Whence Esoteric Ism Final

8/3/2019 Whence Esoteric Ism Final

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W h e n c e E s o t e r i c i s m ?

S o m e C o n s i d e r a t i o n s o n t h e O r p h i c a

K a r e n - C l a i r e V o s s

Orpheus Gustave Moreau, 1865


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A b s t r a c t

Much has been made of the influence of the Hermeticaon persons in the westernesoteric traditions. I will deal with the influence of some much less vaunted texts:

the Orphica. It is clear to everyone that Orpheus and his myth are exoteric,because (everyone knows about them), but the Orphicaitself are esoteric. This iswhat I will concentrate on here. By esoteric I mean that the Orphicapossess thefundamental characteristics or components articulated by Antoine Faivre whichrender them identifiable as esoteric; i.e., they demonstrate the ideas ofcorrespondences, living nature, imagination and mediation, the experience oftransmutation, as I will show.

The Orphica are attributed to Orpheus, (and sometimes to Pythagoras). They

consist of texts, some authentic, some wrongly attributed, others, deliberatefrauds; so numerous that Plato referred to them as a hubbub of books (Orphicscholarship itself constitutes a further hubbub of books). These texts wereconsidered to be extremely important, and considered so esoteric that MarsilioFicino refused to publish them. When Cosmo di Medici was on his death bed heasked Ficino to come to him and to be sure to bring his orphic lyre. Ficino wrote of the Renaissance rediscovery of grammar, poetry, rhetoric, painting,sculpture and architecture, and added the ancient singing of songs to the Orphiclyre to his list. What was the significance of that music?

With respect to Orpheus himself, I find it exceedingly curious that there is noreference to him in many texts by historians of esotericism, in spite of the fact thatOrpheus and the Orphica were important not only to Plato and the Neo-Platonists, but also to Cicero, Clement, Augustine and Aquinas.

I will use translations of primary sources together with contemporary secondarysources, including W.K.C Guthrie, Michael J.B. Allen, Ivan M. Linforth, and JaneHarrison. I will also avail myself of the works of Thomas Taylor and CharlesBurney, and will make reference to ancient secondary sources, including Pindar,Herodotus, Euripides, Aristophanes, Horace, Virgil, Ovid, Plato, Pausanius, andPlutarch.

I will argue that it is time to give Orpheus and the Orphicathe attention they bothdeserve, most especially in relation to esotericism.


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Whence Esotericism? Some Considerations on the Orphica

Karen-Claire Voss

[email protected]

This paper is dedicated to Antoine Faivre, who taught me more then he will ever know.

Much has been made of the influence of theHermetica on persons in the western esoteric traditions.

Here I will deal with the influence of some much less vaunted texts: the Orphica. It is clear to

everyone that Orpheus and his myth are exoteric, because (everyone knows about them), but the

mean that the Orphica possess the fundamental characteristics or components articulated by

Antoine Faivre which render them identifiable as esoteric;1

i.e., they demonstrate the ideas of

correspondences, living nature, imagination and mediation, the experience of transmutation, as I

will show.

The Orphica are attributed to Orpheus, (and sometimes to Pythagorassome ancient authors saidthat Pythagoras wrote under the name of Orpheus). They consist of texts, some authentic, some

wrongly attributed, others, deliberate frauds; so numerous that Plato referred to them as a hubbub

of books (Orphic scholarship itself constitutes a further hubbub of books which begins as early as

the 4th

century BCE.2) The Orphic texts were considered to be extremely important. Of these, the

Orphic Hymns were believed to be the most important, but Marsilio Ficino refused to publish his

Latin translation of them because he considered them dangerous.3

When Cosmo di Medici was on

his death bed he asked Ficino to come to him and to be sure to bring his Orphic lyre. Ficino

wrote of the Renaissance rediscovery of grammar, poetry, rhetoric, painting, sculpture and

architecture, and added the ancient singing of songs to the Orphic lyre to his list. What was the

significance of that music? I will discuss the significance of the Orphic music shortly.

The myth of Orpheus (and here we can ignore the problem about his historicity) has influenced the

most important writers in memory. Besides the ancient writers I will mention here, no less then

Shakespeare and Spencer were influenced by him; the myth of Orpheus has influenced myriad

others besides. We cannot go into this here, because it would take us too far beyond the scope of

this paper, but it should be noted.

With respect to Orpheus himself, I find it exceedingly curious that there is no reference to him in

many texts by many historians of esotericism, in spite of the fact that Orpheus and the Orphica were

important not only to Plato and the Neo-Platonists, but also to Cicero, Clement, Augustine and

Aquinas.

I will use translations of primary sources together with contemporary secondary sources, including

W.K.C Guthrie, Michael J.B. Allen, Ivan M. Linforth, and Jane Harrison. I will also avail myself of

the works of Thomas Taylor and Charles Burney, and will make reference to ancient secondary

sources, including Pindar, Herodotus, Euripides, Aristophanes, Horace, Virgil, Ovid, Plato,

Pausanius, Plutarch, and Philostratus the Younger.

1 Antoine Faivre and Jacob Needleman, Editors; Karen Voss, Associate Editor, Modern Esoteric Spirituality

(Crossroad: New York, 1992), p. xv.2 See M.L West, The Orphic Poems (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1983), pp. 75-81 et passim for a discussion of the

discovery of the Derveni Papyrus, one of the oldest Greek papyri, in the Derveni pass, near Thessalonica, in 1962. The

papyrus contains a commentary and analysis of Orphic verses.3 See D.P.Walker, The Ancient Theology: Studies in Christian Platonism from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century,

Ch. 1, Orpheus the Theologian, (Cornell University Press: Ithaca, New York, 1972), p. 27. Walker cites a letter

Ficino wrote in June 1492 to Marinus Uranius in which he explains his reluctance to publish..
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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I will argue that it is time to give Orpheus and the Orphica the attention they both deserve, most

especially in relation to esotericism.

* * *

Before beginning this foray into Orpheus and the Orphica, I want to say that this paper does notpurport to be a contribution to the extant scholarship on these matters. My aim here is to

demonstrate how and why Orpheus and the Orphica are important and why they should be

considered a critically important part of esotericism.

First of all, background is important, and so I will first present a synopsis of the myth of Orpheus.

Orpheus was the son of Apollo, a god of music or of Agraeus or Oeagrus, a Thracian prince, and the

muse, Calliope, the muse of epic poetry. He was believed to have had the power to captivate

animals and even objects with the music of his lyre. The story of Orpheus almost inevitably mixes

myth with history, interestingly helped along by early vase paintings on which critical scenes from

his life and death are frequently depicted.4

In any case, there are at least several variations, the

story being told by Virgil, and some thirty-five years later, by Ovid. 5 There is one major differencebetween the two accounts. Virgil was concerned with agrarian culture in general, and in his version

we have Eurydice, Orpheuss wife, bitten by a snake after being chased by Aristaeus, a bee keeper,

while in Ovids version she is bitten by a snake while running through the fields at her wedding

reception.6

Virgils (70-19 BCE) story is as follows.

Orpheus is married to Eurydice, a nymph. One day she had to flee from Aristaeus, the son of

Apollo and Cyrene, who attempted to rape her. In her panic, she didnt see a serpent and was

fatally bitten.7Orpheus was absolutely distraught, and played songs and sang with such grief that

the gods wept for him.

