| Orpheus is generally studied as a fictional composer of religious poetry (Linforth, Guthrie, West) or as a figure in European literature and art (Warden). This work compares the versions of the myths of his life and death, and considers the local or Panhellenic bias of the sources. An example of a local bias is the Delphic metope, where the second singer is a pupil of his, possibly Musaeus, chosen for political reasons. Shamanism explains the activities of Orpheus and the figures with whom he is associated (Dodds, Eliade). The Argonauts, many of whom are shamans, go on a shamanic voyage to the underworld. Orpheus is more than boatswain. His shamanic weather-powers associate him with the Dioscuri, the Samothracian mysteries, and help to sailors, especially in Dionysius Scytobrachion but also, by implication, in Valerius Flaccus. Pollux' victory over Amycus represents protection of sailors. When in the Orphic Argonautica and Apollonius Orpheus sings a cosmogony and charms animals, he shows shamanic ordering powers. Cosmogonies are magical songs, sung to reconcile conflicts. Orpheus' mother, the Muse Calliope, is his tutelary deity; the Sirens represent the dangerous side of this. They are associated with conditions under the Dog-Star. Orpheus defeats them by his song; even in the Odyssey, their defeat by song is implied. In Panhellenic versions they continue to live; in local ones they leap off white rocks to their deaths, and then become white rocks themselves. In Aristophanes they are Frogs. As both poet and prophet, Orpheus is intrinsically associated with both Apollo and Dionysus, through god-hero antagonism in life and symbiosis after death; much of this is in Aeschylus' Bassarides. Orpheus' death by dismemberment and his descent to the underworld are shamanic initiatory rites. His wife is a ritual substitute, like Alcestis, Paroclus, and Protesilaus. Orpheus confers one type of immortality through his mystery religion, and another through his song. This is best illustrated in Georgics 4 and Ovid's Metamorphosis. By comparison, Tibullus 1.3 and 1.7 show immortality in Graeco-Roman and Egyptian terms. A more detailed summary can be found in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. |
