Orphism is a religious belief and practice that began in ancient Greece and later Greek periods. It is connected to stories about the mythical poet Orpheus, who is said to have traveled to the Greek underworld and returned. Orphism is considered a changed version of an earlier religion linked to Dionysus, the god of wine and celebration. This belief system includes new interpretations of Dionysus's myths and a rearranged version of Hesiod's Theogony, influenced by early Greek philosophical ideas.

A key story in Orphism is the death of Dionysus. According to this myth, Dionysus as a baby was killed, torn apart, and eaten by the Titans. As punishment, Zeus destroyed the Titans with a thunderbolt, turning them into ashes. From these ashes, humans were created. Some beliefs in Orphism teach that humans have two parts: a body, inherited from the Titans, and a soul, inherited from Dionysus. To escape the cycle of being trapped in the physical world, people had to join the Dionysian mysteries and participate in a ritual called teletē. This ritual involved purifying oneself and reenacting Dionysus's suffering and death. Those who did not join these rituals, called amúētos, were believed to be reborn again and again without end.

History

Orphism is named after the legendary poet-hero Orpheus, who was said to have started the Mysteries of Dionysus. However, early sources and images show that Orpheus was more closely connected to Apollo than to Dionysus. Some stories say Orpheus was the son of Apollo, and in his final years, he avoided worshiping other gods and focused only on Apollo.

Poetry with Orphic beliefs has been found dating back to the 6th century BC or at least the 5th century BC. Graffiti from the 5th century BC mentions "Orphics." The Derveni papyrus helps place Orphic mythology around the end of the 5th century BC and may be even older. Orphic ideas and practices are mentioned by Herodotus, Euripides, and Plato. Plato refers to "Orpheus-initiators" (Ὀρφεοτελεσταί) and their rituals, though it is unclear how much general "Orphic" writings relate to these rituals.

Orphic beliefs and practices share similarities with Pythagoreanism. Some traditions say the Pythagoreans or Pythagoras himself wrote early Orphic works, while others believe Pythagoras was an Orphism initiate. Whether one tradition influenced the other is still debated. Some scholars argue Orphism and Pythagoreanism began as separate traditions that later became mixed due to similarities. Others suggest they share a common origin and can be seen as one combined tradition, called "Orphico-Pythagoreanism."

By late antiquity, some believed Pythagoreanism was a descendant of Orphic religion. Neoplatonist philosophers accepted this idea. Proclus, a Neoplatonic scholar, wrote:

In the 15th century, the Greek scholar Constantine Lascaris (who discovered the poem Argonautica Orphica) considered a Pythagorean Orpheus.

Studying early Orphic and Pythagorean sources shows their relationship is unclear. Authors close to Pythagoras’ time did not mention his initiation into Orphism and generally viewed Orpheus as a myth. However, these writers noted strong similarities between the two traditions. Some claimed Pythagoras, not Orpheus, wrote the first Orphic texts. Ion of Chios said Pythagoras wrote poetry he credited to Orpheus. Epigenes, in On Works Attributed to Orpheus, gave authorship of key Orphic poems to early Pythagoreans like Cercops. Cicero reports Aristotle claimed Orpheus never existed and that Pythagoreans attributed some Orphic poems to Cercon (Cercops).

Both Orphism and Pythagoreanism believed in reincarnation, though they taught it differently. Orphics taught that repeated painful lives could be escaped through their rituals, while Pythagoras seemed to teach an eternal, neutral reincarnation unaffected by personal actions.

Neoplatonists saw the theology of Orpheus, passed through Pythagoreanism, as the core of ancient Greek religion. Proclus, a major Neoplatonic philosopher, stated:

(trans. Thomas Taylor, 1816)

Orphic literature

Many religious poems written in a special meter called hexameters were once believed to be written by a Greek poet named Orpheus. However, only a few of these poems are still available today. Other poems, which may have been written as early as the sixth century BC, exist only as pieces of ancient paper or in quotes from other sources.

The Orphic theogonies are writings that describe how the gods came into existence. These stories are similar to those from other ancient cultures in the Near East.