Orpheus travels to Hades and convinces Persephone to allow Eurydice to travel back to earth with

him, provided he did not turn back to look at her. He forgot his vow not to look back, though, and

just as they were about to reach the earth, turned. Virgil has Eurydice cry out: Orpheus, we are

ruined, you and I! What utter madness is this? See, once again, the cruel Fates are calling me back

and darkness falls on my swimming eyes. Goodbye for ever. I am borne away wrapped in an

endless night, stretching to you, no longer yours, these hands, these helpless hands. She finished,

and suddenly out of his sight, like smoke into thin air, vanished away, unable any more to see him

as he vainly grasped at shadowsand the ferryman of Orcus would not let him pass again over the

sundering marsh.8

Subsequently Orpheus wandered through Thrace, where a group of Thracian

women, enraged by his devotion to Eurydice, amid their Bacchic orgies in the night tore him apart,

4 Orpheus does not figure on the black figured vase paintings (c. 600 BCE onwards) but his entire storyincluding how

farmers dropped their farming implements and fledis depicted on red figured vases from not earlier then 530 BCE. It

is more then a little interesting to note that these red figured vases would have been archaeological remains in buried

rubbish dips at the time of Ovid, having preceded him by some five hundred years. Yet Ovid wrote about how farmersworking in the fields at the time of the Bacchic womens attack on Orpheus dropped their farming implements and fled

and the scattered farm implements are the subject of many of these red figured vases. The question is how did Ovid

know about this?5 See W.S. Anderson, The Orpheus of Virgil and Ovid: flebile nescio quid, in Orpheus: The Metamorphoses of a

Myth, edited by John Warden (University of Toronto Press: Toronto, 1982; paperback reprint 1985), p. 25 ff., for a

discussion about the differences between Virgils and Ovids accounts of the Orpheus myth, and the reasons for the

differences.6Ibid., p. 26.7 Virgil, Georgics Book IV, 453. She, in truth, hastening headlong along the river, if only she might escape thee, saw

not the monstrous serpent that before her feet, doomed maiden, hugged the banks amid the deep grass.8 Virgil, Georgics, Book 4 486-499


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this youth, and strewed his limbs over the countryside. Virgil tells us His head, now severed from

his marble neck, Eurydice! the voice and frozen tongue still called aloud, Ah, poor Eurydice!9

Ovids (43 BCE17 ACE) story is a variation, as I have already said. Orpheus and Eurydice

married, and during the wedding celebration, while Eurydice was playing with Naiads, she was

bitten by a serpent and died. Truly Hymen there was present during the wedding festivities of

Orpheus and Eurydice, but gave no happy omen, neither hallowed words nor joyful glances; and thetorch he held would only sputter, fill the eyes with smoke, and cause no blaze while waving. The

result of that sad wedding, proved more terrible than such foreboding fates. While through the grass

delighted Naiads wandered with the bride, a serpent struck its venomed tooth in her soft ankleand

she died. 10

Orpheus went to the underworld and sang his songs, whereupon Pluto relented and said that he

could take Eurydice back to the earth, provided he did not look upon her while they journeyed. As

in Virgils version of the story, Orpheus could not resist looking back, and Eurydice instantly

slipped away from sight.11

Like Virgil, Ovid describes how after the death of Eurydice Orpheus wanders, singing andlamenting the loss of his wife, all the while entrancing trees, animals and even the insensate rocks,

to follow him. Eventually, a group of Ciconian women saw him and one of them exclaimed, See!

Here is the poet who has scorned our love!, whereupon they all began attaching him and finally

succeeded in killing him. Here, Ovid provides us with far more detail then Virgil, and the details,

written over two thousand years ago, touch us. Through those same lips which had controlled the

rocks and which had overcome ferocious beats, his life breathed forth, departed in the air and then,

The mournful birds, the stricken animals, the hard stones and the weeping woods, all these that

often had followed your inspiring voice, bewailed your death; while trees dropped their green

leaves, mourning for you, as if they tore their hair.12

* * *

Even if there were nothing more then the myth, because it has been perpetuated for so long, we

have to realize that the story of Orpheus itself has affected people. But there is something more.

Orpheus alone among mythical characters wrote a lot. Or at least, we have numerous writings

attributed to him. Plato (427-347 BCE)actually held Orpheus works in his hand. In any case,Plato mentions Orpheus more then a dozen times. For example, in The Republic he tells of how the

prophet had related that the soul of Orpheus had chosen to return as a swan, because he so hated the

women who had killed him that he refused to be conceived and born of a woman.13

In The Laws

he alludes to the fact that Orpheus would have revealed to humankind some of the wisdom that had

been lost at the time of the Flood

14

And he refers to the idea that once upon a time, humansconformed to the rule known as Orphic, universal insistence on vegetarianism, and entire

9 Virgil, Georgics, Book 4: 522-52810 Ovid,Metamorphoses, Book X: 1-10.11 Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book X: 11-85: Then Fame declared that conquered by the song of Orpheus, for the first andonly time the hard cheeks of the fierce Eumenides were wet with tears: nor could the royal queen, nor he who rules the

lower world deny the prayer of Orpheus; so they called to them Eurydice, who still was held among the new-arriving

shades, and she obeyed the call by walking to them with slow steps, yet halting from her wound. So Orpheus then

received his wife; and Pluto told him he might now ascend from these Avernian vales up to the light, with his Eurydice;

but, if he turned his eyes to look at her, the gift of her delivery would be lost. They picked their way in silence up a

steep and gloomy path of darkness. There remained but little more to climb till they would touch the earths surface,

when in fear he might again lose her, and anxious for another look at her, he turned his eyes so he could gaze upon her.

Instantly she slipped away. He stretched out to her his despairing arms, eager to rescue her, or feel her form. . . 12 Ovid,Metamorphoses, Book 11: 1-60.13 Plato, TheRepublic 10.620a, trans. A.E. Taylor14 Plato, The Laws, 3.677d, trans by A.E. Taylor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/43_BChttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/43_BC


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abstention from all that is animal.15

There is an interesting indictment against Orpheus in The

Symposium. Plato relates how the gods sent Orpheus away from Hades empty-handed, showing

him only the mere shadow of the woman he had come to seek. Plato continues by saying that the

reason they wouldnt let him take Eurydice was that he was a mere minstrel, a luke warm lover

who lacked the courage to die for love. Instead, he chose to scheme his way, living, into

Hades. This is why the gods doomed him. . . to met his death at the hands of women. 16 InIon

Plato remarks on his skill at playing the harp.17

Pindar (518-438 BCE) refers to the father of songs, much-praised Orpheus, and says that Orpheus

was one of the ten heroes who responded to the call of Jason and joined him and theArgonatus.18

Herodotus (484-420 BCE) makes a comparison between the Egyptians and the Greeks and says,

among other things, that the Egyptians are not buried in woolen garmentsa custom which agrees

with the rites known as Orphic and Bacchic (actually Egyptian and Pythagorean); for anyone

initiated into these rites is similarly debarred from burial in a garment of wool.19

Euripides (485-406 BCE) writes about Orpheus in The Bacchae: Perhaps in those thick woods of

Mount Olympus, where Orpheus once played his lyre, brought trees together with hissongs, collecting wild beasts round him.

