Orphism in Religion: Origins and Doctrines

The Orphism (Ancient Greek: Ὀρφικοί Orphikoí) was a religious movement of antiquity that spread from the 6th or 5th century BCE or even earlier in Greece, in Greek-settled southern Italy, and along the northern coast of the Black Sea. They referred to the mythical singer and poet Orpheus as the originator of their teachings and the author of significant Orphic texts. Their endeavor was to prepare for the soul’s expected continuation after the body’s death. However, Orphism was not a unified religious community with a coherent doctrine but rather a variety of autonomous groups.

Origins and Early Times

Orphism likely originated from Thrace, which was considered the homeland of Orpheus and viewed as a land of barbarians by the Greeks. It spread in Greece – with focal points in northern Greece and Crete – in areas colonized by Greek settlers in southern Italy and along the Greek-settled Black Sea coast. Orphic ideas are clearly attested only in the 5th century BCE, but their beginnings may lie much earlier.

The explanatory approaches for the origin and early development discussed in the research are speculative. The relationship between Orphism and related phenomena within Greek religion, such as Pythagoreanism, the Eleusinian Mysteries, various forms of Dionysian cults, and the religious philosophy of the pre-Socratic philosopher Empedocles, is particularly unclear. In the 5th century BCE, Herodotus reported on the prohibition of burial in woolen clothing, a burial regulation referred to as Bacchic (Dionysian) and Orphic. Empedocles, also living in the 5th century BCE, seems to have considered himself an Orphic; according to a research hypothesis, his poetry not only drew on Orphic ideas in content but also formally leaned on an Orphic model.

Some goals and beliefs were shared by the Orphics and the Pythagoreans, a religious community founded by Pythagoras in the 6th century BCE in southern Italy. The writer and poet Ion of Chios (5th century BCE) claimed that Pythagoras attributed poems he wrote himself to Orpheus. According to later reports, Pythagoreans living in Italy were among the authors of Orphic literature. The mutual influence between the Orphics and Pythagoreans is likely.

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Corresponding hypotheses have long been debated in research, but the unfavorable scarcity of sources does not allow for definitive statements, as clear evidence is lacking. However, the available reports indicate that the early Orphics were a protest and reform movement that elitistically separated itself from popular religion and therefore was viewed skeptically by its environment. Unlike the Pythagoreans, no political objectives are discernible among the Orphics.

Orpheus, the alleged originator of Orphism, was already counted among the Argonauts in the 6th century BCE, dating back a generation before the Trojan War. Whether there was a real historical model for this mythical figure and whether the Orpheus saga has a historical core is unknown. Opinions in research differ on this matter.

Orphic Writings

The extensive book production of the Orphics, attested as early as the 5th century BCE, continued until late antiquity. Characteristics of the Orphics are, on the one hand, their high esteem for their books and, on the other hand, the fact that they apparently did not permanently fix their instructional texts in a specific version as binding but continually reformulated and interpreted them anew. They mainly consist of mythical descriptions of cosmogony (the origin of the universe) and hymns.

The Orphic poetry, the literature of the Orphics in verse form, whose author was usually considered to be Orpheus himself, is largely lost. A number of poems are fully preserved, while another part of Orphic poetry is only fragmentarily preserved or known from summaries, with only the titles of some works surviving. The Suda, a Byzantine encyclopedia, lists a number of titles, likely originating from a lost treatise on Orphic poetry written by the grammarian Epigenes during the Hellenistic period. The meter of Orphic poetry is always the hexameter.

A collection of Orphic hymns is fully preserved. These are 87 poems varying in length from six to thirty verses, in which Orpheus, as a fictional author, glorifies the deities revered by the Orphics. These poems were probably created in the 2nd century for a cult community in Asia Minor, perhaps based on older material.

Only fragmentarily preserved or known from content summaries are the following poems:

• The ancient Orphic “Theogony,” a poem dealing with the origin of the cosmos, the gods, and humans. The Peripatetic Eudemos of Rhodes, who lived in the 4th century BCE, is said to have composed a summary of its content. The late ancient Neoplatonic philosopher Damascius, who outlines several variants of the myth, refers to him.
• The “Sacred Speeches (hieroí lógoi) in 24 Rhapsodies.” They also describe the mythical prehistory of the cosmos. 176 fragments are preserved. The dating for the shape of the text from which the preserved fragments come varies between the late 2nd century BCE and the 2nd century CE. The lost original version probably originated in the early days of Orphism.
• Known only from quotations are a hymn to Zeus, quoted by the Neoplatonist Porphyry, and one to Dionysus, repeatedly referenced by the late antique scholar Macrobius in his “Saturnalia.” In the 2nd century, the writer Pausanias reported on hymnic songs that Orpheus had composed and that were sung by the Lycomids, members of an Athenian priestly family, during their cultic rituals. Pausanias believed that the hymns of Orpheus were surpassed in beauty only by those of Homer.
• The “Orphic Argonautica” (Orphéōs Argōnautiká, “The Argonautic Expedition of Orpheus”) is a late antique poem of 1376 hexameters. In this version of the Argonaut saga, Orpheus recounts the journey of the Argonauts. He plays a significant role in the band of heroes who embark on an adventurous voyage aboard the ship Argo to seize the Golden Fleece. Although Orpheus is already of advanced age, the undertaking could not succeed without him. The Argonauts set sail from their Greek homeland and initially headed to Colchis on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, where they acquired the Fleece. On the return journey, they reach the far north of the Eurasian mainland via the River Tanais (Don). There, they reach the Okeanos, the river that flows around the inhabited world in a ring. They then turn westward and sail around northern and then western Europe; the journey home leads through the Strait of Gibraltar.

The Derveni Papyrus, a scroll discovered in 1962 in tomb A of the Derveni Graves near Thessaloniki, contains fragments of a commentary on an otherwise unknown version of the Orphic creation myth, from which the commentator quotes individual verses that he interprets allegorically. In this version, Zeus plays the main role as the creator. The commentator strongly distances himself from a superficial, literal understanding of the text, which he deems misguided from his perspective. The papyrus was inscribed in the 4th century BCE, the commentary dates from the late 5th or early 4th century BCE, and the commented poem is likely even older.

Among the lost writings are the “Oracles” (chrēsmoí), the “Initiations” (teletaí), the “Mixing Bowls” (kratḗres), the “Robe” (péplos), the “Net” (díktyon), the “Physics” (physiká, concerning cosmology), and the “Astrology” (astrologiká).

Teachings

The Orphics’ primary focus was on the origins of the cosmos, the divine world, humanity, and the fate of the soul after death. Their mythical and poetic manner of thought and expression meant that their teachings were not fixed and dogmatized in a clear, definitive form but retained a fluctuating character and were subject to different interpretations.

Cosmology

In the oldest known version of Orphic cosmogony (theory of the origin of the world), recorded by Eudemus of Rhodes, the night is made the beginning of all things. According to ancient Orphic poetry, the creation process spans six generations, as indicated by a quote from Plato, stating that Orpheus “ends the order of song” with the sixth generation.

Another group of versions offers various variations of a divergent tradition of the myth. One of these is the version reproduced by Damascius from the “Sacred Discourses in 24 Rhapsodies,” hence referred to as the “rhapsodic cosmogony” of the Orphics. In this branch of tradition, time (Chronos) appears as the principle that forms the origin of everything. Chronos initially brings forth two principles, Aether and Chaos. The second phase of cosmic history begins with the emergence of the silvery gleaming cosmic egg, which Chronos creates in Aether. From the cosmic egg, the winged light god Phanes is born. Phanes is a major deity of the Orphics; outside Orphic circles, he does not seem to have been worshipped. In late antiquity, and perhaps even in early Orphism, he was equated with Eros. His companion is Nyx, the night; he entrusts her with his scepter. Nyx gives birth to the god Uranus, who then rules the world.

This is the third phase. Uranus is overthrown by his son Cronus; this change of power marks the fourth phase. Zeus follows Cronus, whose rule constitutes the fifth phase. Zeus devours Phanes, thereby appropriating all his power and might. With his mother, he begets the daughter Persephone, and with Persephone, the son Dionysus. Later, Zeus relinquishes power to the still-young Dionysus, marking the beginning of the sixth phase. Hera, Zeus’s jealous wife, incites the Titans against Dionysus. The Titans lure Dionysus into a trap, kill him, and dismember him. They then cook his corpse and begin to consume it, thereby absorbing some of his essence. However, Zeus surprises the murderers and burns them to ashes with his lightning bolt. From the ashes, which mix the Titanic with the Dionysian, smoke rises and soot forms; Zeus creates the human race from it. Thus, one version of the myth explains the ambivalence of human nature, which exhibits two opposing tendencies: on the one hand, a destructive, titanic impulse that incites rebellion against divine order, and on the other hand, a Dionysian element that leads to the divine. Apollo gathers the pieces of Dionysus’ corpse, while Athena brings his intact heart to Zeus, who then resurrects the slain.

