The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music (the usual scene inOrpheus mosaics), his attempt to retrieve his wife Eurydice from the underworld, and his death at the hands of themaenads ofDionysus, 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 thereception ofclassical mythology inWestern culture, portrayed oralluded to in countless forms of art and popular culture including poetry, film, opera, music, and painting.[8]
Several etymologies for the nameOrpheus have been proposed. A probable suggestion is that it is derived from a hypotheticalPIE root*h₃órbʰos 'orphan, servant, slave' and ultimately the verb root*h₃erbʰ- 'to change allegiance, status, ownership'.[13] Cognates could includeAncient Greek:ὄρφνη (órphnē; 'darkness')[14] andὀρφανός (orphanós; 'fatherless, orphan')[15] from which comes English 'orphan' by way of Latin.
Fulgentius, a mythographer of the late 5th to early 6th century AD, gave the unlikely etymology meaning "best voice", "Oraia-phonos".[16]
AlthoughAristotle 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 beforeHomer.[17] The earliest literary reference to Orpheus is a two-word fragment of the 6th-century BC lyric poetIbycus:onomaklyton Orphēn ('Orpheus famous-of-name'). He is not mentioned by Homer orHesiod.[18] Most ancient sources accept his historical existence; Aristotle is an exception.[19][20]Pindar calls Orpheus 'the father of songs'[21] and identifies him as a son of theThracian mythological kingOeagrus[22] and theMuseCalliope.[23]
Greeks of theClassical age venerated Orpheus as the greatest of all poets and musicians; it was said that whileHermes had invented thelyre, Orpheus perfected it. Poets such asSimonides of Ceos said that Orpheus' music and singing could charm the birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance,[24] and divert the course of rivers.
Orpheus was one of the handful ofGreek heroes[25] to visit theunderworld and return; his music and song had power even overHades. The earliest known reference to thisdescent to the underworld is the painting byPolygnotus (5th century BCE) described byPausanias (2nd century CE), where no mention is made of Eurydice.Euripides andPlato 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 poetHermesianax called herAgriope; and the first mention of her name in literature is in theLament forBion (1st century BC).[17]
Some sources credit Orpheus with further gifts to humankind: medicine, which is more usually under the auspices ofAsclepius (Aesculapius) orApollo; writing,[26] which is usually credited toCadmus; and agriculture, where Orpheus assumes theEleusinian role ofTriptolemus as giver ofDemeter's knowledge to humankind. Orpheus was anaugur and seer; he practiced magical arts andastrology, founded cults toApollo andDionysus,[27] and prescribed the mystery rites preserved in Orphic texts. Pindar andApollonius of Rhodes[28] place Orpheus as the harpist and companion ofJason and the Argonauts. Orpheus had a brother namedLinus, who went toThebes and became a Theban.[29] He is claimed byAristophanes andHorace 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.[30]
Strabo (64 BC – c. AD 24) presents Orpheus as a mortal, who lived and died in a village close toOlympus.[31] "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 usesαγυρτεύοντα (agurteúonta),[32] also used bySophocles inOedipus Tyrannus to characterizeTiresias as a trickster with an excessive desire for possessions.Αγύρτης (agúrtēs) most often meant 'charlatan'[33] and always had a negative connotation.Pausanias writes of an unnamedEgyptian who considered Orpheus aμάγευσε (mágeuse), i.e., magician.[34][non-primary source needed]
"Orpheus ... is repeatedly referred to by Euripides, in whom we find the first allusion to the connection of Orpheus withDionysus and the infernal regions: he speaks of him as related to theMuses (Rhesus 944, 946); mentions the power of his song over rocks, trees, and wild beasts (Medea 543,Iphigenia in Aulis 1211,Bacchae 561, and a jocular allusion inCyclops 646); refers to his charming the infernal powers (Alcestis 357); connects him with Bacchanalian orgies (Hippolytus 953); ascribes to him the origin of sacred mysteries (Rhesus 943), and places the scene of his activity among the forests of Olympus (Bacchae 561.)"[35] "Euripides [also] brought Orpheus into his playHypsipyle, which dealt with theLemnian episode of the Argonautic voyage; Orpheus there acts ascoxswain, and later as guardian in Thrace of Jason's children byHypsipyle."[17]
Orpheus mosaic at Dominican Museum,Rottweil,Germany, 2nd c. AD
"He is mentioned once only, but in an important passage, by Aristophanes (Frogs 1032), who enumerates, as the oldest poets, Orpheus,Musaeus,Hesiod, and Homer, and makes Orpheus the teacher of religious initiations and of abstinence from murder ..."[35]