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Aristophanes (457-385 BCE)praises him: Just think how much the brave and lofty poets havehelped the people going way back ever since the olden days! There, amongst these poets, you see

grand Orpheus who revealed to us all sorts of mystic ways, taught us all how not to kill, to be

peaceful!21

In The Bacchae, while asking where the worship of Dionysus takes place, Euripides

speculates that it is Perhaps in those thick woods of Mount Olympus where Orpheus once played

his lyre, brought trees together with his songs, collecting wild beasts round him. 22

Cicero (106-43 BCE) also, referring to Orpheus and his successors, says: 'The ancients, whether

they were seers or interpreters of the divine mind in the tradition of the sacred initiations, seem to

have known the truth, when they affirmed that we were born into the body to pay the penalty for

sins committed in a former life (vita superiore)'.23

Horace (65-8 BCE) wrote in the Ars Poetica: 'Orpheus, a Priest, and speaker for the gods, First

frighted men, that wildly liv'd in woods, From slaughters, and foule life'24

While men still lived

in the woods, Orpheus, the gods Sacred medium, prevented bloodshed and vile customs, Hence its

said that he tamed tigers and raging lions.25

Plutarch (46-127 ACE) in On the Cessation of Oracles I, says: But to me those men appear to have

solved more and greater difficulties who have made out a family ofDaemons, intermediate betweengods and men, and after a certain fashion bringing together and uniting in one the society of both;

whether this doctrine belong to the Magi and the followers of Zoroaster, or is a Thracian one

15 Plato, The Laws, 6.782c, trans A.E. Taylor16 Plato, Symposium 179d, trans. Michael Joyce17 Plato,Ion 533b, trans Lane Cooper.18 Pindar, Pythian Odes, 4.17619 Herodotus, The Histories, II: 7920 Euripides, The Bacchae, line 699 ff21 Aristophanes, The Frogs, Act II, Scene 2, 1030.22 Euripides, The Bacchae, line 960 and following23 Cicero, inHortensio, Frag., p.60.24 Cited in Edward Henry Blakeney,Horace on the Art of Poetry (Scholartis of London: London, 1928) who givesArs

Poetica 128: 557-9 as the source.25 Horace,Ars Poetica: 366-507
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vor?type=phrase&alts=0&group=typecat&lookup=Orpheus&collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Romanhttp://orpheus/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/46http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/127http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/127http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/46http://orpheus/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vor?type=phrase&alts=0&group=typecat&lookup=Orpheus&collection=Perseus:collection:Greco-Roman


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coming from Orpheus, or Egyptian, or Phrygian, as we may infer from the rites which point in

either direction, for we perceive many things belonging to death, and of lugubrious sort in the orgies

done and the ceremonies performed of the Greeks.26

And in Cimon and LucullusComparedhe

makes passing mention of Orpheus saying that Plato referred to him scornfully.27

Pausanias (c.150 - c.180 ACE) says in his Guide to Greece, that an unnamed Egyptian believed

that .Amphion and Orpheus were dark and brilliant magicians, and the wild beasts came toOrpheus and the rocks built themselves into a wall for Amphion at the singing of their spells.

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He mentions a Temple of the Maid of Salvation, supposed to have been built by Thracian Orpheus

. . .29

He says that the Thracian Orpheus is supposed to have built a temple for the Maid of

Salvation.30

He says Mystery is carved standing beside Orpheus the Thracian; all around him

beasts in stone and bronze are listening to his song31

and in his opinion Orpheus outdid his

predecessors in beautiful verse, and obtained great power because people believed he discovered

divine mysteries, rites to purify wicked actions, cures for diseases, defenses against the curses of

heaven.32

He also considers various reasons given for Orpheus death.33

He writes that there is a

shrine to the bean man . . . and those who know the mystery of Eleusis and those who have read

Orpheus will know what I am talking about.34

and states that the Lakonians claim they were

taught to worship Underground Demeter by Orpheus, but in my opinion it was through thesanctuary at Hermione that the tradition of Demeter as Underground goddess spread to Lakonia.

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The church fathers knew about Orpheus too, although they didnt always approve of him. Clement

of Alexandria (c.150-215 ACE), had much to say about Orphic music and Orpheus: In my

opinion, therefore, our Thracian Orpheus, (whom he also calls a Thracian wizard36

) and the

Theban and the Methymnian too, are not worthy of the name of man, with flowers and harlotry,

since they were deceivers. Under cover of music they have outraged human life . . .37

He also

twists the meaning of some verses attributed to Orpheus to mean that in the end, Orpheus embraced

what Clement considered true religion.38

Philostratus the Younger (circa 300 ACE) was a Greek writer,. He wrote theImagines (orImages),

a poetic collection of essays on the topic of mythic paintings. He was influenced by his

grandfather, Philostratus the Elder (c. 210 ACE), who also produced a work called the Imagines.

Philostratus the Younger wrote long and eloquently of Orpheus, for example: Orpheus, the son of

the Muse, charmed by his music even creatures that have not the intelligence of man . . .39

26 Plutarch, On the Cessation of Oracles, I:10.27 Plutarch, Cimon and Lucullus.28 Pausanius, Guide to Greece, Vol II: Southern Greecetrans. with an intro. by Peter Levi. (London: Penguin Books,

1988), Vol. II: Southern Greece, Book VI,Eleia II, p. 347. .29 Pausanias, ibid., Book III, Lakonia, p. 45.30 Pausanius, ibid., Book III,Lakonia, p.45.31 Pausanius, ibid., Vol. I, Central Greece, Book IX,Boiotia, p. 371.32Ibid.33 Pausanius, ibid., Book IX,Boitia, pp. 372 ff.34 Pausanias, ibid., Book I,Attica, p. 105.35 Pausanias, ibid., p. 48.36 Clement of Alexandria,Exhortation to the Greeks, tr. Rev. G.W. Butterworth, Loeb, p. 3.37 Clement of Alexandria,Exhortation to the Greeks, tr. Rev. G.W. Butterworth, Loeb, p. 938 Clement of Alexandria,Exhortation to the Greeks, tr. Rev. G.W. Butterworth, Loeb. P. 16738 Philostratus the Younger,Imagines, trans. by Arthur Fairbanks. The entire passage is as follows:

That Orpheus, the son of the Muse, charmed by his music even creatures that have not the intelligence of man,

all the writers of myth agree, and the painter also so tells us. Accordingly, a lion and a boar near by Orpheus arelistening to him, and also a deer and a hare who do not leap away from the lions onrush, and all the wild

creatures to whom the lion is a terror in the chase now herd with him, both they and he unconcerned. And pray

do not fail to note carefully the birds also, not merely the sweet singers whose music is wont tot fill the groves,


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Augustine (354-430 ACE) wrote: After the same interval of time there came the poets, who also,

since they wrote poems about the gods, are called theologians, Orpheus, Musaeus, Linus. But these

theologians were not worshipped as gods, though in some fashion the kingdom of the godless is

wont to set Orpheus as head over the rites of the underworld.40

And in his Contra Faustum we find: According to Faustus, the predictions of the Sibyl, or

Orpheus, or any heathen poet, are more suitable for leading Gentiles to believe in Christ. He forgetsthat none of these are read in the churches, whereas the voice of the Hebrew prophets, sounding

everywhere41

Proclus (410-485 ACE) All theology among the Greeks is spring from the mystical doctrine ofOrpheus. First Pythagoras was taught the holy rites concerning the gods by Aglaophemus; next

Plato took over the whole lore concerning these matters from the Pythagorean and Orphic writings.42

Thomas Aquinas (1227-1274) mentions Orpheus but once, however, in spite of one scholar saying

that his statement was a repudiation of the idea that such poets as Orpheus were ancient

theologians, 43I believe that what he says can only be deemed favorable: It should be known thatthis Orpheus was one among the first philosophers who were, as it were, poet-theologians, speaking

in verse of philosophy and of God. And there were as many as three of these: Pythagoras,

