Orpheus and cinema/movie theatres

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Most of what you describe can't be experienced watching a flick at home.  It would be a shame if movie theaters died out.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Daniel Cape <daniel.cape at gmail.com>

>
>Why are there so many movie theatres whose names refer to Orpheus?
>
>Is it cos "Orpheus was an augur and seer; practiced magical arts,
>especially astrology [stars, eh?]; founded or rendered accessible many
>important cults; instituted mystic rites both public and private; and
>prescribed initiatory and purificatory rituals, which his community of
>followers treasured"? (cribbed from Wikipedia, as below)
>
>P'raps we can find illumination in the etymology of his name, 'a
>probable suggestion being that it is derived from the hypothetical
>*orbhao-, "to be deprived", from PIE *orbh-, "to put asunder,
>separate"'. I often feel this odd paradoxical sense of isolation and
>community in a theatre: 'Cognates would include Greek orphe,
>"darkness"[18], and Greek orphanos[19], "fatherless, orphan"'.
>
>Furthermore:
>'Orpheus would therefore be semantically close to goao[20], "to
>lament, sing wildly, cast a spell", (can definitely find all these at
>the flix) uniting his seemingly disparate roles as disappointed lover
>(ooo if only i could reach out and touch that starlet whom I desire
>and gaze at!), transgressive musician (yeah, you watch it Morricone,
>with your idiosinkratic arrangements!) and mystery-priest into a
>single lexical whole.'
>
>And:
>'The word "orphic" is defined as mystic, fascinating and entrancing,'
>certainly cinema, no? 'and, probably, because of the oracle of
>Orpheus, "orphic" can also signify "oracular",' well, sometimes a film
>is bang on the nose.