"Plato (Apology,Protagoras), ... frequently refers to Orpheus, his followers, and his works. He calls him the son of Oeagrus (Symposium), mentions him as a musician and inventor(Ion andLaws bk 3.), refers to the miraculous power of his lyre (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, likeAlcestis, but contrived to enter Hades alive, and, as a further punishment for his cowardice, he met his death at the hands of women (Symposium 179d)."[35]
"Earlier than the literary references is a sculptured representation of Orpheus with the shipArgo, found atDelphi, said to be of the sixth century BC."[17]
Some ancient Greek authors, such asStrabo andPlutarch, write of Orpheus as having aThracian origin (through his father,Oeagrus).[2][3][4] Although these traditional accounts have been uncritically accepted by some historians,[2] they have been put into question by others, since it was only in the mid-/late 5th century that Orpheus acquired Thracian attributes.[36][37] Additionally, asAndré 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".[2] Indeed, the introduction of the worship of theMuses in the times ofArchelaos, the genealogies featuringApollo,Pierus andMethone, Orpheus' tomb inLeibethra and the importance of this gesture as a part of the king's cultural policy, makes the hypothesis of thePierian, orMacedonian, roots of Orpheus, highly probable.[38][39] 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.[38]
Important sites in the life and travels of Orpheus
According toApollodorus[5] and a fragment of Pindar,[40] Orpheus' father wasOeagrus, aThracian king.[41] His mother was (1) themuseCalliope,[42] (2) her sisterPolymnia,[43] (3) a daughter ofPierus,[44] son ofMakednos or (4) lastly ofMenippe, daughter ofThamyris.[45] Pindar, however, seems to call Orpheus the son ofApollo in hisPythian Odes,[46] and a scholium on this passage adds that the mythographerAsclepiades of Tragilus considered Orpheus to be the son of Apollo and Calliope.[47] According toTzetzes, he was fromBisaltia.[48] His birthplace and place of residence wasPimpleia[49][50] close to theOlympus.Strabo mentions that he lived in Pimpleia.[31][50] According to the epic poemArgonautica, Pimpleia was the location of Oeagrus' and Calliope's wedding.[51] While living with his mother and her eight beautiful sisters inParnassus, he metApollo, who was courting the laughing museThalia. Apollo, as the god of music, gave Orpheus a goldenlyre and taught him to play it.[52] Orpheus' mother taught him to make verses for singing. He is also said to have studied in Egypt.[53]
Orpheus is said to have established the worship ofHecate inAegina.[54] InLaconia Orpheus is said to have brought the worship ofDemeter Chthonia[55] and that of theΚόρες Σωτείρας (Kóres Sōteíras; 'Saviour Maidens').[clarification needed][56] Also inTaygetos a wooden image of Orpheus was said to have been kept byPelasgians in the sanctuary of the Eleusinian Demeter.[57]
TheArgonautica (Ἀργοναυτικά) is aGreekepic poem written byApollonius 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, theArgonauts would never be able to pass theSirens—the same Sirens encountered byOdysseus inHomer's epic poem theOdyssey. The Sirens lived on three small, rocky islands calledSirenum 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 hislyre and played music that was louder and more beautiful, drowning out the Sirens' bewitching songs. According to 3rd century BCHellenisticelegiac poetPhanocles, Orpheus loved the young ArgonautCalais, "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."[59][60]
The most famous story in which Orpheus figures is that of his wifeEurydice (sometimes referred to as Euridice and also known as Argiope). While walking among her people, theCicones, in tall grass at her wedding, Eurydice was set upon by asatyr. In her efforts to escape the satyr, Eurydice fell into a nest ofvipers 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 thenymphs and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus traveled to theunderworld. His music softened the hearts ofHades andPersephone, who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her andnot 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 ofVirgil, who first introduces the name ofAristaeus (by the time of Virgil'sGeorgics, the myth has Aristaeus chasing Eurydice when she was bitten by a serpent) and the tragic outcome.[61] Other ancient writers, however, speak of Orpheus' visit to the underworld in a more negative light; according toPhaedrus inPlato'sSymposium,[62] 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 toHades 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. InOvid's account, however, Eurydice's death by a snake bite is incurred while she was dancing withnaiads on her wedding day.
