
Orphic Collection
Alberto Bernabe(Editor)
Harvard University Press
Will be published approx. on 7. July 2026
Book
Hardback
672 pages
978-0-674-99778-3 (ISBN)
Description
Cult classics.
Orpheus is familiar from Greek mythology as a peerless bard, the Thracian son of a Muse with superhuman musical abilities that enabled him to win the release of his young wife Eurydice from Hades, only to lose her on the way back. But he was also considered an authentic poet preceding Hesiod and Homer and on a par with Musaeus, and was credited with poems, oracles, and the foundation of rituals in a tradition that remained vital and creative from Archaic Greece through to the Roman Empire and beyond. Essentially Dionysiac, but without the violence and blood sacrifice, and with a focus on theogony, cosmogony, and the origin and destiny of souls, Orphism was at once a distinctive and an open tradition, with significant change and development over time but with features that made the works and rituals cumulatively attributed to Orpheus identifiable to followers. This tradition endowed them with a lasting coherence despite the absence of dogma or control by priests. Although Orphism departed in profound and fascinating ways from conventional accounts, it proved highly adaptable to various religious and philosophical systems, especially Pythagorean and Neoplatonist but also Judaic and Christian.
This edition collects works representing the most ancient Orphic literature, excluding later mythological, scientific, and pseudo-scientific poems opportunistically attributed to him.
Orpheus is familiar from Greek mythology as a peerless bard, the Thracian son of a Muse with superhuman musical abilities that enabled him to win the release of his young wife Eurydice from Hades, only to lose her on the way back. But he was also considered an authentic poet preceding Hesiod and Homer and on a par with Musaeus, and was credited with poems, oracles, and the foundation of rituals in a tradition that remained vital and creative from Archaic Greece through to the Roman Empire and beyond. Essentially Dionysiac, but without the violence and blood sacrifice, and with a focus on theogony, cosmogony, and the origin and destiny of souls, Orphism was at once a distinctive and an open tradition, with significant change and development over time but with features that made the works and rituals cumulatively attributed to Orpheus identifiable to followers. This tradition endowed them with a lasting coherence despite the absence of dogma or control by priests. Although Orphism departed in profound and fascinating ways from conventional accounts, it proved highly adaptable to various religious and philosophical systems, especially Pythagorean and Neoplatonist but also Judaic and Christian.
This edition collects works representing the most ancient Orphic literature, excluding later mythological, scientific, and pseudo-scientific poems opportunistically attributed to him.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 162 mm
Width: 108 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-674-99778-3 (9780674997783)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Alberto Bernabe is Professor of Greek at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Michael Chase is Senior Researcher at the Centre Jean Pepin at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris-Villejuif.