Another version, recounted by Damascius with reference to two authors named Hieronymos and Hellanicus, suggests that initially, there were two principles: water as the principle of dispersion and earth as the principle of conglomeration. From them emerged, as a third principle, a dragon bearing the name of the eternal Chronos (Time) and of Heracles. This being has wings on its shoulders and is three-headed; in addition to a bull and a lion head, it has a divine one in the middle. Its companion is Ananke, the universal necessity. Chronos is the father of Aether and Chaos. Later, Chronos generates the cosmic egg from Aether, Chaos, and Erebus (darkness). According to another variant of this version of the myth, preserved by the Christian apologist Athenagoras of Athens, water was the sole original principle; from it, the element of earth formed as mud. According to Athenagoras, the cosmic egg split into two parts; the upper part became the sky, and the lower part became the earth.

Doctrine of the Soul

Even in the Homeric epics, the notion is found that there is an animating principle in human and animal existence, the presence of which is a prerequisite for life and which survives the death of the body. According to the beliefs transmitted by Homer, this entity, the “soul” (Greek: psychḗ), separates from the body upon death and moves into the underworld as its shadowy image. The poet assumes that the posthumous existence of the soul is unpleasant; he has it lament its fate.

The Orphics shared the conventional belief that there is a soul that animates the body and does not die with it but leaves the corpse. They connected this concept with the idea of reincarnation, which suggests that the soul enters different bodies successively and thus undergoes multiple lives. By attributing an independent existence to the soul even before the body’s formation, the Orphics abandoned the assumption of a natural bond between the soul and a specific body. Thus, the soul acquired a previously unknown autonomy. Its connection with a body no longer appeared as a requirement of its nature but as a mere episode in its existence. It was now considered not only immortal but also based on a foundation entirely independent of the perishable world of bodies. Consequently, it was attributed to a naturally given divine or godlike nature and corresponding original freedom.

Contrasting with these assumptions about the nature of the soul is its earthly existence and its connection with the perishable body into which it enters from the outside according to Orphic teaching. As a result, it comes into contact with suffering and mortality and must undergo corresponding experiences. Such a mode of existence, from the Orphic perspective, does not correspond to the soul’s natural destiny but is merely a temporary condition desired by the gods. Therefore, as Plato attests, the Orphics referred to the body as the prison of the soul imprisoned within it.

According to the Orphic belief, after the death of the body it inhabited, the soul cannot simply return to its afterlife home; rather, it must once again unite with a body. Thus, the cycle of successive lives and deaths, the transmigration of souls, occurs. The cause of this is transgressions that must be atoned for, leading the soul to be compelled to remain in the cycle. The nature of these transgressions is not clearly stated in the sparse information provided by the sources. In any case, according to the Orphic worldview, this state does not have to last forever. Rather, the soul can permanently leave the world of bodies by following a specific path of redemption. The goal is a permanent, blissful existence in its homeland, the afterlife. This corresponds to its actual, original nature, which is divine or godlike. The Orphics believed that the soul could be redeemed, thus advocating a fundamentally optimistic worldview that fundamentally differs from the traditional, fundamentally pessimistic view of the Greeks as reflected in Homeric poetry.

According to Orphic teaching, humanity owes the necessary instruction on how to free itself from the misery of earthly existence to Orpheus. According to legend, he descended into the underworld to find his deceased wife, Eurydice and led her back to the world of the living. Indeed, he received permission from the gods there to take her with him, but the joint ascent failed, and Eurydice had to return. Nevertheless, Orpheus, as a living person, had entered the realm of the dead and returned from there. This made him, from the perspective of the Orphics, an authority who could provide information about the world of the dead and possessed religious knowledge that enabled the redemption of the soul. Thus, in Orphism, he assumed the role of the founder of religion.

Lifestyle

Formation of Communities

The extent of the institutionalization of Orphism as a religion is disputed in research. The “minimalist” interpretation of the sources (Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Ivan M. Linforth, Martin L. West, among others) states that there was never an orphic religion as a shared belief of a community with a cult and corresponding rites. Therefore, one cannot speak of “Orphics” in the sense of followers of a specific religion, but this term should only be used to denote the authors of Orphic writings.

A newer variant of the minimalist approach suggests that Orphism was nothing more than “the fashion of referring to Orpheus”. The opposite position finds support in recent findings. It argues that Orphism was indeed characterized by a specific worldview and that communities of Orphics organized themselves, devoting themselves to ritual practices based on Orpheus, which were intended to lead them to a better existence after death. It is now considered plausible that while there was no uniform religion, there were local associations of individuals who shared a core set of religious beliefs.

Some indications suggest that Orphism primarily gained traction in the upper class and that the proportion of women was high.

Codes of Conduct

The Pythagoreans were known for their distinctive, strictly observed way of life, characterized by dietary rules and ethical principles. Plato attests to the existence of Orphic rules of life as well; he mentions a past where these rules were generally followed. Like the Pythagoreans – at least in their inner circle – the Orphics also adhered to an ethically motivated vegetarianism, which was linked to the doctrine of metempsychosis and the consequent higher valuation of the worth of animal life. Food derived from dead animal bodies was as much frowned upon as the animal sacrifices customary in Greek popular religion.

