Orpheus

In Greek legend, Orpheus was the chief representative of the arts of song and the lyre, and of great importance in the religious history of Greece. The mythical figure of Orpheus was borrowed by the Greeks from their Thracian neighbours; the Thracian "Orphic Mysteries", rituals of unknown content, were named after him. Orpheus - Overview. The name Orpheus does not occur in Homer or Hesiod, but he was known in the time of Ibycus (c. 530 BC). Pindar (522—442 BC) speaks of him as “the father of song ...

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Orpheus: Encyclopedia II - Orpheus - Death of Orpheus According to a Late Antique summary of Aeschylus's lost play Bassarids, Orpheus at the end of his life disdained the worship of all gods save the sun, whom he called Apollo. One early morning he ascended Mount Pangaion (where Dionysus had an oracle) to salute his god at dawn, but was torn to death by Thracian Maenads for not honoring his previous patron, Dionysus. Here his death is analogous with the death of Dionysus, to whom theref ...

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Orpheus: Encyclopedia - Eurydice

In Greek mythology, there were two characters named Eurydice (Eurydíkê). Eurydice - Wife of Orpheus. The more famous was a woman—or a nymph—who was the wife of Orpheus. While fleeing from Aristaeus, she was bitten by a serpent and died. Distraught, Orpheus played such sad songs and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept and gave him advice. Orpheus accomplished something no other person ever has: he traveled to the underworld and by his music softened the heart of Hades and Persep ...

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Eurydice - Wife of Orpheus

Eurydice - Wife of Creon

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Orpheus: Encyclopedia - Hades

Hades (Greek: ᾍδης - Hadēs or Ἅιδης - Háidēs) ("unseen") means both the ancient Greek abode of the dead and the god of that underworld. The word originally referred to just the god; haidou, its genitive, was short for "the house of Hades", and eventually the nominative, too, came to designate the abode of the dead. (A related Hebrew word, She'Ol, for the abode ...

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Orpheus: Encyclopedia - Calliope

In Greek mythology, Calliope (Greek: Καλλιoπη, beautiful-voiced) was the muse of heroic poetry. She had two sons, Orpheus and Linus with Apollo. She was the oldest and wisest of the Muses. She was the judge in the argument over Adonis between Aphrodite and Persephone. She was represented by a stylus and wax tablets. Calliope | Clio | Erato | Euterpe | Melpomene | Polyhymnia | Terpsichore | Thalia | Urania ...

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Orpheus: Encyclopedia - Characters of The Sandman

This is a list of characters appearing in The Sandman. This page discusses not only events which occur in The Sandman, but also some occurring in spinoffs of The Sandman and in stories The Sandman was based on. Characters of The Sandman - Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel are a pair of fictional characters in the DC Comics universe based on the Biblical Cain and Abel. Characters of The Sandman - Before The Sandman. Originally they were ...

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Characters of The Sandman - Cain and Abel

Characters of The Sandman - Remiel

Characters of The Sandman - After The Sandman

Characters of The Sandman - John Constantine

Characters of The Sandman - After and/or Before The Sandman

Orpheus: Encyclopedia - Orphism

Orphism or Orphic cubism, is a term coined in 1912 France by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire. He used the French term Orphisme to label the paintings of Robert Delaunay, relating them to Orpheus, the poet and symbol of the arts of song and the lyre in Greek mythology. The term may also be used in reference to the paintings of Delaunay's wife, Sonia Terk and to the Czech painter, Frantisek Kupka ...

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Orpheus: Encyclopedia - Auloniad

The names of the species of the nymphs varied according to their natural abode. The Aulonaid (from the classical Greek αύλών; valley, ravine) was a nymph who could be found in the mountain pastures and vales, often in the company of Pan, the god of nature. Eurydice, for whom Orpheus traveled into dark Hades, was an Auloniad, and it is in the valley of the Thessalian river Pineios where she met her death at the hands of Aristaeus, son of the god Apollo and the nymph Cyrene, whose desire to ravage her led her to tread on a poisonou

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Orpheus: Encyclopedia - Cadmus of Miletus

Cadmus of Miletus, according to some ancient authorities the oldest of the logographi. Modern scholars, who accept this view, assign him to about 550 BC; others regard him as purely mythical. A confused notice in the Suidas mentions three persons of the name: the first, the inventor of the alphabet; the second, the son of Pandion, according to some the first prose writer, a little later than Orpheus, author of a history of the foundation of Miletus and of Ionia generally, in four books; the third, the son of Archelaus, of later ...

Orpheus: Encyclopedia - Danaë

In Greek mythology, Danaë (Greek: Δανάη, "parched") was a daughter of King Acrisius of Argos and Eurydice (no relation to Orpheus' Eurydice). She was the mother of Perseus by Zeus. She was sometimes credited with founding the city of Ardea in Latium. Disappointed by his lack of male heirs, Acrisius asked an oracle if this would change. The oracle told him to go to the Earth's end where he would be killed by his daughter's child. She was childless and, meaning to keep her so, he shut her up in a bro ...