Orpheus, and one other. And this Orpheus first led men into dwelling together and was a most

beautiful harmonizer, in that he brought bestial and solitary men into a civilized society. And

because of this it is said of him that he was the best musician, so much so that he made or might

make stones to dance; that is, he was so beautiful a harmonizer that he softened stony men. It is

worth commenting that Aquinas stopped short of saying that Orpheus music, in fact, moved stones,

but rather, took the ancient references as metaphor.44

Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) translated many of the Greek classical authors into Latin, including the

Hymns of Orpheus in 1462. Marsilio Ficino was among those who were deeply influenced by

Orpheus and the Orphica, and he was absolutely dedicated to Orpheus. In 1463 he completed his

translation of the Hermetica, before turning back to continuing work on Plato. In the collected

but also note, please, the chattering daw, the cawing crow, and the eagle of Zeus. The eagle, poised aloft onboth his wings, gazes intently at Orpheus and pays no heed to the hare near by, while the animals, keeping their

jaws closed both wolves yonder and the lambs are mingled together are wholly under the spell of the

enchanter, as though dazed. And the painter ventures a still more striking thing; for having torn trees up by the

roots he is brining them yonder to be an audience for Orpheus and is stationing them about him. Accordingly,

pine and cypress and alder and poplar and all the other trees stand about Orpheus with their branches joined like

hands, and thus, without requiring the craft of man, thy enclose for him a theatre, that therein the birds may sit on

their branches and he may make music in the shade. Orpheus sits there, the down of a first beard spreading overhis cheeks, a tiara bright with gold standing erect upon his head, his eye tender, yet alert, and divinely inspired as

his mind ever reaches out to divine themes. Perhaps even now he is singing a song; indeed his eyebrow seems to

indicate the sense of what he sings, his garment changes colour with his various motions, his left foot resting on

the ground supports the lyre which rests upon his thigh, his right foot marks the time by beating the ground with

its sandal, and, of the hands, the right one is firmly grasping the plectrum gives close heed to the notes, he elbowextended and the wrist bent inward, while he left with straight fingers strikes the strings. But an amazing thing

will happen to you, Orpheus: you now charm wild beasts and trees, but to women of Thrace you will seem to be

sadly out of tune and they will tear your body in pieces, though even wild beasts had gladly listened to your

voice.40 St. Augustine, de Civitate Dei, xviii. 1441 St Augustine, Contra Faustum, Book XIII:2.42 Proclus: in Theologia Platonica, i., 6, p. 13, 343 See Patricia Vicari, The Triumph of Art, the Triumph of Death: Orpheus in Spenser and Milton, in John Warden,ed., Orpheus: The Metamorphoses of a Myth, University of Toronto Press; Toronto, Buffalo, London, 1982; paperback

reprint, 1985, p. 21444 St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentarium in De Anima Aristotelis.
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letters of Ficino there are no less then six references to a lyre, and there is no doubt these alluded to

the lyre of Orpheus. Ficino apparently had managed to resurrect this long lost music, and although

we have no surviving transcriptions of the music, we know that he was famed for his skill with the

Orphic lyre. In a letter to Ficino Cosimo de Medici closes by saying: Farewell. Come, and bring

your Orphic lyre with you.45

Ficino also combined medicine and the lyre with the study of

theology, as he said in a letter to Francesco Musano of Iesi. 46 When extolling the benefits of

physical health, in a speech in praise of medicine, Ficino said Thus, in a hymn to health, Orpheussang: Without thee, all things are useless to men.

47We know that Ficino had made translations of

the Hermetica available to Cosimo de Medici, and much is made of this in the literature of

esotericism, howeverand this supports my view that the Orphica are an important part of

esotericism and should be regarded as such and studiedaccording to D.P. Walker, in a letter

written in June, 1492 to Martinus Uranius, Ficino said that he would not publish his translation of

the Orphic Hymns for fear of encouraging polytheism, and he said that he was sending, as

promised, certain safer songs of Orpheus.48

From Ralph Cudworth (16171688)we have: It is the opinion of some eminent philologers oflater times, that there never was any such person as Orpheus, except in Fairy land; and that his

whole history was nothing but a mere romantic allegory, utterly devoid of truth and reality. Butthere is nothing alleged for this opinion from antiquity...

49

In his General History of Music (published 1776-1789), Charles Burney (1726-1814) wrote: If

I have selected with too much sedulity and minuteness whatever ancient and modern writers

furnish relative to Orpheus, it has been occasioned by an involuntary zeal for the fame of this

musical and poetical patriarch; which, warm at first, grew more and more heated in the course of

enquiry; and, stimulated by the respect and veneration which I found paid to him by antiquity, I

became a kind of convert to this mystagogue, and eagerly aspired at initiation into his

mysteriesin order to reveal them to my readers.50

In her Introduction to Thomas Taylor The Platonist: Selected Writings, the late Kathleen Raine

quotes the great scholar G.R.S. Mead who said that his own interpretation of Orphism is but an

expansion of Taylors preface to the Hymns, and that Thomas Taylor (1758-1835) was more

than a scholar, he was a philosopher in the Platonic sense of the word, whose purpose was to

diffuse the salutary light of genuine philosophy. This is all true. Taylor was not an academic in

the sense that much of the contemporary world thinks of academics. He had an agendahe was

completely against mechanistic materialism and did all he could to promote a return to

traditional wisdom.51

As regards the facts regarding Orpheus life, we are inevitably and immediately confronted with a

situation in which our character may have been a real human being or may have beenmythological, and no one has been able to discover anything that can lead to a definitive

conclusion one way or another. Notwithstanding the problems concomitant with its study,

Orpheus and Orphism have proved fascinating to generations of scholars. Of Orpheus, Taylor

45The Letters of Marsilio Ficino, preface by Paul Oskar Kristeller, Vol. I, London: Shepheard-Walwyn (Publishers)

Ltd, 1978, Letter I, p. 3246Ibid., Letter 5, p. 40.47Ibid., Vol. III, Letter 14, p. 25. The source for this is given as Abel, Orphica, LXVII; Hymns of Orpheus, LXVII, in

Thomas Taylor, Selected Writings, ed. K. Raine, p. 274.48 D.P. Walker, Chapter 1, Orpheus the Theologianin The Ancient Theology (Duckworth Publishers: London, 1972),

pp. 27-28.49 Ralph Cudworth: The True Intellectual System of the Universe, 1678.50 Charles Burney: A General History of Music, 1776-1789. Page number to follow.51 Thomas Taylor The Platonist: Selected Writings edited with introductions by Kathleen Raine and George Mills

Harper (Bollingen Series LXXXVIII, Princeton University Press: Princeton, New Jersey, 1969) , p.11


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wrote, The great obscurity and uncertainty in which the history of Orpheus is involved affords

very little matter for our information; and even renders that little, inaccurate and precarious.