Bloody sacrifices and meat consumption led to the loss of ritual purity. It is largely unknown to what extent the Orphics followed specific ethical norms beyond the general prohibition of shedding blood and whether they considered this a necessary condition for the redemption they sought. Their dietary restrictions were based not only on the prohibition of killing but also on their cosmogony; the prohibition, as transmitted by Plutarch, of eating eggs was related to the mythical concept of the Cosmic Egg. However, the egg taboo, first attested late, might not have existed in the early period. There was no general prohibition of alcohol, at least in the early period.

It is unclear to what extent membership in an Orphic community was considered a prerequisite for following an Orphic path to redemption. However, ritual purification was regarded as an essential condition for the redemption of the soul. The itinerant Orphics, who offered purification for a fee, were probably a degeneration of the Orphic movement.

Archaeological Evidence

Orphism, in modern research, is associated with a custom related to burial. Inscribed gold leaves or bone tablets were placed in graves. This custom is archaeologically attested from the 5th or 4th century BC to the 3rd century AD; most texts date from the 4th century BC. The gold leaves are thin foils, referred to in research literature since 1915 as Lamellae orphicae. The inscriptions are Greek texts providing guidance, slogans, and sometimes detailed instructions intended to orient the soul of the deceased in its afterlife and to secure divine favor.

The blanket denial of an orphic background has proven to be false, but an undifferentiated assignment of finds to the Orphic movement has also met with criticism. According to current research, the hypothesis that these are Orphic texts is relatively plausible. Whether the ideas originally stemmed solely from Orphism and to what extent the influences of various religious currents mingled are unclear. Some finds indicate that certain tablets belong to the context of a Dionysian mystery cult. Apparently, the deceased were members of a cult community devoted to the worship of the god Bacchus (Dionysus).

In some texts, the deceased is the speaker. They address the gods and express their desire to remain in the realm of the immortals in the future. In other texts, the deceased is addressed. They receive instructions for their journey or are praised as fortunate (blessing, makarismos), as their death as a human has enabled them to be reborn as a divine being. Statements and hints such as “Life – Death – Life” or “Now you have died and now you have become, thrice blessed, on this day” present death as a passage to new life. Assertions like “You will be a god instead of a mortal” or words addressed to the immortal gods, “Yes, I also boast of being of your blessed lineage,” testify to the optimism and self-confidence of the authors, who considered the purified soul to be godlike.

A special case is a find published in 1978 from Olbia on the northern coast of the Black Sea. This is not a grave but tablets (bone tablets) were apparently used for a cultic purpose. The term “Orphics” in the text explicitly establishes a connection to Orphism, from which the existence of an Orphic community in Olbia can be inferred. This find is the oldest archaeological evidence of Orphic activity; the tablets date from the 5th century BC.

Orpheus

Orpheus is considered the founder of Orphism. He embodies both the Apollonian and Dionysian elements: as an Apollonian figure, he is the son or ward of the god Apollo, who protects his remains; he is a cultural hero, benefactor of mankind, promoter of the human arts, and religious teacher; as a Dionysian figure, he enjoys a sympathetic relationship with the natural world, an intimate understanding of the cycle of decay and regeneration of nature; he possesses intuitive knowledge; and his story bears evident analogies with the figure of Dionysus for the rescue from the Underworld of Kore (“maiden”, an attribute of Persephone but in this case referring to Eurydice for Orpheus and to the mother Semele for Dionysus).

Orpheus masters the wild nature, and the monsters, and can even defeat death temporarily (although in the most famous versions, he is ultimately defeated by losing the person he was supposed to save, unlike Heracles, Demeter, and Dionysus). Instructed by the Muses (including his mother Calliope) and by his uncle (or father) Apollo, he is the greatest musician, through his lyre; after taking part in the expedition of the Argonauts, he tries to bring his wife Eurydice back to life, persuading Hades and Persephone with his music, but fails for having turned to look at her before the exit (breaking the imposed condition); he decides to abandon love and the Dionysian cult, to dedicate himself to music and religious preaching (for others also to homoeroticism); for this reason, he is later killed by a group of Maenads, women followers of Dionysus. His lyre is placed among the stars, his body is dismembered like that of Dionysus by the Titans, and his head (which continues to sing) is carried by the river and guarded and then buried by Apollo, the Muses, or the nymphs, while his soul is reunited with Eurydice, not in the underworld but in a blessed afterlife.

Venerated Deities

The main Orphic religious figures, venerated through ethical life, are three deity daughters of Zeus: Apollo, Dionysus, and his mother Persephone (also the daughter of Zeus); and indeed, as mentioned, the Apollonian and the Dionysian are combined in Orphism.

