Two Orphic Images in Euripides Hippolytus 952 957 and Cretans 472 Kannicht (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Perception of Orphics from I BC to III AD
Classica Cracoviensia
In my article I examined rare mentions about Orphics in texts of Christian (i.e. Athenagoras, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius of Ceasarea, Theophilus of Antioch, Pseudo-Justin) and non-Christian authors (i.e. Diodorus of Sicily, Strabo, Plutarchus). I established that Christian authors as well as non-Christian authors in I BC – III AD had the worst possible opinion about Orphics and their practices.
The Perception of Orphics from I BC to III AD, Classica Cracoviensia (19) 2016, pp. 145-162
In my article I examined rare mentions about Orphics in texts of Christian (i.e. Athenagoras, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius of Ceasarea, Theophilus of Antioch, Pseudo-Justin) and non-Christian authors (i.e. Diodorus of Sicily, Strabo, Plutarchus). I established that Christian au-thors as well as non-Christian authors in I BC – III AD had the worst possible opinion about Orphics and their practices.
New Aspects of Religion in Ancient Athens
New Aspects of Religion in Ancient Athens , 2016
Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. ἐρωτηθεὶς ὑπό τινος, τίνι οἱ φιλόπονοι τῶν ῥᾳθύμων διαφέρουσι, εἷπεν ὡς οἱ εὐσεβεῖς τῶν ἀσεβῶν, ἐλπίσιν ἀγαθαῖς. Isocrates, when asked by someone in what the hard working differ from the lazy, said, As those who show respect for the gods differ from those who don't, in their good hopes for the future. Isocrates, fragment 20 ταῦτα δὲ διανοηθεὶς ἔγραφον τὸν λόγον τοῦτον, οὐκ ἀκμάζων ἀλλ᾽ ἔτη γεγονὼς δύο καὶ ἑβδομήκοντα. διόπερ χρὴ συγγνώμην ἔχειν ἢν μαλακώτερος ὢν φαίνηται τῶν παρ᾽ ἐμοῦ πρότερον ἐκδεδομένων. καὶ γὰρ οὐδὲ ῥᾴδιος ἦν οὐδ᾽ ἁπλοῦς, ἀλλὰ πολλὴν ἔχων πραγματείαν.. .. πολλὰ δὲ καὶ τῶν ὑπ᾽ ἐμοῦ πάλαι γεγραμμένων ἐγκαταμεμιγμένα τοῖς νῦν λεγομένοις οὐκ ἀλόγως οὐδ᾽ ἀκαίρως, ἀλλὰ προσηκόντως τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις. Isocrates, 15.10 with ἑβδομήκοντα for ὀγκοήκοντα After having thought about these things, I was writing this book when I was not in my prime but seventy-two years old. Therefore you ought to have some sympathy if it appears a little "softer" than my previous publications. The book was neither easy nor simple but involved a lot of time and effort.. .. Many of the things that were written by me long ago have been mixed in with what is now said, not unreasonably nor inappropriately but in way befitting the topics. ∵ Preface After spending a few years on questions about εὐσέβεια ("proper respect") and ὁσιότης ("religious correctness") in ancient Greek religion, now published in Popular Greek Religion in Greek Philosophy, I decided, one afternoon, to see how ὁσιότης and its cognates, so common in literary and philosophical texts, were used in Athenian epigraphical texts. The search took very little timemere seconds, in fact. It turned out that ὁσιότης and its cognates are quite rare and late on Athenian inscriptions. No person is designated as ὅσιος, and no person is praised for acting ὁσίως. Given the frequency and importance of these terms in philosophical and literary texts, that seemed odd, and it enticed me to investigate a rather wide range of religious terms and their contexts in Athenian inscriptions and led to the results in this book. And ὁσιότης became a mere Appendix. This study and this book would have been impossible without the on-line Searchable Greek Inscriptions, centered at Cornell University and Ohio State University and hosted by The Packard Humanities Institute, without the online Brill Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, and without the on-line Thesaurus Linguae Graecae of the University of California, Irvine. For all three I express my deep gratitude to those many who have labored and contributed to create, update, and maintain these precious resources. They can be fully appreciated perhaps only by those who remember their excitement at the invention of the Ibycus by David W. Packard. As my work drew to a close, I benefited greatly from careful readings of the whole or parts of my manuscript by my colleague Elizabeth Meyer and by Angelos Chaniotis, Christopher Faraone, Robert Garland, Edward Harris, and an anonymous reader. They had many suggestions and corrections to offer, and the book was much improved. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Henk Versnel who saw value in the project, encouraged me in it, and promoted its publication. And finally I express my gratitude to Frits Naerebout, Maarten Frieswijk, and Stephanie Paalvast, who accepted the manuscript for the Brill series Religions in the Graeco-Roman World and have seen it through to publication. In 1975 I dedicated my first book to my dear wife Mary, then as now the sine qua non of my life and work, and now I dedicate this book to her, in deepest affection and gratitude for fifty years of marital happiness and of copy-editing, proofreading , and indexing. The abbreviations for periodicals are those listed in The American Journal of Archaeology 95 (1991), 1-16. The following abbreviations for primarily epigraphical publications are largely taken from SEG and from McLean, 2002.387-472. Fuller bibliographic material for all epigraphical entries may be found there.