The story of Eurydice may actually be a late addition to the Orpheus myths. In particular, the nameEurudike ("she whose justice extends widely") recalls cult-titles attached toPersephone. According to the theories of poetRobert Graves, the myth may have been derived from another Orpheus legend, in which he travels toTartarus and charms the goddessHecate.[65]
The myth theme of not looking back, an essential precaution inJason's raising ofchthonicBrimoHekate underMedea's guidance,[66] is reflected in the Biblical story ofLot's wife when escaping fromSodom. More directly, the story of Orpheus is similar to the ancient Greek tales of Persephone captured by Hades and similar stories ofAdonis 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 ofMithraism and the cult ofSol Invictus.
The Death of Orpheus, detail from a silverkantharos, 420–410 BC, part of the Vassil Bojkov collection,Sofia,Bulgaria
According to aLate Antique summary ofAeschylus's lost playBassarids, Orpheus, towards the end of his life, disdained the worship of all gods exceptApollo. One early morning he went to the oracle ofDionysus atMount Pangaion[67] to salute his god at dawn, but was ripped to shreds by ThracianMaenads for not honoring his previous patron (Dionysus) and was buried inPieria.[27][68]
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 thoughtHelios 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 theBassarides, asAeschylus the tragedian says; they tore him apart and scattered the limbs.[69]
Thracian Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus on His Lyre (1865) byGustave Moreau
Here his death is analogous with that ofPentheus, 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.[70] Both made similar journeys into Hades, andDionysus-Zagreus suffered an identical death.[71]Pausanias writes that Orpheus was buried inDion and that he met his death there.[72] He writes that the riverHelicon sank underground when the women that killed Orpheus tried to wash off their blood-stained hands in its waters.[73] Other legends claim that Orpheus became a follower ofDionysus 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 ofThrace for his inattention.[74]
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.
Feeling spurned by Orpheus for taking only male lovers (eromenoi), theCiconian women, followers ofDionysus,[75] 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.[76] InAlbrecht Dürer's drawing of Orpheus' death, based on an original, now lost, byAndrea Mantegna, a ribbon high in the tree above him is letteredOrfeus der erst puseran ("Orpheus, the firstpederast").[77]
His head, still singing mournful songs, floated along with his lyre down the RiverHebrus into the sea, after which the winds and waves carried them to the island ofLesbos,[78] at the city ofMethymna; there, the inhabitants buried his head and a shrine was built in his honour nearAntissa;[79] there his oracle prophesied, until it was silenced by Apollo.[80] In addition to the people of Lesbos, Greeks fromIonia andAetolia consulted the oracle, and his reputation spread as far asBabylon.[81]
Orpheus'lyre was carried to heaven by theMuses, and was placedamong the stars. The Muses also gathered up the fragments of his body and buried them atLeibethra[82] belowMount Olympus, where thenightingales sang over his grave. After the riverSys flooded[83] Leibethra, the Macedonians took his bones toDion. Orpheus' 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,[67] nearPydna inMacedon. In another version of the myth, Orpheus travels toAornum inThesprotia,Epirus to an old oracle for the dead. In the end Orpheus commits suicide from his grief unable to find Eurydice.[84]
"Others said that he was the victim of a thunderbolt."[85]
On the writings of Orpheus,Freeman, in the 1946 edition ofThe Pre- Socratic Philosophers writes:[86]
In the fifth and fourth centuries BC, there existed a collection ofhexametric poems known asOrphic, 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 theRepublic to a "mass of books ofMusaeus and Orpheus", and in theLaws to the hymns ofThamyris and Orpheus, while in theIon he groups Orpheus with Musaeus andHomer as the source of inspiration of epic poets and elocutionists.Euripides in theHippolytus makesTheseus speak of the "turgid outpourings of many treatises", which have led his son to follow Orpheus and adopt theBacchic religion.Alexis, the fourth century comic poet, depicting Linus offering a choice of books toHeracles, mentions "Orpheus,Hesiod, tragedies,Choerilus, Homer,Epicharmus".Aristotle did not believe that the poems were by Orpheus; he speaks of the "so-called Orphic epic", andPhiloponus (seventh century AD) commenting on this expression, says that in theDe 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 byOnomacritus. Aristotle when quoting the Orphic cosmological doctrines attributes them to "thetheologoi", "the ancient poets", "those who first theorized about the gods".
