its weight of grief, I have attained with swift feet the desired crown. I have sunk beneath the lap of the Lady, the queen of the earth, I have attained with swift feet the desired crown.” "Happy and blessed one, you will be a god instead of mortal." A kid, I fell into milk.

Orphic Instructions (26a,b) Now you have died and now you have come into being, O thrice happy one, on this same day. Tell Persephone that the Bacchic One himself released you. Bull, you jumped into milk. Quickly, you jumped into milk. Ram, you fell into milk. You have wine as your fortunate honor. And below the earth there are ready for you the same prizes as for the other blessed ones. (27) Passwords: andrikepaidothurson [man-and-child-thyrsus], andrikepaidothurson, Brimo, Brimo. Enter the holy meadow, for the initiate is without penalty. [Written upside down:] GAPEDON [Plot of Land].

Fayyum Portrait (1st cent. BCE)

Afterlives The Egyptians were also the first to advance the theory that the human soul is immortal, and that when the body perishes it enters into another living creature that comes into being at that moment; and when it has gone around all the land animals and all the sea animals and all the birds, it again enters into the body of a man who is coming into being; and this circumambulation goes on for three thousand years. Some of the Greeks adopted this theory — some earlier, some later as though it were their own. I know their names, but I don't write them down. —Herodotus 2.123

Fayyum Portrait (1st cent. BCE)