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Orpheus: Encyclopedia - Amyclas

In Greek mythology, there were two persons that had the name Amyclas: Amyclas was the son of Lacedemon and daughter of Sparta, and he was the brother of Eurydice (no relation to Orpheus' Eurydice). According to Pseudo-Apollodorus, he was the father of Hyacinth and Cynortas. Pausanias also founded equally the paternity of Laodamia, spouse of Arcas, eponymous heroes of Arcadia. He was the mythical founder of Amyclae in central Laconia. Amyclas was the son of Amphion and daughter of Niobe. He perished with his bro ...

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Orpheus: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Orpheus

Orpheus (Greek) An early religious teacher and reformer in Greece about whom clustered so many legends that in course of time his historic existence came to be disputed. He was, however, an actual historic character, probably born in Thrace about the 13th century BC, lived and taught at Pimpleia on Mount Olympus, revived the ancient wisdom-religion, reformed the then degraded popular religion, and was killed -- according to the story -- because of it.

He gathered pupils or disciples about him, and founded a famous Mystery school from which in time emanated a vast literature, now perished with the exception of the Orphic Hymns, the Lithica (a poem on the nature of precious stones), the Argonautica (which recites the connection of Orpheus with the Argonautic expedition), and some other fugitive fragments -- and in our time these are supposed to be apocryphal or of a far later date than Orpheus himself, although certainly containing Orphic elements.

There appears to have been no question in antiquity as to the actual historical existence of a godlike man who founded the Orphic religion or Mysteries, and whose work was continued by others in direct line, some of whom took his name, for no less than six different teachers by the name of Orpheus were known. When we add to the historic account the story of Orpheus as the Magician-Bard, and the legends of his divinity, his marriage with Eurydice (esoteric wisdom), his teaching, his agony and passion, and finally his martyr's death -- legends almost identical with some of those attached to world-saviors such as Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Mithra -- it is clear that he was not only a great teacher in himself, but an important link in the Hermetic Chain of esoteric succession.

The legendary Orpheus was the son of Apollo, god of music and the sun, and of Calliope, muse of epic poetry. With his seven-stringed lyre, the symbol of the cosmic and human constitution, he became the magical musician: rocks moved, trees bent, flowers sprang forth, mountains bowed themselves before his song. He journeyed with the Argonauts on their quest for the Golden Fleece. His mystic union with Eurydice, like the Argonautic quest, is clearly allegorical. Orpheus won his mystic bride by the power of his music and after the mystic union returned to Pimpleia on Mount Olympus where he lived and taught in a cave (recorded also of other great teachers).

When Eurydice died from the bite of a venomous snake, Orpheus visited the Underworld to reclaim her, and his descent there is a veiled record of initiation. Orpheus was permitted to take Eurydice back with him on condition that he did not look back, symbolic of a stern condition for successfully traveling the mystic path. But Orpheus did look back and his union with the esoteric doctrine, personified as Eurydice, was broken. After mourning, he withdrew to Mount Rhodope, where a group of Maenads or Bacchanals tore him limb from limb.

Blavatsky identifies Orpheus with Arjuna, son of Indra and disciple of Krishna, who taught mankind, established Mysteries, and went to Patala (hell or the Antipodes) and there marries the daughter of the naga king (TG 242).

Orpheus may be regarded both as an ideal or as a man and teacher. In either case, whether cosmic or terrestrial, Orpheus corresponds to the unceasing attempts of the higher or spiritual ego to raise the lower ego out of the toils of matter, much as in the Gnostic story the Christos attempts to raises the Sophia, his own lower self or vehicle, out of the mire and toils of the inferior worlds. If the call of impersonal compassion be so strong that it become personal, in other words if Orpheus looks back to

See and becomes attracted to the lower planes, he loses his Eurydice. Eurydice means "wide judgment," the function of reason in the human constitution. Orpheus here would represent intuition, and Eurydice the reason: manas sunk in the earthly nature is raised to wisdom through budhi.

When the ideal Orpheus in the neophyte conjoins with Orpheus the struggling soul, then Orpheus becomes the initiate who during the trials in the Underworld secures the safety of mind (Eurydice) and thus becomes a son of the sun. Should, however, Orpheus look back -- should buddhi itself become entangled in the lower morass -- then Eurydice is not rescued, Orpheus is enchained, and the task must be essayed anew.

(See also: Orpheus, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Orpheus: Spiritual Theosophical Dictionary on Orpheus

Orpheus (Ancient Greek). Lit., the "tawny one". Mythology makes him the son of Eager and the muse Calliope. Esoteric tradition identifies him with Arjuna, the son of Indra and the disciple of Krishna. He went round the world teaching the nations wisdom and sciences, and establishing mysteries. The very story of his losing his Eurydice and finding her in the underworld or Hades, is another point of resemblance with the story of Arjuna, who goes to Patàla (Hades or hell, but in reality the Antipodes or America) and finds there and marries Ulupi, the daughter of the Naga king. This is as suggestive as the fact that he was considered dark in complexion even by the Greeks, who were never very fair-skinned themselves.

Orpheus: Encyclopedia II - The Mask of Orpheus - Synopsis

The structure of the opera's plot is complex. Rather than telling a story by starting at A and going through B to C, The Mask of Orpheus explores the Orpheus myth in a number of directions at once, examining the various contradictions which are in the various versions of the myth. This is done by a very elaborate stage design, whereby the stage is divided into a number of different areas, each containing its own part of the action. In addition, each of the major characters - Orpheus, Euridice and Aristaeus - appear in three for ...

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