ORPHIC MYSTERIES

Orphic Mysteries: translation

Like the SumerianDescent of Inannaepic, the mysteries of the Greek hero Orpheus have been interpreted as being shamanic. In part, this is because Orpheus descended into theunderworldto restore his dead wife to life. He is also the archetypal mystagogue orinitiatorand revealer of mysteries. However, like other classical-period mysteries, those of Orpheus privilege restraint rather than excess. The main link between Orpheus andecstasyis in the stories of his frenzieddismembermentby female devotees ofDionysusannoyed by Orpheus’s rejection of all deities except the sober, solar Apollo. This is hardly an encouragement oftranceorpossessionamong his initiates. Nonetheless,Gloria Flaherty(1992) shows that Orpheus was considered preeminent among shamans, themselves considered preeminent religious virtuosi, by 18th-century Enlightenment writers such as Johann von Herder, Johann Goethe, and Victor Hugo. But it is as an inspired poeticperformerrather than as an entrancedotherworld journeyerthat Orpheus is considered shamanic, thereby making the term too vague to be useful.