O'RPHICA, certain works falsely ascribed to Orpheus, which em bodied the opinions of a class of persons whom Muller thus describes "These were the followers of Orpheus (of 'Opoteol); that is to say, associations of persons who, under the guidance of the ancient mystical poet Orpheus, dedicated themselves to the worship of Bacchus, in which they hoped to find satisfaction for an ardent longing after the soothing and elevating influences of religion. The Dionysus, to whose worship these Orphic and Bacchic rites (74 'Opepisa saAsopteva sal Basxml, Herod., ii. 81) were annexed, was the Chthonian deity Diony sus Zagreus, closely connected with Demeter and Cora, who was the personified expression, not only of the most rapturous pleasure, but also of a deep sorrow for the miseries of human life. The Orphic legends and poems related in great part to this Dionysus, who was combined, as an infernal deity, with Hades (a doctrine given by the philosopher lieraclitue as the opinion of a particular sect); and upon whom the Orphic theologers founded their hopes of the purification and ultimate immortality of the soul. But their mode of celebrating this worship was very different from the popular rites of Bacchus. The Orphic worshippers of Bacchus did not indulge in unrestrained pleasure and frantic enthusiasm, but rather aimed at an ascetic purity of life and manners. The followers of Orpheus, when they had tasted
the mystic sacrificial feast of raw flesh torn from the ox of Dionysus (loachrpayla), partook of no other animal food. They wore white linen garments, like Oriental and Egyptian priests, from whom, as Herodotus remarks, much may have been borrowed in the ritual of the Orphic worship." (' History of the Literature of Getece; where the reader will find a full account of the Orphic theology.) Of the Orphic writers the most celebrated are Onomacritus, who lived under Pisistmtus and his eons, and Cercops, a Pythagorean, who lived about B.O. 504. Works ascribed to Orpheus were extant at a very early period. Plato mentions several kinds of Orphic poems ; but be intimates that they were not genuine. Aristotle speaks of them as the so-called Orphic poems (sal KaAo6yeva). In later times all manner of works on mysteries and religion were ascribed to Orpheus. There are also Orphic poems later than the Christian era, which are difficult to be distinguished from those of earlier times. In Fabri cius's Bibliotheca Orxea,' there ie a fiat of the writings ascribed to Orpheus. [Oriensus, In Moo Div.]