[...]
Aelian (second century AD) gave the chief reason against believing in them: at the time when Orpheus is said to have lived, theThracians 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 byHipparchus 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 lostDe Philosophia, that Onomacritus also wrote the so-called Orphic epic poems. By the time when the Orphic writings began to be freely quoted byChristian andNeo-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 ofHesiod'sTheogony, 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 andMusaeus in tow.[87] Those who were especially devoted to these rituals and poems often practicedvegetarianism and abstention from sex, and refrained from eating eggs and beans—which came to be known as theOrphikos bios, or "Orphic way of life".[88]W. K. C. Guthrie wrote that Orpheus was the founder ofmystery religions and the first to reveal to men the meanings of the initiation rites.[89] There is also a reference, not mentioning Orpheus by name, in thepseudo-PlatonicAxiochus, where it is said that the fate of the soul in Hades is described on certain bronze tablets which two seers had brought toDelos from the land of theHyperboreans.
Nymphs Listening to the Songs of Orpheus (1853) byCharles Jalabert
A number of Greek religious poems inhexameters were also attributed to Orpheus, as they were to similar miracle-working figures, likeBakis,Musaeus,Abaris,Aristeas,Epimenides, and theSibyl. Of this vast literature, only two works survived whole: theOrphic Hymns, a set of 87 poems, possibly composed at some point in the second or third century, and the epicOrphic 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 inpapyrus fragments or in quotations. Some of the earliest fragments may have been composed byOnomacritus.[90]
TheDerveni papyrus, found inDerveni,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 philosopherAnaxagoras, written in the second half of the fifth century BC.[91] The papyrus dates to around 340 BC, during the reign ofPhilip II of Macedon, making it Europe's oldest surviving manuscript.
Orpheus charming the beasts. Engraving by Regius forOvid'sMetamorphoses Book X, 143
The Orpheus motif has permeatedWestern culture and has been used as a theme in all art forms. Early examples include theBreton laiSir Orfeo from the early 13th century and musical interpretations likeJacopo Peri'sEuridice (1600, though titled with his wife's name, thelibretto is based entirely upon books X and XI ofOvid'sMetamorphoses and therefore Orpheus' viewpoint is predominant).
Subsequent operatic and musical interpretations include:
Vladimir Genin's mono-opera (monodrama)Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes (2017) after the text byRainer Maria Rilke, premiered in 2023 in Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin
Rainer Maria Rilke'sSonnets to Orpheus (1922) are based on the Orpheus myth.Poul Anderson's Hugo Award-winning novelette "Goat Song", published in 1972, is a retelling of the story of Orpheus in a science fiction setting. Somefeminist interpretations of the myth give Eurydice greater weight.Margaret Atwood'sOrpheus and Eurydice Cycle (1976–1986) deals with the myth, and gives Eurydice a more prominent voice.Sarah Ruhl'sEurydice likewise presents the story of Orpheus' 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.[92]David Almond's 2014 novelA Song for Ella Grey was inspired by the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, and won theGuardian Children's Fiction Prize in 2015.[93]
^abcdOrpheus' 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 byWillard R. Trask, University of Chicago Press, p. 483,ISBN022602735X.
^abAnthi Chrysanthou, Defining Orphism: The Beliefs, the ›teletae‹ and the Writings, (2020) Volume 94 of Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes, Walter de Gruyter,ISBN3110678454:Orpheus' place of origin was Thrace and according to most ancient sources he was the son ofOeagrus and museKalliope.
^abAndrotion, an Attidographer writing in the fourth century BCE, focused precisely on Orpheus' Thracian origin, and the well-known illiteracy of his people...For more see:Graziosi, Barbara (2018). "Still Singing: The Case of Orpheus". In Nora Goldschmidt; Barbara Graziosi (eds.).Tombs of the Ancient Poets: Between Literary Reception and Material Culture. Oxford University Press. p. 182.ISBN978-0192561039.
^abSon of Oeagrus and Calliope: Apollodorus,1.3.2 &1.9.16
^Janko, Richard (2001). "The Derveni Papyrus ("Diagoras of Melos, Apopyrgizontes Logoi?"): A New Translation".Classical Philology.96:1–32.doi:10.1086/449521.ISSN0009-837X.S2CID162191106.
^Cf. "Ὀρφανός" in:Etymological Dictionary of Greek, ed. Robert S. P. Beekes. First published online[where?] October 2010.