The Gods of Ancient Greece: The Gods in Later Orphism
2010
The title of this chapter includes two concepts which require explanation, since they are not self-evident: 'later' and 'orphism'. on the one hand, we must start from the assumption that what we call orphism is not a doctrinal system, unique, dogmatic and always coherent. 1 Various authors decided to ascribe their own poems to orpheus, a mythical character, in order to give them the prestige of a great name and the status of revealed texts, which would consequently be true. 2 since they are authors from different times and even with different ideas, we may suppose that the doctrine found in different passages of the orphic corpus will not be one and the same. yet this tendency to variety and ideological dispersion is counterweighed by the fact that the name of the mythical poet was associated with specific themes (eschatology, the origin and destiny of the soul, salvation). Therefore, it was not possible to attribute to orpheus any doctrine whatsoever, and even less to attribute any doctrines which contradicted those contained in other poems of the corpus. That is the reason why, in spite of the variety of answers to some questions which is found in poems of different times, we will also find some ideas in the poetry ascribed to orpheus which remain practically unaltered across the centuries. on the other hand, 'later' is an imprecise concept, since it is defined This chapter is one of the results of a Consolider C research Project, financed by the spanish Ministry of education and science (huM2006-09403).
Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (JETIR), 2019
Oedipus Tyrannos is one of the most celebrated and controversial plays of all times. Sophocles wrote the play in 5th century Athens with a probable reflection of the then socio-political scenario. Multiple elements in Oedipus Tyrannos including the shrine at Delphi, the deadly plague, the position of a leading citizen as the ruler etc. had their basis in that period. Oedipus Tyrannos shows a heavy presence of rites and rituals prevalent during those times. The playwright must have been sufficiently influenced by his immediate surroundings and the pressing issues of his age. Religion and society have a deep impact on the literary works of any age. Within the play, one may also read the ancient Greek manifestation and conceptualization of the oikos (οἶκος) and polis (πολις). The character of King Oedipus and his power may be studied in the context of the polis of Athens. This research paper aims to put the play in the 5th century BC perspective. It ventures to portray that the backdrop of the play is essentially based on the then prevailing conditions. It also aims to show the modification of the ancient Theban myth according to the socioeconomic and political scenario of Sophocles' age. Documentary research as well as textual analysis has been adopted as the principal methodology of this research paper.