Upon surveying the annals of past ages, it seems that the greatest geniuses have been subject to

this historical darkness; as is evident in those great lights of antiquity, Homer and Euclid, whose

writings indeed enrich mankind with perpetual stores of knowledge and delight; but whose lives

are for the most part concealed in impenetrable oblivion. But this historical uncertainty is no

where so apparent as in the person of Orpheus, whose name is indeed acknowledged andcelebrated by all antiquity (except perhaps Aristotle alone); while scarcely a vestige of his life is

to be found amongst the immense ruins of time. For who has ever been able to affirm any thing

with certainty, concerning his origin, his age, his parents, his country, and condition?52

Over a hundred years later, Jane Harrison (1850-1928) begins her survey of Orpheus in the

Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion by saying that Mythology has left us no tangle

more intricate and assuredly no problem half so interesting as the relation between the ritual and

mythology of Orpheus and Dionysos.53

Unlike some, however, Jane Harrison was convinced of

the historicity of Orpheus saying that Orpheus was an actual person, living, teaching, writing,

writing perhaps in those old Pelasgian characters which Linos used long before the coming of

Phoenician letters, characters which it may be are those still undeciphered which have come tolight in Crete.

54

Contemporary scholars have been no less interested. W.K.C. Guthrie stated: Everyone, in

short, has heard of Orpheus. It is when we try to be a little less poetic and a little more historical

that we find our difficulties beginning. As we try to trace him back through the ages he becomes

more shadowy, more elusive, more Protean in his aptitude for slipping away from anyone who

tries to lay actual hands on him and make him tell just what he is and what he stands for.55

And, on writing about Ficinos method in mythology, Michael J.B. Allen writes that Ficinos

own term [for what he did] was to proceed Orphically that is, as Orpheus himself

supposedly proceeded in addressing hymns to the various deities in the classical pantheon. To

proceed Orphically was the only way of accommodating polytheistic structures to the deep

grammar of monotheism.56

I.M. Linforth wrote: The reality of Orpheus is to be sought in what men thought and said about

him. 57

M.L. West well understood the power of the mere name of Orpheus: Orpheus name: that is

what it all comes down to. It is a name that no amount of trivial application or cold-blooded

scholarship robs of its fascination.58

52 See the introduction to The Hymns of Orpheus, 1787, by Thomas Taylor, in Thomas Taylor the Platonist: Selected

Writings edited with introductions by Kathleen Raine and George Mills Harper (Bollingen Series LXXXVIII,Princeton University Press: Princeton, New Jersey, 1969)53Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Merlin Press: London, 1962 originally published in 1903, p.454.54Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Merlin Press: London, 1962 originally published in 1903, p. 467;

see also her footnote 1 which cites the Greek of Diodorus that maintains that Linos and Orpheus each used Pelasgic

letters.55 W.K.C. Guthrie: Orpheus and Greek Religion, Princeton 1993 originally published in 1934.56 Michael J.B. Allen, The Platonism of Marsilio Ficino: A Study of His Phaedrus Commentary, its Sources and

Genesis (Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of California: Berkeley, 1984), p.p. 114-115. Seealso D.P. Walker,Ancient Theology, op.cit,. pp. 22-41.57 I.M. Linforth, The Arts of Orpheus, University of California Press, 1941, p.xiii58 M.L. West, The Orphic Poems (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1983) , p. 263.


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And finally, E.R. Dodds: Orpheus, however, is one thing, Orphism quite another. But I must

confess that I know very little about early Orphism, and the more I read about it the more my

knowledge diminishes.59

Here we have, then, the basic story of Orpheus and a good sense of the very varied scholarly

commentary on him across the centuries. It is important to add that Orpheus has proved an object

of fascination for artists, writers and composers as well. For example, the operaLa Favola di Orfeowas created in 1494 by Angleo Poliziano. Marsilio Ficino would have been intimately involved

with this production Eurydice, an opera written in Florence by Jacopo Peri and Ottavio Rinuccini,

was produced in 1600. It was created for the marriage ofHenry IV and Maria de Medici. This is

considered by some to be the second work of modern opera. The first,Dafne, was written by the

same authors in 1597. Then there was Claudio Monteverdi, (1567-1643) who followed with

LOrfeo in 1610. Dozens, even hundreds, of operas and films have followed; the latest opera

premiered in 2007 in New York City. It could be argued that making the gods manifest is the

original purpose of opera, but in any case, we know that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts The Magic

Flute was based on the story of Orpheus. And, following the example of Orpheus and the whole

tradition of theurgy, Richard Wagner insisted that the action of the gods in his operas took place

here and now as they were being performed, and Karlheinz Stockhausen also followed theexample of Orpheus, by saying that when his works were performed, the gods must appear.

60

Among the films, in 1949, Jean Cocteau began filming his 1926 play Orphe, and in September,

1950, the film won the Prix International de la Critique at the Venice Film Festival and the

following year it was awarded First Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Cocteaus last film was

called The Testament of Orpheus, and explored his own life and work. A Portuguese Film, Orfeu

Negro,Black Orpheus, was 1959 Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize Winner. Orpheus has been the

subject of paintings too numerous to mention, but it is worth mentioning that the poet Guilaume

Appolinaire coined the term Orphism or Orphic cubism to categorize paintings of Robert

Delaunay. The idea became influential, and influenced no less then Picasso.

The Orphica themselves consist of numerous texts, only some of which have survived. According

to the great scholar ofOrphica, M.L. West, the extant Orphic Hymns were composed in the late

Imperial period, and the Orphic Argaunautica in late antiquity. The Rhapsodic Theogony, of

which we have only fragments, has been variously dated to the sixth century BCE, to the

Hellenistic age, or even later.61

As for the rest of the poetry, although some are only fragments or

reconstructions, we do have names: The Protogonos andDerveni Theogonies, The Eudemina and

Cyclic Theogonies, The Death and Rebirth of Dionysus, The Hieronyman Theogony and the

aforementioned Rhapsodic Theogony.62

Isaac Casaubons (1559-1614) dating of the Hermetic texts in 1614 proved to be a watershed with

which all scholars of esotericism are familiar. In his work he claimed that since neither Plato, norAristotle, nor any of the other pagan authors mention Hermes Trismegistus, the writings attributed

59 In E.R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational (University of California Press: Berkeley, 1951), p. 147.60 From a personal communication from Andy Green, who attended a performance of Stockhausens Donnerstag aus

licht (Thursday from Light) at Covent Garden in 1985. The program quoted Stockhausen as saying that during

performances of his work the gods must appear. In Michael Kurtz, Stockhausen: A Birography, trans by Richard

Toop (Faber & Faber: London & Boston, 1992; 1994), we reads: Stockhausens attempt to create a cosmic world

theatre that summarizes and intensifies his lifelong concern: the unity of music and religion, allied to a vision of an

essentially musical mankind. Stockhausens world theatre is enacted not only on Earth, for the plot also unfolds in the

world beyond. It considers the destiny of mankind, the Earth and the Cosmos, in conjunction and confrontation with the

spiritual essences Michael, Lucifer and Eve. Michael, the Creator-Angel of our universe, represents the progressive

forces of development. Lucifer is his rebellious antagonist, and Eve works towards a renewal of the genetic quality ofhumanity through the rebirth of a more musical mankind.61 M.L. West, op.cit., , p.1.62 For exhaustive details on all of these see The Orphic Poems, ibid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacopo_Perihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottavio_Rinuccinihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1600http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_Francehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_de_Medicihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1597http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1597http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_de_Medicihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_Francehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1600http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottavio_Rinuccinihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacopo_Perihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera


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to him must have been forgeries by Christian or semi-Christian authors.63

He correctly points out

that since they mention certain things which we can date, like Phidias and the Pythian games and

