Les théogonies orphiques et le papyrus de Derveni (Notes critiques*)

Abstract

The orphic theogonies and the Derveni papyrus In "The orphic poems", M. L. West aims to establish a "stemma" of the orphic theogonies, taking as his starting-point the recently discovered Derveni papyrus. This study concludes that, despite the subtlety and cleverness of West's argumentation, his conclusions are built upon sand. After a brief review of the state of play prior to West's work, there is an individual study of each of the theogonies which form the basis for West's work. My conclusions on the character and dating of the three versions distinguished by O. Kern prove to be very different from those advanced by West.