Introducing Orphic Theogonies

Abstract

The first chapter begins with a general introduction to the topic of Orphic legend, ritual, and literature, along with the history of scholarship on Orphism, and the methods to be employed in this book for the study of four Orphic theogonies: Derveni, Eudemian, Hieronyman, and Rhapsodic. In the second section, the Orphic theogonies are placed in the wider context of ancient Near Eastern and Greek theogonic narratives. The third section analyzes the generic distinctions between theogonies and hymns and argues that Orphic theogonies have features of both, suggesting that the term “theogonic hymn” is the best way of describing their generic function. The fourth section argues that Orphic theogonies were a meeting point between the discourses of myth and philosophy. Some fragments of Orphic poetry appear to contain philosophical ideas, while prose philosophers, from the Presocratics to the Neoplatonists, regularly referred to Orphic poems.