Greek author, things which were later then the texts were purported to be, that this proves they are

not genuine. And then he points to problems with the style of the Greek, which is in a late style

with late vocabulary.64

It is interesting to note that Ralph Cudworth (16171688), acceptedCasaubons views on the Hermetic texts, but still mentions Orpheus with approbation. Charles

Burney (1726-1814) cites Ralph Cudworths True Intellectual System of the Universe, saying thatafter examining and confuting the objections that have been made to the being of an Orpheus, and

with his usual learning and abilities, clearly establishing his existence Cudworth proceeds, in a

very ample manner, to speak of the opinions and writings of our bard, whom he regards not only as

the first musician and poet of antiquity, but as a great mythologist, from whom the Greeks derived

the Thracian religious rites and mysteries.65

In contrast to the appropriately debunkedHermetica,

when it comes to the Orphica we have, as one says, an entirely different kettle of fish. First, we

remember that one of the problems with the Hermetica was that the texts referred to authors that

clearly dated the texts later then they were supposed to have been. However, we do not find this to

be the case with the Orphica. Secondly, we can indeed date the Orphica as being early because we

know that Plato, who is considered a very reliable source indeed, actually held the Orphic texts in

his hands and quoted from them. And thirdly, while we know that the latest copy of Orphic textscome from the 2

ndcentury ACE, we know, from the huge numbers of more ancient authors who

cited them, that they existed previously. It is perhaps ironic to note that James I, who

commissioned Isaac Casaubon to debunk theHermetica was himself a neo-Platonist (among many

others), who actually wrote a book on kingship for his son in which he reputedly talks about using

Orphic music as a way of helping to unify a country.66

Now I want to turn to an examination of how, in my view, Orpheus teaching (or, if you like, the

teaching attributed to Orpheus) follows Antoine Faivres typology of esotericism.

According to Antoine Faivre, esotericism possesses four intrinsic elements which are (1)

correspondences, (2) living nature, (3) imagination and mediation, and (4) the experience of

transmutation.67

With respect to correspondence what we have is basically the idea that what is above is like that

which is below, and what is below is like that which is above. These ideas permeate Orphic

teachings, one notable example being found in theHymns of Orpheus where we find: One is the

63 I have used Frances Yates account of Casaubons discovery in her Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (The

University of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1964, p. 399.64

Ibid.65 Charles Burney,A General History of Music, 1776. (Reprinted by Dover: New York, 1935), p. 260.66 This will take some unpacking. Henry Peacham published an emblem of a harp with a verse in his Minerva Britannia(London: 1611-12). He headed the emblem Hibernica Respub: ad Jacobum RegemThe Republic of Ireland: to

my King James. (this in spite of the fact that we know King James unified Scotland.) The verse is his English

translation of something James I wrote in hisBasilicon Doron (The Kingly Gift), the book on kingship he wrote for his

son. It contains the following: Nere was the musick of old Orpheus suck, As that I make, by meane (Deare Lord) of

thee, Of the seven copies of the original private edition of 1599, we now have only twoin the National Library ofScotland and in the Grenville collection in the British Museum. At the bottom of the page he reproduces a verse,

allegedly from theBasilicon Doron. Part of which reads: Ipse redux nervos diffendis (Phoebe) rebelled, Et istupet ad

nostros Orpheus ipse fonos. Not having a copy of theBasilicon Doron, I searched the Internet, found an online copy,

searched it, but could not find the word Orpheus. Clearly, more research has to be done! That Peacham is not an

impeccable source is suggested by Roger Stritmatter in Thy Not-Too-Hidden Key to Minerva Britannia in the

Summer 2000 (36:2) issue of Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter, where he writes: Mason Tung (1997), analyzing

Peacham's appropriation of traditional emblem materials from other writers, discovers a persistent habit of "indicating

'apparent' sources yet concealing the 'real' ones" and wonders "what motivates [Peacham] to play a game of 'hide andseek' with his reader?"67 Antoine Faivre and Jacob Needleman, Editors; Karen Voss, Associate Editor, Modern Esoteric Spirituality

(Crossroad: New York, 1992), p. xv.


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powr divine in all things known And one the ruler absolute alone. For in Joves royal body all

things like, Fire, night and day, earth, water and the sky.68

As far as the idea of living nature, this is found throughout The Hymns of Orpheus and certainly

in the practices, perhaps most particularly the music. Allow me to explain. In the Hymn to

Apollo we read: And evry part of this terrestrial ball . . . Extends beneath the gloormy, silent

night. . . Beyond the darkness, starry-eyd, profound, The stable roots, deep fixd by thee arefound, The worlds wide bounds, all flourishing are thine, Thyself of all the source and end

divine: Tis thine all Natures music to inspire, With various-pounding, harmonising lyre; Now

the last string thou tunst to sweet accord, Divinely warbling now the highest chord:69

As I

understand it, comparing music and astronomy is very ancient, originating in Orpheus and

Pythagoras, and found also in Plato. Orphic doctrine held that the lyre of Apollo is an image of

the celestial harmony, or the melody caused by the orderly revolutions of the celestial spheres.

The circuit of the furthest planet corresponds to lowest soundNete. A musical ratio is

significant of each of three seasonswinter, which isHypate; Nete, which is summer; andDoria

which is spring and autumn. 70 Music is something that happens on an earthly plane, and on

every plane; in other words, in all of Nature, including Supernature. Thus, the phenomenon of

music necessarily has everything to do with Living Nature. Very, very interestingly for ourdiscussion of living nature, below, is the following quote from John Wardens article, in

Orpheus, the Metamorphosis of a Myth: The lyre, given . . . to Orpheus by Mercury and by

Orpheus to Pythagoras, confers the divine right, like the scepter of Agamemnon. It represents

the harmony of the spheres, its seven strings standing for the seven planets. And it is more than

a symbol; mathematically the intervals of the Orphic lyre are the structural basis of the entire

visible universe and of the human soul. It offers an assurance on the relationship between

microcosm and macrocosm. Man by exploring his own interior space finds a structure in the

microcosm identical with that of the macrocosm. He finds the lyre within himself and

explicates it, as Cusanus put it. . . . The lyre makes explicit the assumption that underlies all

Platonic realism that the route to the truth lies through introspection, that the structure of the

mind is identical with the structure of reality: Begin by considering thyself and better still, end

with that.71

Warden very aptly states that Orpheus. . . is not just theologus but theologus poeta.

. . It is because he is a poet, because he has skill and inspiration, that he is able to understand and

is privileged to tell of these mysteries.72

He continues: He is an artist and this world, this bel

tempio, is a work of art.73

Ficino himself understood this very, very well. He writes: We see

then that the music of the soul gradually spreads to all the limbs of the body. And it is this that

orators, poets, painters, sculptors and architects express in their works. 74 The Orphic belief is

that there is an intimate connection between all things in the universe, and that all of Nature (and

Supernature, as I have already said) is alive. That there is artistry involved is clearOrpheus is

a poet and a musicianas John Warden puts it, he is the self-conscious artist, and he led us so

that we would do the same.

75

One other very important point should be made with respect to the idea of living nature and

Orpheus and it is this. We are told over and over again that, through his music, Orpheus touched

68op.cit., Thomas Taylor: The Platonist, p. 177.69op.cit, Thomas Taylor:The Platonist, pp. 247-248.70ibid., p. 247, n. 52.71 John Warden, Orpheus and Ficino in Orpheus, the Metamorphosis of a Myth, University of Toronto Press, 1982),

pp. 93-94.72 Basarab Nicolescu reminds us that our English word poet comes from the Greek poiein meaning to do. Basarab

Nicolescu,Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity, translated by Karen-Claire Voss (State University of New York Press:

New York, 2002), p. 90.73 Orpheus and Ficino, op cit.74

Ibid, from Ficino Opera 651, in a letter to CanisianusDe musica. .75Orpheus and Ficino, ibid,p. 99.


