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Orpheus (; ) was a legendary Thracian musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music, his attempt to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, from the underworld, and his death at the hands of those who could not hear his divine music. As an archetype of the inspired singer, Orpheus is one of the most significant figures in the reception of classical mythology in Western culture, portrayed or alluded to in countless forms of art and popular culture including poetry, film, opera, music, and painting.〔Geoffrey Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology'' (Routledge, 1999), p. 54ff.〕 For the Greeks, Orpheus was a founder and prophet of the so-called "Orphic" mysteries. He was credited with the composition of the Orphic Hymns, a collection of which survives.〔Pausanias, Description of Greece, Corinth, 2.30.1〕 Shrines containing purported relics of Orpheus were regarded as oracles. Some ancient Greek sources note Orpheus' Thracian origins.〔Fritz Graf and Sarah Iles Johnston, ''Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets'' (Routledge, 2007), p. 167, while taking note of depictions in Greek art, particularly vase painting, that show Orpheus attired as a Greek, often in contrast to those in Thracian dress around him.〕 ==Background== The earliest literary reference to Orpheus is a two-word fragment of the sixth-century BC lyric poet Ibycus: ''onomaklyton Orphēn'' ("Orpheus famous-of-name"). He is not mentioned in Homer or Hesiod.〔Ibycus, ''Fragments'' 17 (Diehl); M. Owen Lee, ''Virgil as Orpheus: A Study of the Georgics'' State University of New York Press, Albany (1996), p. 3.〕 Most ancient sources accept his historical existence; Aristotle is an exception.〔Kathleen Freeman, (''Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers'' ), Harvard University Press (1948), p. 1.〕 Pindar calls Orpheus "the father of songs"〔Pindar, ''Pythian Odes'', 4.4.315 ()〕 and identifies him as a son of the Greek Thracian king Oeagrus〔Pindar fragment 126.9.〕 and the Muse Calliope.〔Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheke'' 1.3.2, ''Argonautica'' 1.23, and the Orphic Hymn 24,12.〕 Greeks of the Classical age venerated Orpheus as the greatest of all poets and musicians; it was said that while Hermes had invented the lyre, Orpheus perfected it. Poets such as Simonides of Ceos said that Orpheus' music and singing could charm the birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance,〔Pseudo-Apollodorus, ''Bibliotheke'' 1.3.2; Euripides, ''Iphigeneia at Aulis'', 1212 and ''The Bacchae'', 562; Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 11: "with his songs, Orpheus, the bard of Thrace, allured the trees, the savage animals, and even the insensate rocks, to follow him>"〕 and divert the course of rivers. He was one of the handful of Greek heroes〔Others to brave the ''nekyia'' were Odysseus, Theseus and Heracles; Perseus also overcame Medusa in a chthonic setting.〕 to visit the Underworld and return; his music and song even had power over Hades. Some sources credit Orpheus with further gifts to mankind: medicine, which is more usually under the aegis of Aesculapius or Apollo; writing,〔A single literary epitaph, attributed to the sophist Alcidamas, credits Orpheus with the invention of writing. See Ivan Mortimer Linforth, "Two Notes on the Legend of Orpheus", ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'' 62, (1931):5–17).〕 which is usually credited to Cadmus; and agriculture, where Orpheus assumes the Eleusinian role of Triptolemus as giver of Demeter's knowledge to mankind. Orpheus was an augur and seer; practiced magical arts and astrology, founded cults to Apollo and Dionysus〔Apollodorus (Pseudo Apollodorus), (''Library and Epitome'', 1.3.2 ). "Orpheus also invented the mysteries of Dionysus, and having been torn in pieces by the Maenads he is buried in Pieria."〕 and prescribed the mystery rites preserved in Orphic texts. In addition, Pindar and Apollonius of Rhodes〔Apollonius, ''Argonautica'', ''passim''.〕 place Orpheus as the harpist and companion of Jason and the Argonauts. Orpheus had a brother named Linus who went to Thebes and became a Theban.〔(Apollodorus, Library and Epitome, 2.4.9 ), This Linus was a brother of Orpheus; he came to Thebes and became a Theban.〕 He is claimed by Aristophanes and Horace to have taught cannibals to subsist on fruit, and to have made lions and tigers obedient to him. Horace believed however, that Orpheus only introduced order and civilization to savages. Bertrand Russell noted: The Orphics were an ascetic sect; wine, to them, was only a symbol, as, later, in the Christian sacrament. The intoxication that they sought was that of "enthusiasm," of union with the god. They believed themselves, in this way, to acquire mystic knowledge not obtainable by ordinary means. This mystical element entered into Greek philosophy with Pythagoras, who was a reformer of Orphism as Orpheus was a reformer of the religion of Dionysus. From Pythagoras Orphic elements entered into the philosophy of Plato, and from Plato into most later philosophy that was in any degree religious. Strabo〔(Strabo, Geography Book 7, Chapter 7 ) "The city Dium, in the foot-hills of Olympus, is not on the shore of the Thermaean Gulf, but is at a distance of as much as seven stadia from it. And the city Dium has a village near by, Pimpleia, where Orpheus lived. At the base of Olympus is a city Dium. And it has a village near by, Pimpleia. Here lived Orpheus, the Ciconian, it is said — a wizard who at first collected money from his music, together with his soothsaying and his celebration of the orgies connected with the mystic initiatory rites, but soon afterwards thought himself worthy of still greater things and procured for himself a throng of followers and power. Some, of course, received him willingly, but others, since they suspected a plot and violence, combined against him and killed him. And near here, also, is Leibethra."〕 (64 BC – c. AD 24) presents Orpheus as a mortal, who lived and died in a village close to Olympus. "Some, of course, received him willingly, but others, since they suspected a plot and violence, combined against him and killed him." He made money as a musician and "wizard" – Strabo uses ''agurteuonta'' (αγυρτεύοντα),〔Archaic Period (Greek Literature, Volume 2) by Gregory Nagy, ISBN 0-8153-3683-7, p. 46〕 also used by Sophocles in ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' to characterize Teiresias as a trickster with an excessive desire for possessions. ''Agurtēs'' (αγύρτης) most often meant charlatan〔Index in Eustathii commentarios in Homeri Iliadem et Odysseam by Matthaeus Devarius, p. 8〕 and always had a negative connotation. Pausanias writes of an unnamed Egyptian who considered Orpheus a magician (''mageuse'' (μάγευσε)).〔Pausanias, Description of Greece, 6.20.1,() "A man of Egypt said that Pelops received something from Amphion the Theban and buried it where is what they call Taraxippus, adding that it was the buried thing which frightened the mares of Oenomaus, as well as those of every charioteer since. This Egyptian thought that Amphion and the Thracian Orpheus were clever magicians, and that it was through their enchantments that the beasts came to Orpheus, and the stones came to Amphion for the building of the wall. The most probable of the stories in my opinion makes Taraxippus a surname of Horse Poseidon."〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Orpheus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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