Der orphische Hymnos auf Chthonios Hermes (57): Genealogie, Eros, Ritual

Abstract

This paper sets out to explore a fairly trivial, yet curiously understudied question related to our understanding of Orphic mythology: its ties with popular mythology of Homeric and Hesiodic provenance. It uses the Orphic Hymn to Chthonios Hermes as a case in point, to the end of assessing the extent to which chthonic Hermes in Orphism owes a lot to its epic peers when transcribing what came to be viewed as traditional attributes of him such as lineage, psychopompic capacity, and presiding over sexual or marital rites of initiation within catabatic settings. I stake out the position that the narrative tradition represented by the Orphic Hymns innovates in the sense that it launches the multi-focal image of a mystagogic Hermes whose traditional traits are made to match the purposes of Orphic theology, given the latter’s over-emphasizing of eschatology and rituals of death and re-birth.