Orphism spread in the Roman world after the prohibition of the Bacchanalia; Ovid and Virgil speak of Orpheus and Orphic doctrines (the Greek deities become the Roman ones of Jupiter, Apollo, Bacchus (Liber), and Proserpina) in the Metamorphoses, in the Georgics, and in the Aeneid.

Orphic Cosmogonies, Theogonies, and Anthropogonies

The Orphic tradition, like the Greek mythological one, is not arranged according to a unified model resulting from a theological system but rather as a set of variants. Thus, in the History of Theology, a lost text by Eudemus of Rhodes, a pupil of Aristotle, various theogonies, such as those of Homer, Hesiod, Orpheus, Acusilaus, Epimenides, and Pherecydes, but also non-Greek ones like the Babylonian, Persian, and Phoenician ones, were collected, demonstrating the presence of various theogonic and cosmogonic traditions that crossed the Greek world.

A “parodic” cosmogony and theogony, but of Orphic derivation, is found in Aristophanes (5th–4th century BC) in the Birds (vv. 693–702). This passage is considered the oldest text attributable to Orphism; “it synthetically reproduces the oldest written form of the Orphic Theogonies, also evoked by Plato, Aristotle, and transmitted by Eudemus.”

In 1962, a papyrus scroll was found inside a Macedonian tomb located in Derveni (near Thessaloniki), dated to the 4th century BC. Although semi-carbonized, part of the content of the papyrus has been recovered: it contains a commentary on an Orphic theogony and perhaps on the work of Heraclitus.

The Derveni text coincides in many contents with another one, present in the treatise entitled On the World (Peri Kosmou), dated to the first half of the 1st century BC and attributed to [pseudo]-Aristotle. A fragment, which recalls Eudemus of Rhodes (4th century BC), takes up the night as the origin of all things. Another Orphic theogony is attributed to Hieronymus and Ellanicus, of uncertain dating, and which is reported in the most exhaustive way by Damascius in the 6th century AD, where Time (Chronos) (not to be confused with Cronos) generates the egg, and from it is born a being with both feminine and masculine aspects, with golden wings, bull’s heads on the sides, and a huge serpent on the head. This being contained within itself all the seeds of future creatures. The name of this being born from the egg was Phanes (Protogonus), also called Zeus or Pan (Πάν). Another Orphic theogony emerges from the Sacred Discourses (hieroi logoi, in twenty-four rhapsodies also called Rhapsodic Theogony), of which several Neoplatonic authors report some passages attributed to Orpheus, but probably the result of a re-elaboration of archaic material that took place between the 1st and the 2nd century AD.

Overall, these theogonies present a beginning characterized by a perfect sphere in the Cosmic Night, then, subsequently, still a totality represented by Phanes (Light, “I come to Light”) androgynous and with golden wings, complete in itself, however with irregular features, and finally, from this still perfect unity, a series of events lead to processes of differentiation. Thus, Zeus emerges, in whom everything is absorbed and regenerated anew for a second procession, from which Dionysus emerges, who, however, due to a plot by Hera, Zeus’ wife, will be devoured by the Titans. Zeus, angered, hurls lightning against them; from the soot caused by the combustion of the Titans, men arise composed of the matter of this, mixed with the Dionysian part resulting from their banquet.

In Orphism, the origin of things takes root in the Night and in the Primordial Egg which represents unity, the microcosm. The hatching of the egg degrades the unity of being and imposes that its dismemberment into multiple elements is accompanied by a search for the recomposition of unity. This return to the original state of purity, present only at birth, is reflected in the advent of the Orphic Dionysus, who regains the lost state of purity only in the sixth generation.

Zagreus Dionysus

In anthropology, Dionysus represents the myth of the “resurrection of the slain God.” The Orphic religious version of the coming into the world of Dionysus renames the god with the name Zagreus. According to Ovid, Zagreus (Ζαγρεύς) is the son that Hades, in the form of a serpent, had from his wife Persephone (or, according to other versions, born from Persephone and father Zeus). This name appears for the first time in the poem from the 6th century BC, Alcmenaide, in which it is said: Venerable Mistress and Zagreus, you who are above all the gods. According to Diodorus Siculus, the Cretans considered Dionysus the son of Hades or Zeus and Persephone and their fellow countrymen. In fact, Dionysus’ epithets in Crete were Cretogenes, Chthonic, as the son of the queen of the underworld, and indeed Zagreus.

