In Greek mythology, Orpheus (; , classical pronunciation: ) was a Thracian bard,Orpheus' Thracian origin, already maintained by Strabo and Plutarch, has been adopted again by E. Rohde (Psyche), by E. Mass (Orpheus), and by P. Perdrizet (Cultes et mythes du Pangée). But A. Boulanger has discerningly observed that “the most characteristic features of Orphism—consciousness of sin, need of purification and redemption, infernal punishments—have never been found among the Thracians”. For more see: Mircea Eliade (2011) History of Religious Ideas, Volume 2: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity, translated by Willard R. Trask, University of Chicago Press, p. 483, .Anthi Chrysanthou, Defining Orphism: The Beliefs, the ›teletae‹ and the Writings, (2020) Volume 94 of Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes, Walter de Gruyter, : Orpheus' place of origin was Thrace and according to most ancient sources he was the son of Oeagrus and muse Kalliope.Androtion, 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: legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned poet and, according to legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece,Apollodorus, 1.9.16. and descended into the underworld to recover his lost wife, Eurydice.
The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music (the usual scene in Orpheus mosaics), his attempt to retrieve his wife Eurydice from the underworld, and his death at the hands of the maenads of Dionysus, who got tired of his mourning for his late wife Eurydice. As an archetype of the inspired singer, Orpheus is one of the most significant figures in the reception of classical mythology in Western culture, portrayed or alluded to in countless forms of art and popular culture including poetry, film, opera, music, and painting.Geoffrey Miles, Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology (Routledge, 1999), p. 54.
For the Greeks, Orpheus was a founder and prophet of the so-called "Orphic" mysteries.Pausanias, 2.30.2 He was credited with the composition of a number of works, among which are a number of now-lost theogonies, including the theogony commented upon in the Derveni papyrus, as well as extant works such the Orphic Hymns, the Orphic Argonautica, and the Lithica. Shrines containing purported relics of Orpheus were regarded as oracles.
Etymology Several etymologies for the name Orpheus have been proposed. A probable suggestion is that it is derived from a hypothetical PIE root 'orphan, servant, slave' and ultimately the verb root 'to change allegiance, status, ownership'.Cf. "Ὀρφανός" in: Etymological Dictionary of Greek, ed. Robert S. P. Beekes. First published online October 2010. Cognates could include (; 'darkness')Cobb, Noel. Archetypal Imagination, Hudson, New York: Lindisfarne Press, p. 240. and (; 'fatherless, orphan') 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".Miles, Geoffrey. Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology, London: Routledge, 1999, p. 57.
Background Although Cicero reported that Aristotle did not believe Orpheus existed,Cicero, De natura deorum I xxxviii 107. most other ancient writers believed he once was a real person, though living in remote antiquity. Most of them believed that he lived several generations before Homer.Freeman 1946, p. 1. The earliest literary reference to Orpheus is a two-word fragment of the 6th-century BC lyric poet Ibycus: ('Orpheus famous-of-name'). He is not mentioned by Homer or Hesiod.Ibycus, Fragments 17 (Diehl); M. Owen Lee, Virgil as Orpheus: A Study of the Georgics State University of New York Press, Albany (1996), p. 3. Most ancient sources accept his historical existence; Aristotle is an exception.Freeman 1948, p. 1. Pindar calls Orpheus 'the father of songs'Pindar, Pythian Odes 4.176 and identifies him as a son of the Thracian mythological king OeagrusPindar, fr. 126.9 and the Muse Calliope.Apollodorus, 1.3.2; Argonautica 1.23 & Orphic Hymn 24.12
Greeks of the Classical age venerated Orpheus as the greatest of all poets and musicians; it was said that while Hermes had invented the lyre, Orpheus perfected it. Poets such as Simonides of Ceos said that Orpheus' music and singing could charm the birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance,Apollodorus, 1.3.2; Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis 1212 and The Bacchae, 562; Ovid, Metamorphoses 11: "with his songs, Orpheus, the bard of Thrace, allured the trees, the savage animals, and even the insensate rocks, to follow him." and divert the course of rivers.
Orpheus was one of the handful of Greek heroesOthers to brave the nekyia were Odysseus, Theseus and Heracles; Perseus also overcame Medusa in a chthonic setting. to visit the underworld and return; his music and song had power even over Hades. The earliest known reference to this descent to the underworld is the painting by Polygnotus (5th century BCE) described by Pausanias (2nd century CE), where no mention is made of Eurydice. Euripides and Plato both refer to the story of his descent to recover his wife, but do not mention her name; a contemporary relief (about 400 BC) shows Orpheus and his wife with Hermes. The elegiac poet Hermesianax called her Agriope; and the first mention of her name in literature is in the Lament for Bion (1st century BC).
Some sources credit Orpheus with further gifts to humankind: medicine, which is more usually under the auspices of Asclepius (Aesculapius) or Apollo; writing,A single literary epitaph, attributed to the sophist Alcidamas, credits Orpheus with the invention of writing. See Ivan Mortimer Linforth, "Two Notes on the Legend of Orpheus", Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 62, (1931):5–17. which is usually credited to Cadmus; and agriculture, where Orpheus assumes the Eleusinian role of Triptolemus as giver of Demeter's knowledge to humankind. Orpheus was an augur and seer; he practiced magical arts and astrology, founded cults to Apollo and Dionysus,Apollodorus, 1.3.2. "Orpheus also invented the mysteries of Dionysus, and having been torn in pieces by the Maenads he is buried in Pieria." and prescribed the mystery rites preserved in Orphic texts. Pindar and Apollonius of RhodesApollonius, Argonautica passim place Orpheus as the harpist and companion of Jason and the Argonauts. Orpheus had a brother named Linus, who went to Thebes and became a Theban.Apollodorus, Library and Epitome, 2.4.9. This Linus was a brother of Orpheus; he came to Thebes and became a Theban. He is claimed by Aristophanes and Horace to have taught cannibals to subsist on fruit, and to have made lions and tigers obedient to him. Horace believed, however, that Orpheus had only introduced order and civilization to savages.
Strabo (64 BC – c. AD 24) presents Orpheus as a mortal, who lived and died in a village close to Olympus.Strabo, 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." "Some, of course, received him willingly, but others, since they suspected a plot and violence, combined against him and killed him." He made money as a musician and "wizard" – Strabo uses (),Gregory Nagy, Archaic Period (Greek Literature, Volume 2), , p. 46. also used by Sophocles in Oedipus Tyrannus to characterize Tiresias as a trickster with an excessive desire for possessions. () most often meant 'charlatan'Index in Eustathii commentarios in Homeri Iliadem et Odysseam by Matthaeus Devarius, p. 8. and always had a negative connotation. Pausanias writes of an unnamed Egyptian who considered Orpheus a (), i.e., magician.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."
"Orpheus ... is repeatedly referred to by Euripides, in whom we find the first allusion to the connection of Orpheus with Dionysus and the infernal regions: he speaks of him as related to the Muses (Rhesus 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 in Cyclops 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.)" "Euripides [also] brought Orpheus into his play Hypsipyle, which dealt with the Lemnian episode of the Argonautic voyage; Orpheus there acts as coxswain, and later as guardian in Thrace of Jason's children by Hypsipyle."
"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 ..."
"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 and Laws 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, like Alcestis, but contrived to enter Hades alive, and, as a further punishment for his cowardice, he met his death at the hands of women (Symposium 179d)."
"Earlier than the literary references is a sculptured representation of Orpheus with the ship Argo, found at Delphi, said to be of the sixth century BC."
Mythology
Early life