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human beings and animals and birds. His music was also purported to have affected trees and

even rocks. This is critically important because it stands the notion that human beings are the

sole and absolute crown of creation on its head. At the very least it supports a view that literally

everything in the universe is connected with everything else.

Orpheus and Orphism certainly demonstrate imagination and mediation. Orpheus becomes what

Faivre calls a transmitter, or an initiator. Through abstinence and purification an initiate couldbecome one with the divine. In a document preserved by Porphyry in a treatise called Abstinence

from Animal Food, we find a fragment from Euripides Cretans that contains a veritable confession

of faith76

In it, we find the initiate explicitly identifying himself with the god Jove.

Finally, that Orpheus had to do with transmutation is quite clear from the effect his lyre playing had

on everything from the birds of the air and the beasts in the field, to rocks, trees and water, and

human beings themselves. The Orphic lyre functioned not only to transform, but also to transmute

on account of the fact that listening to it entailed changes of consciousness. I want to make it clear

that here I am making an ontological point.

In closing, an aside. I say an aside because I have concluded my remarks concerning my topic andthis last is self indulgent. On second thought, perhaps it is neither self-indulgent nor an aside

because I cannot help remembering what W.K.C. Guthrie said about professional scholars, who

have more than once been given excellent grounds for believing Orphism to be nothing more than

a field of rash speculation on insufficient evidence.77

What I have said here is important, and

hopefully, will encourage serious scholars to explore Orpheus and Orphism. Certainly, it seems

clear that what we can learn from all of this is that Orpheus and the Orphica are indeed part of

esotericism, and as such, should not be ignored by the scholars of esotericism. More then that,

however, and this next will doubtless strike a familiar chord with those who are familiar with my

work, it seems to me that Orpheus and the Orphica indeed function like beacons, beckoning us to

approach our work as seekers of knowledge have traditionally done. We are in danger of wringing

the life out of our field. Where once a scholar like Amos Bronson Alcott published an article

entitled Philosophemes in the Journal of Speculative Philosophy (c. 1870) which expounded Neo-

Platonist ideas,78

we now have created a situation in which all so-called speculative philosophy is

banned from the academy. What would the present editorial board of the Journal of Speculative

Philosophy do with such a paper by one as Alcott? What would we do now with a Socrates or a

Ficino? Would either be awarded tenure at a respectable academic institution? I think not. In my

view the direction in which the academy is headed, and perhaps particularly where the field of

esotericism is headed, needs to be reviewed. The danger we are currently in is at least as life-

threatening as global warming. It is my hope that this paper will function to encourage such a

review.

76Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Merlin Press: London, 1962 originally published in 1903, p. 478; see

also, ibid., pp. 478-47977 W.K.C. Guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion (Princeton University Press: Princeton, New Jersey, 1993,; orig.Published Methuen & Co., 1952) p.xxxv.78 See Jay Bregman, Alcotts Transcendental Neoplatonism and the Concord Summer School, inAlexandria V, 2000:

253-270.


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Appendix 1

Some Images of Orpheus

Though it is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, one suspects that has been

impressed upon us by picture makers rather than writers. As a scientist (much published in the

fields of photographic chemistry, physics, mathematics, and imaging technology) to trade, amusician by choosing, and a collector of anything to do with the lyre and the lute by chance, I feel

most privileged to have been asked by Professor Voss to attempt to add a few illustrations to her

paper on the Orphica.

As I am no academic in the humanities I must apologise for my poor attempts to identify sources of

material largely copied unofficially from expert publications and I will also keep my commentary

to a minimum, and stress that anything I say is nothing but my own opinion.

As is the case with texts, there is no shortage of images of Orpheus. And one could probably

produce one from each of the 2500 years since the earliest. It is tempting, therefore, to show

images which are almost unknown but it is necessary to concentrate on the most significant and,in doing so, one must display the usual suspects.

First though, an item from Professor Vosss own collection. This is recent, and because of that one

might expect something trivial. But, in fact, this includes more about Orpheus and Orphic

scholarship than any other piece we have seen.


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In this case, at least, the provenance is clear.

The plate has a series of cameos labelled as follows: Eurydice, Hermes, Pluto, Oeagrus, Orpheus,

Jason, Calliope, and Dionysus. As an example we may look at the Dionysus cameo. As well as

Dionysus we have the Maenads in the background, and the lyre in the river floating towards Lesbos.

Elsewhere (at five oclock) we can see two male figures probably the Dioscuri/ Kuretes. They are

the subject of the thirtieth Orphic Hymn, and are mentioned in the Rhapsodies. They also were

involved, with Orpheus, in the mythical Argonautica.

That said, we can begin to look at the genuine sources, beginning with the earliest image and

reference to Orpheus. The horseman is believed to have been one of the Dioscuri/ Kuretes.

Inscription on a metope from the Sicyonian Treasury at Delphi. The treasury was constructed ca.500 BCE, but

the date of the metope is thought to be ca.560 BCE.


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While we may well ignore the attribution of a 6th

century ACE grammarian of the phrase

famous Orpheus to Ibycus, we cannot ignore this relief since it is extant. We know from

Pindar that Orpheus was, at the earliest time, associated with the myth of the voyage of the Argo.

This metope clearly depicts the Argo. And, although you cant see it here, the name is

inscribed beneath one of the lyre players. The only difficulty here is that we may have to assume

that Orpheus was already mythological within his own lifetime.

But it was his death that brought him into prominence. And there are enough images on Atticred-figured vases (which cannot be earlier than 530 BCE) to provide a complete film script.

Make of this what you will. On the earliest vases Orpheus is very clearly Greek, but in Thrace.

Later, only, is he depicted as a Thracian. It is worthy of note that Thrace was then subjugated by

the Persians and Persia had its eye on Greece as the next conquest.

Orpheus is seen entrancing Thracian soldiers with his music. Some vases show the Thracian

women approaching from the background. They are sometimes, as Ovid described, armingthemselves with farmyard implements and whatever they can find. Finally they set upon Orpheus

while the Thracian soldiers step to one side.

The Death of Orpheus, from a red figured vase in Boston.

W.K.C. Guthrie: Orpheus and Greek Religion, Princeton 1993 originally published in 1934.

The rest, as they say, is history.

We may guess that Orpheus was very important to the Greeks. We may also surmise that his death

occurred around 500 BCE. As it happens Professor West dates the original writings of Orpheus to

coincide with that. And within a generation or so we find the following:


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Bone plates from Olbia, 5th century BCE

M.L.West, The Orphic Poems (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1983) .


Professor West (my daughters tutor in the classics, so of course I was not allowed to meet him!)

translated these as follows:

(1)Life: death: life, - Truth, - A - | - Dio(nysus), Orphic().(2)Peace; war. Truth: falsehood. - Dio(nysus) | - A.(3)Dio(nysus) | - Truth. (illegible word) soul. A.

On the reverse of two of the plates are symbols which are open to interpretation. Though, as Westpoints out the seven compartmented symbol must represent a musical instrument and in my

opinion, the lyre.


