Cover; Halftitle; Title; Copyright; Contents; Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Note on abbreviations; Part I Introduction: Definitions old and new; Chapter One The name of Orpheus; Ancient Orpheus; Age old new age; Redefining ancient Orphism; Chapter Two Orphism through the ages; The Classical category; The Hellenistic category; Roman period; The crystallization of the category among the Christians and Neoplatonists; The Christian apologists' construction of Orphism; The Neoplatonic construction of Orphism; Orphism as a systematic religion; Orpheus in the middle ages.

The Renaissance of OrpheusFrom the Renaissance to the nineteenth century; The impact of new evidence: The "Orphic" gold tablets; More new discoveries: The Linear B tablets, gold tablets, and the Derveni papyrus; Orphism in the twenty-first century; Redefining ancient Orphism: Rejecting the Orphic exception; Chapter Three The problem of definition; Cue validity; Beyond Linforth: A new definition; Emic vs. etic definitions; Valid cues: Extra-ordinary purity, sanctity, antiquity, and strangeness; Consequences of the new definition; Conclusion: Redefining ancient Orphism.

Part II Orphic scriptures or the vaporings of many books?Chapter Four Orphic textuality; Orphic textuality; Textual orientation; Bibliolatry; The writing of Orpheus; Ritual texts; The hubbub of books in Classical Athens; The Technology of the Book; The contest context; The epideixis of exegesis: The Derveni author and his text; The name of Orpheus; Chapter Five Orphic hieroi logoi; Sacred texts: Myth and ritual again; The form of Orphic poems; The nature of the Rhapsodic collection; Chapter Six Orphic mythology; Cosmogony; The Orphic egg; Close the doors of your ears.

Poems for the sacred ritesThe aggrieved goddess; Threatened infant god; Alien and perverse tales; Tales from the life of Orpheus; Exotic myths; Part III Orphic doctrines or the pure from the pure?; Chapter Seven Orphic purity; Introduction: Pure from the pure; An absence of Orphics; Ritual experts and their clients; From begging priests and diviners to magicians and orpheotelests; Clientele -- others associated with Orpheus; The works of Orpheus: Teletai and katharmoi; The mysteries of Orpheus: Special relations with the gods; Practices of purity; Contingent purifications.

Diagnosis through omens and oraclesPrescriptions for purification; Orpheus as the founder of mysteries for the Mother; Orpheus as the founder of Bacchic rites; Conclusion: The Orphic label for rites and people; Chapter Eight Life in the afterlife; Life in the afterlife; The Homeric afterlife; Differentiated afterlives; Poetic immortality and the Homeric afterlife; Orpheus and eschatology; Orphic ideas of the soul; Body and soul; Reincarnation; Blowing in the wind; Conclusions; Chapter Nine Original sin or ancestral crimes; The web of Penelope; Recompense for the ancient grief.

That old Titanic nature.

In a paradigm shift, redefines Orphism as a polemical label for extra-ordinary religion, good or bad.

Print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 400-422) and indexes.

English.