Orpheus (
Greek ??fe??; in English pronounced
/'?rfi?s/ or
/'?rfju?s/) is an important figure from
Greek mythology, the inspiration for subsequent
Orphic cults, much of the literature, poetry and drama of ancient Greece and Rome and, due to his association with singing and the lyre, much dramatic Western classical music.
Orpheus was called by Pindar "the father of songs" and asserted to be a son of the Thracian river god Oiagros.[1] The Muse Calliope is his mother.[2] but as Karl Kerenyi observes,[3] "In the popular mind he was more closely linked to the community of his disciples and adherents than with any particular race or family".
The Greeks of the Classical age venerated the legendary figure of Orpheus as chief among poets and musicians, and the perfector of the lyre invented by Hermes. Poets like Simonides of Ceos said that, with his music and singing, he could charm birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance,[4] and even divert the course of rivers. He was one of the handful of Greek heroes[5] to visit the Underworld and return; even in Hades his song and lyre did not lose their power.
As one of the pioneers of civilization, he is said at various times to have taught humanity the arts of medicine, writing (in one unusual instance,[6] where he substitutes for the usual candidate, Cadmus) and agriculture, where he assumes the Eleusinian role of Triptolemus. More consistently and more closely connected with religious life, Orpheus was an augur and seer; practiced magical arts, especially astrology; founded or rendered accessible many important cults, such as those of Apollo and the Greek god Dionysus;[7] instituted mystic rites both public and private; and prescribed initiatory and purificatory rituals, which his community of followers treasured in Orphic texts. In addition, Pindar and Apollonius of Rhodes[8] place Orpheus as the harpist and companion of Jason and the Argonauts. Orpheus had a brother named Linus that went to Thebes and became a Theban.[9]