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One still has the feeling that since you know the story of Orpheus you can ignore anything else

having to do with him. But since Orpheus is perhaps the one case where genuine ancient wisdom

really is right in front of us, Orpheus teachings should not be ignored. Or, maybe the seekers of

ancient wisdom are insincere, and while they like to look for it, they dont really want to find it.

A fragment of the Derveni papyrus.


The Derveni papyrus, discovered in 1962, is one of the oldest Greek literary manuscripts (dating

from the fouth century BCE) and is a commentary on a work by Orpheus. It vies, for age, only with

fragments of the play Persae written by the famed playwright and musician Timotheus. As far as

the Orphica is concerned, however, it makes little difference because Timotheus also wrote

therein about Orpheus, attesting to him thus: the first inventor of music was Orpheus, son of

Calliope.

From hereon in we can only deal with what is most likely to be myth. Eurydice is a later

introduction to the myth, rather than the reality, of Orpheus.

Orpheus, Eurydice, and Hermes copy of relief of c. 400 BCE.



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Some translations of Plato include Eurydice, but inaccurately. Plato did refer to the wife of

Orpheus (and Orpheus seems to have had Musaeus as his son), but that his wife was Eurydice was

only an assumption.

From the second and first centuries BCE Orpheus was taken up by Judaic sects, if not by Judaism as

a whole. The Palinode, or Testament of Orpheus, demonstrates him to have been almost a failed

Messiah (and Orpheus did turn up at exactly the time prophesied). Here from the pre-Christiancatacombs in Rome we can see Orpheus surrounded by readily identifiable scenes from the Old

Testament.


It may be of interest to note that, even in the British Museum, much of the Orphic material is held in

the early Christian collection. There are many Old Testament associations particularly with

Jonah and the whale (death and rebirth?). And later, for a few hundred years, a Christianity with

Orpheus without Christ. Orpheus depicted as the Good Shepherd was very common and not

only in the catacombs.



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But next is my own personal favourite.

Gold signet ring depicting Orpheus, seated, playing the lyre to wild beasts. Beside him is a tree with a serpent coiled

round the trunk. The inscription is translated as The seal of John, the pre-eminent saint.

This ring is held in the depths of the British Museum As a British citizen I asked if I might put it onmy finger, and I was allowed!

The earliest depiction of a crucified figured (third century ACE) was clearly labelled Orphieos

Bakkikos that is Orpheus becomes god.


It would be stupid to deny the pre-eminence of Christianity, but one has to admit that all the extant

early Christian material relates only to Orpheus.


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So too the early temples (churches).

While there are no early Christian churches, Orphic temples from the Christian period are well

known across the whole of Europe and the Middle East. Here is one example of a cruciform Orphic

temple.

The Orpheus Mosaic, ca. 360, Littlecote, Berkshire.

Copied from the Radio Times.

The famous Hymns of Orpheus are thought to have been the liturgy of the temple at Pergamon,but one might assume that there were similar hymns at places like Littlecote.

Oddly, it may seem, since the time of Augustine Orpheus was not a problem for Christians. He

appeared continuously throughout the medieval period.


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The two images above are from John B. Friedman, Orpheus in the Middle Ages, Havard University Press, 1970.

And the following, Orpheus and Eurydice leaving Hell, from Christine de Pisan, letter of Othea to

Hector, 1461.

Orpheus Through the Ages: published by Channel 4 television, 1985.


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It may be no coincidence that the next Orpheus was made only a year after Gemistus Plethon had

visited Florence and unleashed Platonism. It is worthy of note that the traditional lyre (or harp) now

becomes a lute though the lute was scarcely known in Europe at that time. This lute has only four

courses of strings.

Luca della Robbia: Orpheus, Campanile of the Cathedral, Florence, 1439.From John Warden, ed., Orpheus: The Metamorphoses of a Myth, University of Toronto Press; Toronto, Buffalo,

London, 1982; paperback reprint, 1985.

Later in Florence we find the bust of Marsilio Ficino, below, depicting him playing the book as if itwere a lute. This is surely a clue to the Orphic Lyre.

Marsilio Ficino, in the Cathedral, Florence


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Within a few years the lute, now with six courses, had risen from obscurity to the position of being

the instrument of choice for serious music. In Spain they played the vihuela which was nothing

but a lute shaped the modern guitar.

Luys Milan:El Maestro, Valencia, 1536.

El grande Orpheo ' primero inventorPor quien la vihuela / paresce en el mundo

Si el fue primero / no fue sin segundo

Porque es de todos / de todo hazedor.

The great Orpheus, first inventor,

Through whom the vihuela appeared in the world,

If he was the first, he was not without successors,

Because he is everything, the creator of everything.

(my translation)

Luys Milan:El Maestro, Valencia, 1536.

Music for the lute was published in large quantities from 1507 until the middle of the seventeenth

century. El Maestro was just one of the books which were associated with Orpheus.


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This section could hardly be complete without something from Thomas Taylor and images are

few.

Thomas Taylor the Platonist: Selected Writings edited with introductions by Kathleen Raine and George Mills Harper

(Bollingen Series LXXXVIII, Princeton University Press: Princeton, New Jersey, 1969)

Finally something which is not in the textbooks, nor the published literature a modern painting of

Orpheus and Eurydice by the Glasgow artist Andrew Fitzpatrick.

The myth lives on. The reality remains scarcely explored.

Andy Green, Glasgow, 2007.


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Appendix 2

Whatever Happened to the Orphic Lyre?

There is a work in progress79

and, in a nutshell it concludes that:

1) The music attributed to Orpheus was a reality.2) Marsilio Ficino probably received Orphic music in the same way that he received so manyancient texts that is, from refugees from the Eastern Church.

3) Since lyres were all but unknown during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the lute wasdeveloped as the instrument of choice.

4) The greatest lutenists of the sixteenth century knew they were the inheritors of Orphicmusic, and usually said so.

5) Many pieces of Orphic music were published, are still available, and are largely ignored.In order to satisfy anyone who wants Orphic music right now, without waiting for an explanation,

we can say the following:

This painting on the back cover of this document is, probably not the only, but the most obvious

example of the coincidence of multiple levels of reality.80

Anyone who is familiar, for example,

with Shakespeares The Tempest will get the idea. The practice (much abominated often) of

Theurgy is nothing but the intentional connection of separate levels of reality through the use of that

music which remains the only commonality between the different levels. The question is, what

music? Well, the painting, completed in 1508 in Venice, coincides with the publication of the first

book of Lute Music, also in Venice, by Petrucci, 1507. This was by Francesco Spinacino,

Intabulatura de Lauto, libro primo. There follows a small extract from the Minkoff edition, 1978.

This is the beginning of a recercare printed in Italian lute tablature, and the book even contains

instructions:

The name recercare, sometimes ricecar with multiple spellings in different publications or

fantasia, means a seeking out. There are thousands more. We call it research.

79 Contact the author for further details. Some of the consequences are so remarkable that the work has to be taken to

the level of a scientific study that is, it will stand up to the testing of anyone who has the will to do so.80 Multiple levels of reality are not science fiction, but science fact. That is clear from the works of Plato, Aristotles

Physics, Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, and more recently through Heisenberg and Basarab Nicolescu,Manifesto of

Transdisciplinarity, translated by Karen-Claire Voss (State University of New York Press: New York, 2002).


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P e n t h o u s e G a l l e r y

Giorgione (or perhaps Titian): Pastoral Scene (Fete Champetre)1508 Oil on canvas Muse du Louvre, Paris

GICLE PRINTERS PAR EXCELLENCE

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