ORPHANS' COURT. See SURR“GATE.
ORPHEUS, (Lat.. from Gk. 'OpOvir, of uncertain origin; possibly ennnected with the Skt. Rbhus, divine artists in the Vedas, or, per haps with greater probability, with Gk, opcb-, orph-, dark). A Greek legendary musician, whose prominence is lar_ply dm to his connection with a body of religious teaching. According to the common literary tradition, he was a Thracian, of (Eagros and Calliope or Polyh*Innia, though SCA' late writers name Apollo as his father. To him was attributed by some the invention of the lyre or of the cithara, while others hell that these were given him by Apollo. Proverbial was the power of his music, which drew to him wild beasts, birds, and even fishes, calmed the winds and storms, stilled the raging of the sea, and turned back the course of Ilis song also plays an important part in the stories connected With the voyage of the Ar gonauts. where he appears as priest and seer. lost famous, however, was his journey to the lower world to recover his wife,Eurydiee.a legend which seems to have received its full developm ent. only in the late Alexandrian time. (See Etray mcF,.) According to one version. Orpheus killed himself in his grief at the second loss of Eury dice; others said he was smitten by the thunder bolt of Zeus because his music by its magic power was breaking down the laws of nature. The most common version was that he was torn in pieces by the Thracian women, in their or giastic worship of Dionysus. his members were flung into the. sea, whence they were col lected by Calliope and the :Muses for burial amid the lamentations of all nature and the now re morseful women. Only the head floated across the sea to Lesbos, where it gave oracular re sponses from the cleft in which it lodged. The wonderful lyre was placed among the stars by Zeus, or inherited by Ants:ens, or dedieated in a temple of Apollo. Orpheus himself in the other delighted the shades with his song.
There seem to be no representations of Orpheus in ancient art before the red-figured Attic vases of the earlier fifth century. where lie appears simply as a singer among the Thracians, or as murdered by the women. From that time, how ever, the representations become more frequent, though they are most numerous in the later Hel lenistic and Poman periods. Among the scenes represented. two are especial favorites in the later art : (1) The resole or loss of Eurydice, as in the heantiful Attic relief of which the best ex ample is in Naples, and others ill Rome and Paris, and (2) Orpheus playing on his lyre, sur rounded by the wild beasts, of whieh several ex amples occur among the Pompeian paintings, while for some reason not yet satisfactorily stated it was a favorite theme in early Christian art.
The importance of Orpheus was largely due to the mass of religious literature which was attrib uted to hint from the sixth century B.c. The origin and exact nature of these writings and the character of the Orphie sects are among the most intricate and perplexing questions- in the history of Greek religious thought, nor is there all general agreement among scholars as to the detailed answers. It seems clear that, amid the general unrest which characterized Oreck thought during the sixth century. leading to the specula tions of the Ionian physicists and other early philosophers. to the practical maxim; of the Seven Wise Alen. and other manifestations of dis trust as to the earlier beliefs, there sprang up teachers who professed to be able to purify the soul from the sins of this life, and secure it happiness in the world to come. Among the doc trines and rites for securing this happiness, those taught in poems attributed to Orpheus seem to have enjoyed the widest popularity and to have influenced largely the thought and life of the time, furnishing more than mere suggestions to Pythagoras and Xenophanes. The votaries sub mitted to purification by various rites, including the sprinkling with blood, and were required to govern their lives by strict rules, which included abstinence from all animal food and beans, and forbade the wearing of any garment. containing
wool. Those who were initiated and followed the precepts of the master might hope to escape the horrors of Tartarus, and enjoy the bliss of the righteous, as described in a poem which nar rated fully the journey of Orpheus to the other world, and the revelations there received by him. Gold plates containing verses from this poem have been found in graves in Lower Italy, ob viously buried with believers to guide them in their journey to the world beyond. It is not clear that there was a large and organized Orphic sect. Rather the teachings and especially the rites seem to have been in the hands of wandering priests, many of whom possessed a very doubt ful reputation among the thoughtful, who re garded them as impostors greedy only for gain. On the other hand, there can be little doubt that, according to the common practice among the Greeks, the believers in these teachings formed religious societies. There seems no satisfactory evidence that Orpheus was regarded as a god by these people, for their worship centred around Dionysus, and their beliefs and practices were based on a system which seems to have been set forth in a Theogony, attributed to Orpheus, and of which many fragmentary citations have been preserved. It is in part an effort to combine the Bacehic worship of Dionysus, the omni present god. with the Greek conception of the supremacy of Zeus. In the beginning were Chaos. Crones. (Time), and _Ether. From Chaos and _Ether Cronos produced a silver egg, from which came !Thanes. the creator of all things, who is also Dionysus. After he had produced the heaven and earth and all things thereon. lie retired from sight, but after the world of the gods had grown up Zeus swallowed Planes, and thus this Dionysus became wholly a part of Zeus. The -on of Zeus and Persephone was Dionysus Zagreus. who was to succeed his father, but who was enticed away by the hostile Titans, torn in pieces, roasted and eaten. The heart alone was rescued and brought by Athena to Zeus, who placed it in the third Dionysus. son of Semele. lie also consumed the Titans with his thunderbolt, and scattered the ashes through the world, which thus became pervaded by Dionysus. The soul is immortal, and at death passes to Hades to be punished or rewarded, and then after a time to he reborn in animal or man, according as its former life has been evil or gond. Through initiation and pure living the soul may safely pass the perils of the lower world and the judgment, and when it has three times been acquitted of all guilt, it is freed from the round of rebirths and passes to the Islands of the Blessed.
Of the large mass of literature which passed under the name of Orpheas, only asma11 collec tion of late pieces has survived, the so-called Orphica, including the .irrnmautire, it short hex ameter poem of 1:1S4 verses. on the voyage of the Argo, with special reference to the deeds of Or pheus: the Lithira. in 165 verses, containing a discourse of Orpheus on the wondrous properties of stones; and SS hymns to gods and natural powers. The first two works can hardly be ear lier than the fourth century A.D., and most of the hymns are also late, though they may well contain earlier elements.
The scientific treatment of the Orphic mys teries was begun by Lubeck, .1glauphainas Kiinigsberg, 1529), whose work is still of great value. Consult also: Kern, De Orphri Epi wraidis Plicrreydis Theogoniis (Berlin. 1.55s); Maass, Orpheus (Munich, 1595), to be used with great caution. For the orphira, see llerrtha , cue Ihidelberger Jahrbi«.1u r, vi. ( Heidel berg, 159(1). For the Orphira, see Herrmann, OrA ica I Leipzig, 15u.1) Abel, Orphira (Berlin, 15S5) ; Dieterich, Dr Ilymnis Orphieis (Marburg, 1591), Consult: Knapp, r n (Tiibingem 1595) ; Heussner, Die alt eh rist lichen Or ph rusdarst el nyc ( Leipzig, 1593).