1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910453226803321

Autore

Edmonds Radcliffe G., III, <1970->

Titolo

Redefining ancient Orphism : a study in Greek religion / / Radcilffe G. Edmonds III, Bryn Mawr College [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2013

ISBN

1-139-89278-9

1-107-50252-7

1-107-50641-7

1-139-81466-4

1-107-51683-8

1-107-50370-1

1-107-49695-0

1-107-51406-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 451 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

292.9

Soggetti

Dionysia

Cults - Greece

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

; Part 1. Introduction: definitions old and new -- The name of Orpheus -- Orphism through the ages: a history of scholarship -- The problem of definition -- ; Part 2. Orphic scriptures or the vaporings of many books? -- Orphic textuality: a hubbub of books -- Orphic hieroi logoi: sacred texts for the rites -- Orphic mythology: the content of Orphic poems -- ; Part 3. Orphic doctrines or the pure from the pure? -- Orphic purity: piety or superstition? -- Life in the afterlife: the initiates' privilege and the mythic tradition -- Original sin or ancestral crimes: Zagreus and the concern with purification -- Conclusions: redefining ancient Orphism.

Sommario/riassunto

This book examines the fragmentary and contradictory evidence for Orpheus as the author of rites and poems to redefine Orphism as a label applied polemically to extra-ordinary religious phenomena. Replacing older models of an Orphic religion, this richer and more complex model provides insight into the boundaries of normal and



abnormal Greek religion. The study traces the construction of the category of 'Orphic' from its first appearances in the Classical period, through the centuries of philosophical and religious polemics, especially in the formation of early Christianity and again in the debates over the origins of Christianity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A paradigm shift in the study of Greek religion, this study provides scholars of classics, early Christianity, ancient religion and philosophy with a new model for understanding the nature of ancient Orphism, including ideas of afterlife, cosmogony, sacred scriptures, rituals of purification and initiation, and exotic mythology.