Archiv für Religionsgeschichte, 2022
“Why should I dance?” (τί δεῖ με χορεύειν; v.896): the self-doubt aroused by the Chorus in the second stasimon of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus (5thcentury BC) is the only exceptional occurrence of threatening to abandon their own choral performance. The notion of χορεύειν, the choral dance, is correctly explained by a gloss, πανηγυρἰζειν τοῖς θεοῖς, occurring in a few manuscripts and clarifying the role of the tragic Chorus in fifth-century Athens: “to serve the gods through the medium of dance”. Thus, the Theban elders, shocked by Oedipus’ and Jocasta’s scepticism about the infallibility of oracles and worried about the unpunished responsible for the devasting plague, seem to step out of the play into contemporary Athens and say: “if men lose faith in religion, why should I serve in a Chorus, which is part of the worship of the gods?” The metatheatrical question τί δεῖ με χορεύειν; is balanced at the end of the antistrophe by ἔρρει δὲ τὰ θεῖα (v.910): “religion is perishing”. The locution τὰ θεῖα implies the entire range of divine and human interaction, the divine order, the observance of the cult and performance of rituals. Indeed, the failure of oracles to be fulfilled and the failure of sinners to be punished are seen by the Chorus as destructive of the entire polytheistic system. Eventually, neither failure occurs: the disastrous downfall of Oedipus will show that the divine is not perishing. This paper aims to explore the presence/absence of the gods in the Oedipus Tyrannus, by starting from the second stasimon in order to discuss a number of core issues: is there a divine involvement in the Oedipus’ downfall? If so, what is the interplay between divine and human agency? And, lastly, how does the question τί δεῖ με χορεύειν; reflect the crisis of the polis-religion of fifth-century Athens?
Festschrift in honour of Professor N.V. Braginskaya, 2023
A.V.Lebedev, The Aegean origin and early history of the Greek doctrines of reincarnation and immortality of the soul (Epimenides, Pherecydes, Pythagoras, and Onomacritus’ Orphica), in: N.B.Bogdanovich (ed.). Myth, Ritual, Literature. National Research University “Higher School of Economics”, Institute of Classical Orient and Antiquity, HSE Publishing House, Moscow, 2023, pp. 238-299. NB! Figures I-III in the published volume are insets with no page numbers. In the present pdf file they are all attached at the end. Figure I (graffiti on bone plates from Olbia) looks to p.242, figure II (portrait of diviner Pharnabazos) to p.284, figure III (Cycladic group of 'mother and daughter') to p.273. In the section (1) a new reading and interpretation of the so-called ‘Orphic’ graffiti from Olbia is proposed on the base of superior quality photographs of the plates than the 1978 photo in the editio princeps, on which virtually all existing literature is based. Relying on Vinogradov’s 1997 photo, I read and interpret the bottom line of the recto of OF 463 as follows: Διο[νύσωι] Ὀρφικῶ[ι] λ̅ (scil. τριακάδι θύειν vel εὔχεσθαι) – “Sacrifice (or pray) to Dionysos Orphikos on the thirtieth day”. Dionysos Orphikos is Dionysos of Orpheus’ Theogony, the son of Persephone, as distinguished from the traditional Dionysos, the son of Semele. Dionysos Orphikos permanently dwells in Hades, as was clearly seen by Philodemus. The bone tablets are neither dedications to Dionysus, nor secret ‘tokens’ of the initiated members of an Orphic thiasos. They are the oldest example of fortune-telling cards (ἀγυρτικοὶ πίνακες), typologically comparable to Tarot cards and Chinese inscriptions on oracular bones, and are based on the principles of Greek cleromancy (astragalomancy), since their triadic structure (number - prophecy – name of the god to whom one should pray) coincides with that of the cleromantic oracles from Asia Minor of the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D. published by Nollé. The owner of the plates was most likely “Pharnabazos, the soothsayer of Hermes”, known from another graffito from Olbia of the same period, since it was Hermes who was considered the patron of popular dice divination. The drawings on the plates are associated with the symbolism of the Orphic myth of sparagmos (dismemberment) of Dionysus by the Titans and the Pythagorean doctrine of the immortality of the soul, while pairs of opposites come from a table comparable to the Pythagorean table of 10 opposites. Conclusion: the tablets provide no evidence on the existence of ‘Orphic community’ in Olbia (let alone of a kind of ‘Orphic church’ in Greece), but they provide evidence on the circulation of “Orpheus’ Sacred Words” in the periphery of Greek world in late fifth century B.C. Pharnabazos like the wandering priests (agyrtai) and diviners (manteis) in Plato's Republic, carried “books