One main story tells of Zagreus, a past form of the god Dionysus, who was the son of Zeus and Persephone. Zeus planned to name Zagreus as his successor, which made Zeus's wife, Hera, angry. She convinced the Titans to kill Zagreus. The Titans tricked Zagreus with a mirror and toys, then killed him and ate his body. Athena saved Zagreus's heart and told Zeus about the crime. Zeus punished the Titans with a thunderbolt, causing soot to form from their remains. This soot is believed to have created humans. The soul of humans, linked to Dionysus, is considered divine, but the body, tied to the Titans, keeps the soul trapped. This led to the belief that souls must return to new bodies ten times before escaping the cycle of rebirth. After the punishment, Apollo gathered Zagreus's remains and buried them in Delphi, a sacred place.

There are two stories about how Dionysus was reborn. In one, Dionysus's heart is placed in Zeus's thigh. In another, Zeus impregnates a mortal woman named Semele, leading to Dionysus's birth. These details differ from stories told by other ancient writers. One writer, Damascius, wrote that Apollo collected Dionysus's remains and brought him back to life.

The Derveni papyrus, discovered in Derveni, Macedonia, in 1962, contains a philosophical explanation of an Orphic poem called the Derveni Theogony. This poem, written around 340 BC, describes the birth of the gods. It is considered one of the most important discoveries about ancient Greek philosophy and religion.

In the Eudemian Theogony, the first being is Night (Nyx). In the Rhapsodic Theogony, Time (Chronos) creates Aether and Chaos, then lays an egg from which a god named Phanes is born. In the Hieronyman Theogony, an egg forms from soil and water, and Chronos is born from it. Chronos then creates Aether, Chaos, and Erebus. Later, Chronos lays another egg in Chaos, from which Protogonos is born. In the Derveni Theogony, Night lays an egg from which Protogonos is born. Protogonos then creates the sky (Ouranos) and earth (Gaia), who give birth to Chronos, the father of Zeus. Zeus later swallows the egg of Protogonos and recreates the universe.

The Orphic theogonies describe Dionysus differently. In the Rhapsodic Theogony, Dionysus is killed and eaten by the Titans before Zeus punishes them with lightning. Humans are said to be born from the soot of the Titans, and Dionysus is later reborn from his preserved heart. The Derveni papyrus is incomplete and does not mention Dionysus. In the Hieronyman Theogony, sources do not describe the Titans eating Dionysus.

Over time, the story of Dionysus's rebirth changed. Apollo was credited with burying Dionysus's remains, leading to the title Dionysiodotes, meaning "giver of Dionysus." Apollo plays a key role in the myth because he represents the return of the soul to unity.

In Orphic theogonies, the first god is Phanes, a hermaphroditic being born from an egg. The egg is often shown with a serpent-like creature named Ananke wrapped around it. Phanes, a golden-winged god, creates all other gods from the cosmic egg.

Written fragments from ancient times describe beliefs about the afterlife similar to those in Orphic myths about Dionysus's death and rebirth. Bone tablets found in Olbia, dating to the fifth century BC, have short, mysterious inscriptions, such as: "Life. Death. Life. Truth. Dio(nysus). Orphics." The purpose of these tablets is unknown.

Gold-leaf tablets found in graves from places like Thurii and Crete, dating to the fourth century BC and later, provide instructions for the dead. These thin tablets, though often broken, describe a shared journey to the afterlife. The deceased must avoid drinking from the river Lethe (Forgetfulness) and instead drink from the pool of Mnemosyne (Memory). They are given phrases to use when meeting the guardians of the underworld. One tablet says: "I am a son of Earth and starry sky. I am parched with thirst and am dying; but quickly grant me cold water from the Lake of Memory to drink." Other tablets include messages for the rulers of the underworld, such as: "Now you have died and now you have come into being, O thrice happy one, on this same day. Tell Persephone that the Bacchic One himself released you."

The Orphic Hymns are 87 shorter poems written in a special meter called hexameters. These poems were composed during the Roman Empire.

The Orphic Argonautica is a Greek epic poem from the fourth century CE, written by an unknown author. It is told in the first person by Orpheus and describes the journey of Jason and the Argonauts. The story is similar to other versions, like the one by Apollonius Rhodius, but it places more emphasis on Orpheus's role and uses a more mythical storytelling style. In this version, the ship Argo is said to be the first ship ever built.