Orpheus the Pagan Prophet

Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things with his music; his journey to and from the underworld; and his death at the hands of those who could not hear his divine music. Greeks of the Classical age venerated Orpheus as the greatest of all poets and musicians. Shrines containing purported relics of Orpheus were regarded as oracles. Orpheus was credited with the composition of the Orphic Hymns, a collection of which survives. The earliest literary reference to Orpheus was in the sixth-century BCE.  He was sometimes credit with further gifts to mankind: medicine, writing, and agriculture. Orpheus was an augur and seer; practiced magic and astrology, and founded cults to Apollo and Dionysus. Strabo (64 BCE – c. 24 CE) presents Orpheus as a mortal, who lived and died in a village close to Olympus. Most ancient sources accepted his historical existence.

Followers of Orpheus also revered Persephone and Dionysus, both of whom annually descend into the underworld and return in a christ-like resurrection. The main story of the Orphic texts is this: Zagreus is the son of Persephone, who is murdered by the Titans, torn apart and consumed. The heart of the child is rescued and impregnated into a mortal woman Semele, so that Zagreus is reincarnated as Bromios "thunderer". The following image shows the infant in the arms of Hermes:

Floor mosaic from Nea Paphos, Cyprus, 4th century CE

The child grew up to become Dionysus the twice-born. The early 5th century poet Nonnus describes the Athenian celebrations:

They [the Athenians] honoured him as a god next after the son of Persephoneia, and after Semele’s son; they established sacrifices for Dionysos lateborn and Dionysos first born, and third they chanted a new hymn for Iakkhos. In these three celebrations Athens held high revel; in the dance lately made, the Athenians beat the step in honour of Zagreus and Bromios and Iakkhos all together.

Iakkhos was depicted as a young man holding the twin torches of the Mysteries, usually in the company of Persephone and her mother Demeter. Iacchus was called “the light-bringing star of our nocturnal rite” and he who ”brings salvation”. "Now most of the Greeks assigned to Dionysos, Apollon, Hekate, the Mousai (Muses), and above all to Demeter, everything of an orgiastic or Bacchic or choral nature, as well as the mystic element in initiations; and they give the name Iakkhos (Iacchus) not only to Dionysus but also to the leader-in-chief of the mysteries, who is the Daimon of Demeter. And branch-bearing, choral dancing, and initiations are common elements in the worship of these gods." Strabo, Geography 10. 3. 10 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer c.1st BCE to c.1st CE).

Vase depicting Iakkhos on the left and Hekate on the right, ca. 350 BCE

Egyptian mural depicting Dionysus, 4th century CE.

Reminiscent of the Rig-Veda, the Orphic Hymns contain a rich set of clues about Orphic beliefs. This translation is by Thomas Taylor, a British neo-Platonist classicist. To Bacchus (a Roman name for Dionysus):

BACCHUS I call, loud-sounding and divine,
Fanatic God, a two-fold shape is thine:
Thy various names and attributes I sing,
O, first-born, thrice begotten, Bacchic king:
Rural, ineffable, two-form’d, obscure,
Two-horn’d, with ivy crown’d, euion, pure.
Bull-fac’d, and martial, bearer of the vine,
Endu’d with counsel prudent and divine:
Triennial, whom the leaves of vines adorn,
Of Jove and Proserpine, occultly born.
Immortal dæmon, hear my suppliant voice,
Give me in blameless plenty to rejoice;
And listen gracious to my mystic pray’r,
Surrounded with thy choir of nurses fair.

His "two-fold shape" describes the god's ability to appear in animal form, with the horns of a bull. He is hailed as "first born" suggesting that his true identity is Phanes, a primeval deity of procreation and the generation of new life. Orpheus taught that Phanes emerged from a cosmic egg created by Chronos and Ananke. Phanes was made the ruler of the deities and passed his sceptre to his wife Nyx, who in turn passed it to her son Uranos. The sceptre was eventually received by Zeus, who passed it to Dionysus. The hymn refers to Dionysus as "thrice-begotten" suggesting three incarnations as Phanes, Zagreus, and Bromios.

This image, from a vase dating c 420 BCE, seems to portray Dionysus as a grape vine, his blood becoming the wine of a holy communion.

By the end of the 5^th century Orphism gave way to Christianity, which likewise taught of a primordial god who is incarnated on earth to become the "vine" who gives his body and blood in communion. Like Orphism, Christianity conducted mystic initiations and prescribed an ascetic way of life. At one point the Roman Emperor built a private temple to Orpheus, Jesus, Abraham and Apollonius of Tyana, all worshipped under one roof. The Orphic Dionysus and his mortal mother Semele became Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Some Christians recounted how Mary was elevated as Queen of Heaven, a clear memory of the earlier mythology in which Semele is elevated to goddess status. In the region of Spain and southern France, famed for its Black Madonnas, there can be found "Holy Mary of the Vines", the symbolism of which is conspicously Dionysian.

Holy Mary of the Vines

Recommended Reading: http://rosicrucian.org/publications/digest/digest1_2008/03_An_Orphic_Timeline/ONLINE_03_Timeline.pdf

Blessings,

OathBound )O(