of Orpheus” in his bag, and combined the “Orphic” sparagmos/rebirth myth with Pythagorean doctrine of the substance dualism of the mortal body and immortal soul (the opposites ψυχή σῶμα are correlated with opposites ἀλήθεια ψεῦδος), anticipating the life-style of the Pythagoristai on the streets of Athens pictured in 4th century Attic comedy. Contrary to the hypothesis of the northern or "shamanistic" origin of the ancient Greek doctrines of the reincarnation and immortality of the soul, a completely new theory of Aegean origin is argued in this work based on the fact that all four of the earliest representatives of this tradition either were directly related to Crete (Epimenides) and the Cyclades (Pherecydes of Syros), or had significant religious and philosophical contacts with the Cretan mantics (Onomacritus, the author of the ancient Orphic Theogony according to Aristotle) and the cult of Apollo Hyperborean on Delos (Pythagoras), which allowed only "bloodless" sacrifices, the religious and moral justification of which was the belief in the kinship of all living beings and reincarnation with the consequent prohibition of any bloodshed and animal sacrifice. A typology and an attempt at diachronic filiation of early versions of the doctrine of reincarnation are given. It is hypothesized that the “classical” Orphic-Pythagorean version was created by Pythagoras of Samos in the last third of the 6th century BC in Magna Graecia: it was a synthesis of the ancient Aegean version of Epimenides’ Theogony (c. 600 BC going back to the Aegean Bronze age doctrines of ‘rebirth’ reflected in the so-called Cycladic idols), which did not associate reincarnation with "punishment" for sins, but understood it as a continuation of eternal life in this world, and ancient Egyptian eschatology: the judgment of the soul in the afterlife, the osirification of the deceased, etc. Pythagoras based his doctrine of the human nature (immortal soul and mortal body) on a metaphysical substance dualism of peras and apeiron. The court diviner of the Peisistratidai in Athens in the late 6th century B.C. Onomacritus, who was probably a Pythagorean himself, according to the reliable evidence of Aristotle, expounded it in a mythopoetic form (the myth of the sparagmos of the divine child Dionysus by the evil Titans) in the Orphic Theogony which he ascribed to the mythical singer of times immemorial Orpheus. It was this Pythagorean (ethicized) version of the doctrine that was adopted by Plato, the Platonic tradition and - in an expurgated form – by the Church fathers who admitted only the post-mortem immortality of the soul, but rejected its pre-existence and reincarnation (except Origen).
MYSTERY CULTS AND INCANTATIONS: Evidence for Orphic Charms in Euripides' Cyclops 646-48?
2008
The close connection between initiation into a mystery cult and acquisition of a special kind of post-mortem comfort or status has been thoroughly discussed by modern scholars, but in recent years this discussion has shifted to include the non-eschatological benefits that initiation was also thought to confer. Walter Burkert, for example, has stressed how some initiates claim to be protected in times of physical danger in this world, as well as in the next. His two clearest examples are Samothracian initiates, who were thought to enjoy special immunity from shipwreck and storms at sea, and Mithraic initiates, who were believed to have a similar advantage on the battlefield. 1 I shall argue that a neglected passage from a Euripidean satyr-play reflects a similar tradition connected with Orphic-Dionysiac initiations. In the Cyclops, a play set on the island of Sicily, the chorus of satyrs, who strongly identify themselves as devotees of Dionysus, claim to know an incantation of Orpheus that will bring down a form of fiery destruction upon their enemy-in this case the eponymous ogre of the play. As we shall see, some of the language used to describe this spell echoes that used in traditional hexametrical incantations of the fifth-century. In their boast about the power of this Orphic spell, moreover , the satyrs diverge from the canonical Homeric version of the Cyclops' story in ways that suggest they are recalling a popular Orphic myth about the Titans, who murdered and ate the young Dionysus, and their subsequent punishment at the hands of Zeus. As we shall see, this variation also fits into a wider pattern, in which theogonic or cosmogonic myths are used in protective incantations to recall a primordial moment in history when the forces of order, in this case Zeus, triumph over the forces of destruction and havoc. The satyrs' boast about their Orphic charm, then, provides good evidence for both the linguistic form and the narrative content of Orphic incantations that were in use in ancient Athens in the fifth century.