According to this myth, Zeus had decided to make Zagreus his successor in the dominion of the world, thus provoking the wrath of his wife Hera. Zeus had entrusted Zagreus to the Curetes to be raised. Then Hera turned to the Titans, who lured the little Zagreus by offering him games, kidnapped him, tore him to pieces, and devoured his flesh. The remaining parts of Zagreus’ body were collected by Apollo, who buried them on Mount Parnassus; Athena instead found the still-beaten heart of the child and brought it to Zeus.

According to the different versions:

• Zeus would have eaten the heart of Zagreus, then he would have united with Semele and she would have given birth to Dionysus.
• Zeus would have made Semele eat the heart of Zagreus who would have given the devoured god a second life, thus generating Dionysus.

In anthropology, Dionysus represents the myth of the “resurrection of the slain God.” The Orphic religious version of the coming into the world of Dionysus renames the god with the name Zagreus. According to Ovid, Zagreus (Ζαγρεύς) is the son that Hades, in the form of a serpent, had from his wife Persephone (or, according to other versions, born from Persephone and father Zeus). This name appears for the first time in the poem from the 6th century BC, Alcmenaide, in which it is said: Venerable Mistress and Zagreus, you who are above all the gods. According to Diodorus Siculus, the Cretans considered Dionysus the son of Hades or Zeus and Persephone and their fellow countrymen. In fact, Dionysus’ epithets in Crete were Cretogenes, Chthonic, as the son of the queen of the underworld, and indeed Zagreus.

According to this myth, Zeus had decided to make Zagreus his successor in the dominion of the world, thus provoking the wrath of his wife Hera. Zeus had entrusted Zagreus to the Curetes to be raised. Then Hera turned to the Titans, who lured the little Zagreus by offering him games, kidnapped him, tore him to pieces, and devoured his flesh. The remaining parts of Zagreus’ body were collected by Apollo, who buried them on Mount Parnassus; Athena instead found the still-beaten heart of the child and brought it to Zeus.

Orphic Salvation and the Orphic Way of Life

According to Orphic anthropogony, humanity originates from the remains of the Titans struck down by Zeus, guilty of having torn apart the god Dionysus. This myth is at the foundation of the duality between body and soul introduced by Orphism: Dionysus is the soul (tendentially linked to good), while the Titans are the body (tendentially linked to evil) that needs purification.

The value of the immortal soul compared to the value of the body that imprisons it brings about a new paradigm regarding the values of human existence. However, death itself does not bring about the liberation of the immortal soul. According to Orphic doctrines, it is destined to be reborn periodically (doctrine of reincarnation or metempsychosis). Such liberation could be achieved, according to the Orphics, by following a “pure life,” the “Orphic way of life” (bios orphikos Ὀρφικὸς βίος) dictated by a series of non-negotiable rules, the main one of which consists of abstaining from killings, resulting in the rejection of sacrificial worship, implying a diet based on vegetables.

Considering the rejection of animal sacrifice and the consequent vegetarian diet, the only act of divine service for the Orphics, as for the Pythagoreans, remains the offering of incense, prayers, and sometimes asceticism; there is also the refusal to eat beans (again like in Pythagoreanism) and eggs, and to drink wine, or rather, to get drunk.

Reception

Assessments by Ancient Poets and Philosophers

The oldest surviving depictions of Orphic behaviors by outsiders reveal disdain. There are two instances in Euripides and Plato, which are also the earliest evidence for the existence of Orphic literature. In Euripides’ tragedy “Hippolytus,”  performed in 428 BC, Theseus accuses his son Hippolytus of being a hypocrite, boasting about his vegetarianism, pretending to be one of the initiated and chosen of the gods, and honoring the “smoke of many writings” in the service of Orpheus. In the 4th century BC, Plato described the activities of charlatans who possessed quantities of books attributed to Orpheus and the mythical poet Musaeus.

These contained their sacrificial rites and dedications. For payment, they offered their services to the wealthy and even managed to persuade entire cities. They boasted of their special relationship with the gods and their magical abilities, claiming that through the ritual actions they advocated, one could obtain atonement for crimes committed. This would free them from the impending evils of the afterlife. Even the already deceased could be spared punishment for their misdeeds through this method. However, it cannot be inferred from Plato’s drastic description of such activities that he rejected Orphism entirely. Rather, he assimilated Orphic ideas for his own purposes and used them in modified form to illustrate or support his philosophical arguments.

Apparently, the poet Aristophanes alluded to Orphic cosmogony in his comedy “The Birds,”  performed in 414 BC, where he has the bird chorus recount a myth of world creation. With his verses, he parodied already familiar mythical concepts, which he apparently assumed were well-known to a broad audience. Aristophanes likely blended Hesiodic with Orphic cosmogony.

