Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods write by Dwayne A. Meisner. This book was released on 2018. Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Meisner offers a new interpretation of four Orphic theogonies: Derveni, Eudemian, Hieronyman, and Rhapsodic. The fragments of these poems, thought to be written by Orpheus, contained narratives of the creation of the cosmos and the births of the gods, but differed from the mainstream account of Hesiod's Theogony.
Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods
Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods write by Dwayne A. Meisner. This book was released on 2018-07-17. Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. The hatching of the Cosmic Egg, the swallowing of Phanes by Zeus, and the murder of Dionysus by the Titans were just a few of the many stories that appeared in ancient Greek epic poems that were thought to have been written by the legendary singer Orpheus. Most of this poetry is now lost, surviving only in the form of brief quotations by Greek philosophers. Orphic Tradition and the Birth of the Gods brings together the scattered fragments of four Orphic theogonies: the Derveni, Eudemian, Hieronyman, and Rhapsodic theogonies. Typically, theogonies are thought to be poetic accounts of the creation of the universe and the births of the gods, leading to the creation of humans and the establishment of the present state of the cosmos. The most famous example is Hesiod's Theogony, which unlike the Orphic theogonies has survived. But did Orphic theogonies look anything like Hesiod's Theogony? Meisner applies a new theoretical model for studying Orphic theogonies and suggests certain features that characterize them as different from Hesiod: the blending of Near Eastern narrative elements that are missing in Hesiod; the probability that these were short hymns, more like the Homeric Hymns^r than Hesiod; and the continuous discourse between myth and philosophy that can be seen in Orphic poems and the philosophers who quote them. Most importantly, this book argues that the Orphic myths of Phanes emerging from the Cosmic Egg and Zeus swallowing Phanes are at least as important as the well-known myth of Dionysus being dismembered by the Titans, long thought to have been the central myth of Orphism. As this book amply demonstrates, Orphic literature was a diverse and ever-changing tradition by which authors were able to think about the most current philosophical ideas through the medium of the most traditional poetic forms.
Redefining Ancient Orphism
Redefining Ancient Orphism - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Redefining Ancient Orphism write by Radcliffe G. Edmonds III. This book was released on 2013-11-07. Redefining Ancient Orphism available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. In a paradigm shift, this book redefines Orphism as a polemical label for extra-ordinary religion, good or bad.
When the Gods Were Born
When the Gods Were Born - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook When the Gods Were Born write by Carolina López-Ruiz. This book was released on 2010-06-15. When the Gods Were Born available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. "With admirable erudition, Lopez-Ruiz brings to life intimacies and exchanges between the ancient Greeks and their Northwest Semitic neighbors, portraying the ancient Mediterranean as a fluid, dynamic contact zone. She explains networks of circulation, shows creative uses of traditional material by peoples in motion, and radically transforms our understanding of ancient cosmogonies."---Page duBois, author of Out of Athens: The New Ancient Greeks --
Zeus the Head, Zeus the Middle
Zeus the Head, Zeus the Middle - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Zeus the Head, Zeus the Middle write by Dwayne A. Meisner. This book was released on 2015. Zeus the Head, Zeus the Middle available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This thesis contributes to debates about the definition of Orphism by observing three characteristics of Orphic myth: Near Eastern influence, discourse between myth and philosophy, and speculations about the natures of Phanes, Zeus, Dionysus and other deities. In chronological order I analyze the fragments of four theogonies that were attributed to Orpheus: the Derveni, Eudemian, Hieronyman, and Rhapsodic Theogonies. Most modern scholars have described these poems as if they were similar to Hesiod's Theogony - lengthy chronological accounts of the births of the gods from the beginning of time to the present - but I argue that the Orphic tradition was more fluid, likely characterised by a variety of shorter poems, scattered in different collections. I suggest that a better model for understanding how these poems were composed is to see each of them as an individual product of bricolage (as explained by Claude Lévi-Strauss), rather than as items in the stemma of a static manuscript tradition (as reconstructed by Martin West). I study the ways in which modern scholars have reconstructed each of these theogonies and what ancient Greek philosophers had to say about them. I observe that the Orphic tradition was more fluid and fragmented than modern reconstructions would lead us to believe, but I argue that in the Orphic theogonies one can note certain features that are not exclusive to Orphism but characteristic of it. For example, where Orphic myth departs from Hesiodic myth it tends to do so in ways that are parallel to Near Eastern myth; Orphic poetry was always engaged in the discourse between myth and philosophy; and Orphic poets speculated on the nature of the gods in ways that generated unique deities and new narratives.