^Cobb, Noel.Archetypal Imagination, Hudson, New York: Lindisfarne Press, p. 240.ISBN0-940262-47-9
^Freiert, William K. (1991). Pozzi, Dora Carlisky; Wickersham, John M. (eds.). "Orpheus: A Fugue on the Polis".Myth and the Polis. Cornell University Press: 46.ISBN0-8014-2473-9.
^Miles, Geoffrey.Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology, London: Routledge, 1999, p. 57.ISBN0-415-14755-7
^Apollodorus, 1.3.2;Euripides,Iphigeneia at Aulis 1212 andThe 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."
^A single literary epitaph, attributed to thesophistAlcidamas, credits Orpheus with the invention of writing. SeeIvan Mortimer Linforth, "Two Notes on the Legend of Orpheus",Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association62, (1931):5–17.
^abApollodorus,1.3.2. "Orpheus also invented the mysteries of Dionysus, and having been torn in pieces by the Maenads he is buried in Pieria."
^abStrabo,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."
^Gregory Nagy,Archaic Period (Greek Literature, Volume 2),ISBN0-8153-3683-7, p. 46.
^Index in Eustathii commentarios in Homeri Iliadem et Odysseam by Matthaeus Devarius, p. 8.
^Pausanias,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."
^abcSmith, William (1870).Dictionary of Greek And Roman Biography And Mythology. Vol. 3. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. p. 60. ark:/13960/t23b60t0r.
^Scholia ad Apollonius Rhodius, 1.23 withAsclepiades as the authority
^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."
^William Keith Guthrie and L. Alderlink,Orpheus and Greek Religion (Mythos Books), 1993,ISBN0-691-02499-5, p. 61 f.: "[…] is a city Dion. Near it is a village called Pimpleia. It was there they say that Orpheus the Kikonian lived."
^abJane Ellen Harrison,Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (Mythos Books), 1991,ISBN0-691-01514-7, p. 469: "[…] near the city of Dium is a village called Pimpleia where Orpheus lived."
^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."
^Hoopes And Evslin,The Greek Gods,ISBN0-590-44110-8,ISBN0-590-44110-8, 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."
^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."
^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."
^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."
^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."
^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).
^abWilliam Keith Guthrie and L. Alderlink,Orpheus and Greek Religion,ISBN0-691-02499-5, p. 32
^Wilson, N.,Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, Routledge, 2013,ISBN113678800X, 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".
^Mark P. O. Morford, Robert J. Lenardon,Classical Mythology, p. 279.
^Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, volume 88, p. 211
^Pausanias,9.30.1A 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' 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 twentystades, you come to a pillar on the right surmounted by a stone urn, which according to the natives contains the bones of Orpheus.
^Pausanias,Boeotia9.30.1. 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
^"Orpheus".The Columbia Encyclopedia. Retrieved2020-09-25.
^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]
^Recently[when?] 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 (article in Greek with English abstract)
^Marcele Detienne,The Writing of Orpheus: Greek Myth in Cultural Context,ISBN0-8018-6954-4, p. 161
^Pausanias,Boeotia,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.
^Pausanias,Boeotia,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.
^Moore, p. 56: "the use of eggs and beans was forbidden, for these articles were associated with the worship of the dead".
^Guthrie, pp. 17–18. "As founder of mystery-religions, Orpheus was first to reveal to men the meaning of the rites of initiation (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 isEuripides, a reference in theAlcestis of Euripides to certain Thracian tablets which "the voice of Orpheus had inscribed" with pharmaceutical lore.The scholiast, commenting on the passage, says that there exist onMt. Haemus certain writings of Orpheus on tablets. We have already noticed the 'charm on the Thracian tablets' in theAlcestis and inCyclops 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)."
^Janko, Richard (2006). Tsantsanoglou, K.; Parássoglou, G. M.; Kouremenos, T. (eds.)."The Derveni Papyrus".Bryn Mawr Classical Review. Studi e testi per il 'Corpus dei papiri filosofici greci e latini'.13. Florence: Olschki.
Freeman, Kathleen (1948),Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers: A Complete Translation of the Fragments in Diels, Fragmente Der Vorsokratiker, Oxford:Basil Blackwell, 1948.Internet Archive.
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.
Segal, Charles (1989).Orpheus : The Myth of the Poet. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.ISBN0-8018-3708-1.
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 ofOlbia.
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.
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