In the 4th century BC, the Athenian historian Androtion argued that the “Orphic” writings could not be authentic because Orpheus, as a Thracian barbarian, was not literate. Aristotle also considered the writings attributed to Orpheus to be spurious; he even suggested, as Cicero attests, that the mythical poet and singer never existed and that he was a fictional character. Aristotle rejected the Orphic doctrine of the soul. The historian Diodorus (1st century BC) shares a tradition according to which Orpheus was in Egypt and acquired his religious knowledge there; then he transplanted the Egyptian tradition to Greece.

In the Roman imperial period, the Middle Platonist Plutarch offered a philosophical-theological interpretation of the Orphic texts, which diverged significantly from their literal meaning. The tendency towards such interpretation was further strengthened later in Neoplatonism, where Orpheus was primarily regarded as a theologian. Late ancient Neoplatonists were familiar with and esteemed the “Sacred Discourses in 24 Rhapsodies.” Iamblichus stated in his work “On the Pythagorean Life” that Pythagoras had acquired his theological knowledge from the Orphics.

Syrianus wrote a treatise “On the Theology of Orpheus” and an exposition of the agreement between Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Plato regarding the oracles in ten books. Syrianus’ famous pupil, Proclus, engaged with his teacher’s explanations of Orphism and wrote records about it. He ultimately traced all theological knowledge of the Greeks back to Orpheus and practiced Orphic purification rites himself. Damascius, the last head of the Neoplatonic philosophical school in Athens, referred to the “Sacred Discourses” as the version of the Orphic creation story that was commonly known at his time. He sought to harmonize Orphic and Neoplatonic cosmologies.

Ritual Practices in the Roman Imperial Period

Traces of ritual practices that are more or less clearly connected to the Orphic tradition are found in the Roman imperial period. These include references in narrative sources, especially the account by Pausanias about hymnic songs allegedly composed by Orpheus and sung by Athenian priests from the Lycomid family during their cult rituals. The Lycomids were responsible for the Gaia sanctuary in Phlya. In addition, there are epigraphic and papyrological sources. Epigraphic material comes from Asia Minor, and papyrological material from Egypt; in Greece, only a single potentially relevant inscription has been found. Interpretation is difficult, as it is often unclear whether the information only attests to the survival of Orphic ideas in educated circles or points to an actual Orphic or Orphic-influenced cult practice. The authenticity of the poems attributed to Orpheus was disputed; apparently, the Lycomids believed that only the hymns they sang were authentic. In Rome, the Orphic cult was always perceived as foreign. A revival of interest in Orphic religiosity in the Roman Empire is clearly discernible from the 2nd century onward.

Judaism

From the Hellenistic period onwards, the Orpheus myth was taken up by Hellenized Jewish circles and integrated into the Jewish religious worldview. In this context, Orpheus appears as a pious, monotheistic sage. However, there is no evidence for the existence of an Orphic movement within Judaism.

The Jewish writer Artapanus, who lived in Alexandria in the 3rd or 2nd century BC, identified the mythical poet Musaeus, whom the Orphics considered an authority, with Moses and portrayed Orpheus as his disciple. An unknown Jewish author of the Hellenistic period, referred to in research as “Pseudo-Orpheus” and probably also active in Alexandria, wrote a poem in hexameters known under the non-authentic title “Testament of Orpheus” (diathēkai “testaments”).

Formally, he imitated an Orphic “Sacred Discourse”; it is not clear to what extent he adopted Orphic ideas. Orpheus, whom he presents as the speaker, confesses to monotheism in these verses; he regrets the error of his previous polytheism and instructs Musaeus, who appears here as his son and disciple, on cosmology. The poem received much attention; it was generally regarded by Jewish and Christian authors as an authentic work of Orpheus. Already in the 2nd century BC, it was used by the Jewish philosopher Aristobulus, who wanted to demonstrate that Orpheus, like Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, had adopted essential teachings from Moses.

Christianity

The influence of Orphism on emerging Christianity in the 1st century has not been considered plausible since André Boulanger’s groundbreaking study in 1925. In the New Testament, there is only one passage that possibly echoes an Orphic formula: “I am (…) the First and the Last” (Revelation of John 22:13). From the 2nd century onwards, individual Orphic concepts appear in Christian literature.

The assessment of Orpheus and Orphism among ancient Christian writers was ambivalent. The polytheistic Orphic mythology was sharply rejected, and Orpheus was explicitly portrayed as a fraud. However, some church fathers believed that certain aspects of the Orpheus myth and passages in Orphic literature could be useful for Christian apologetics. This especially included the Jewish legend of Orpheus’ conversion to monotheism, which found credence among Christian authors. Particularly, Clement of Alexandria utilized the legend; he quoted Pseudo-Orpheus and pointed to the alleged conversion of the famous Greek sage.

