grgr (34): orphism

[Lorentzen / Nicklaus]

 "orpheus puts down harp" (754)


  ... & the kazoos grow louder ... orphism is not, as eddins seems to suggest, 
the joker card in gr ... like gnosticisms, to which it stands in a 
nagative-dialectical position, orphism is likewise affirmed and criticized in 
the context of pynchon's religious anarchism ... on ancient orphism here is some 
filoramo:

 "... orphism. this was a religion of the book, inspired by holy scriptures from 
which it derived its doctrines and purificatory practices. these scriptures 
contain and transmit a mythical story of dionysus' assassination by the titans - 
in a form that reverses the view of traditional mythology of the type recorded 
by hesiod. if the mystical account in the  t h e o g o n y  develops, as it 
does, from the indistinct to the distinct, from the void to the full, from chaos 
to cosmos, from atemporality to the affirmation of a  c h r o n o s, or time, 
the orphic myth is inspired by a contrasting aim to explain, to justify itself 
and at the same time to establish the passage from an initial ontological 
plenitude to the existential void of the present. in this way the orphics seem 
to condemn the traditional mythical structures that are used to affirm the 
primacy of existence und to gurantee hierarchies and equilibrium between 
humankind and gods, and consequently within humankind itself.
 this transformation aquires greater significance when seen against its 
historical background: the changes and contradictions experienced by the 
athenian polis between the sixth and fifth centuries bc. since the orphics 
rejected sacrifice (and this is typical of ascetics who make up a community of 
'saints'), what are they if not a significant indication of this profound social 
upheaval, a response that, even though destined to be marginalized and 
forgotten, is nevertheless creative and original in the face of historical 
change?" (giovanni filoramo: a history of gnosticism, p. 52)

 kfl