By the end of the 4th century, when the Roman Empire was already Christianized, “Orpheus,” like Homer, was included among the authors whose works were studied in schools. In the Middle Ages, although the figure of Orpheus received attention in the Latin-speaking scholarly world, Orphic literature was lost in the West.

Early Modern Period

In the 15th century, manuscripts of the Orphic hymns reached the West, and in 1500, the first edition of the hymns and the Orphic Argonautica was printed in Florence. In 1561, Joseph Justus Scaliger produced a Latin translation of the hymns.

In Renaissance humanism, Orpheus, considered a historical figure, was counted among the wise teachers of humanity and founders of religion, along with Plato, Pythagoras, and others, in accordance with the Neoplatonic tradition. He was regarded as a prominent representative of the “ancient theology” (prisca theologia). Thus, the humanists adopted a core idea of the Orphic tradition. In this sense, Marsilio Ficino, in particular, expressed himself; for him, Orpheus was a divinely inspired poet. He not only interpreted the Orphic hymns, whose authenticity he did not doubt, but also sang them. The philosopher Giovanni Pico della Mirandola stated in his famous speech “On the Dignity of Man” that in the Orphic hymns, a divine secret was hidden, a doctrine that Orpheus had presented in veiled form, as was the custom of the “ancient theologians”; he—Pico—had succeeded in discovering the concealed philosophical meaning.

In the 18th century, reports about Asian shamanism were available, which were now associated with Orpheus and the Orphic impulse in Greek cultural history. Johann Gottfried Herder considered Orpheus, whom he greatly admired, to be a shaman and attributed to him a significant role in shaping Greek civilization. In the Encyclopédie, Louis de Jaucourt described the Orphic way of life very positively in the article dedicated to it in 1765. He characterized it as virtuous and religious and described Orpheus, who founded Orphism, as the first sage and as a reformer who civilized the savages. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the view expressed by ancient authors that Orpheus was the founder of the Eleusinian Mysteries was widespread.

Modern Period

In French literature of the Romantic era, especially in poetry, there were noticeable ideas and efforts that have been termed “Orphism” (orphisme) in scholarly literature. This includes a metaphysical interpretation of the world, perceived as a puzzle and mystery, whose unraveling is the task of the poet. Orpheus appears as the prototype of the spiritually oriented, inspired poet, who is also a seer and truth-teller.

In modern research, there have been significant fluctuations in the assessment of Orphism. Regarding its relevance within Greek cultural history and its definability as a distinct and describable phenomenon, opinions have varied widely throughout the history of research. Friedrich Creuzer considered Orpheus to be a historical figure. In his 1812 study, “Symbolism and Mythology of Ancient Peoples,” he attributed an important role to Orpheus and Orphism in shaping early Greek culture.

In contrast, Christian August Lobeck, in his Aglaophamus, published in 1829, took a critical view of the source material. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a strong research direction (Erwin Rohde, Albrecht Dieterich, and Otto Kern) classified Orphism as an independent form of religion with clear contours and emphasized its contrast to Greek popular religion. Rohde sharply distinguished between an authentic Greek religion without the promise of salvation and the salvation religion of the Orphics, which he considered of oriental origin and inherently un-Greek; it formed a foreign element in Greek culture.

The “minimalists” (skeptics) opposed an overestimation of the importance of Orphism in Greek cultural history. Among them, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff was the most prominent in the early 20th century. Other representatives of this direction included André-Jean Festugière, Ivan M. Linforth, and Eric Robertson Dodds. Behind the debates among scholars of the 19th and early 20th centuries was the general, controversially discussed question of how “rational” the “classical” Greek culture was and how significant Oriental influences were.

An important role was also played by the highly disputed, controversial question of whether and to what extent Christianity had “pagan” predecessors, among which some scholars, including Eduard Zeller, Ernst Maass, and Robert Eisler, included Orphism. Extreme and particularly influential versions of the parallelism between Orphism and Christianity were advocated by Salomon Reinach and Vittorio Macchioro, who assumed a model function of Orphism for the Christian concept of salvation. Nietzsche also saw Orphism as a precursor to Christianity and interpreted it as a phenomenon of decadence in Greek religious history for this reason. Viewing Orphism from this perspective led to a distorted perspective and to ideas of a unified church-like structure of the Orphic movement with communities, dogmas, and shared rituals.

In recent research, moderate variants of the “maximalist” view dominate, with proponents affirming the cultural historical relevance and definability of Orphism. Alberto Bernabé, who published the now authoritative edition of the Orphic fragments from 2004 to 2007, is considered a “maximalist.” A prominent spokesperson for the skeptics is Radcliffe G. Edmonds III. Given the complexity of the connections and influences, which are only partially understood, it is stated that Orphism cannot be clearly demarcated from other related currents.