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INTRODUCTION:
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Do you hear that odd, high pitched sound
in or around your ears? What to know
what it might be? VIDEO
INTRODUCTION:
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Orpheus
Orpheus (Greek: Ορφεύς; pronounced (OHR-fee-uhs) or (OHR'-fews) in English) is a figure from Greek mythology, king of the Thracian tribe Cicones, called by Pindar "the father of songs". Curiously his name does not occur in Homer or Hesiod, which is possibly due to political influence after the musician's death, but he was known by the time of Ibycus (c.530 BC) and he is mentioned by Plato. The Orphic Teaching spoke of the Immortality of Soul, liberation of consciousness through the Arts, karma and reincarnation, a belief in a One True God, and the power to be found in possessing this moment. The Orphic Mysteries and the related Oracle Worship are beyond recorded history. It is known for certain that the cult of Orpheus was well established across Ancient Greece by the time of Pythagoras, and that the Pythagoreans were often members of this secretive teaching. A map of the known important events in his life can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Orpheus.png Please note that "Parnassas" (where Orpheus is given his Lyre, and where his mother teaches him) is really Delphi, site of the ancient Oracle. This indicates that Calliope (his mother) and her eight handmaidens were far more than a mere Muse, but Oracles. Orpheus was believed to be one of the chief poets and musicians of antiquity, and the inventor or perfector of the lyre. It was said, that with his music and singing, he could charm wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance, and even divert the course of rivers. As one of the pioneers of civilization, he is said to have taught humanity the arts of medicine, writing and agriculture. Closely connected with religious life, Orpheus was an augur and seer; practised magical arts, especially astrology; founded or rendered accessible many important cults, such as those of Apollo and the Thraco-Phrygian[1] god Dionysus; instituted mystic rites both public and private; and prescribed initiatory and purificatory rituals. In addition, Pindar describes Orpheus as the harpist and companion of Jason and the Argonauts.[2] In modern times, the "Matrix" movie trilogy loosely bases their theme around "Morpheus", in a clear tilt towards the Orphic TraditionEarly lifeOrpheus' father was Oeagrus (Οίαγρος) a Thracian king (or, according to another version of the story, the god Apollo); his mother was the muse Calliope. While living with his mother and his eight beautiful aunts on Parnassus, he met Apollo who was courting the laughing muse Thalia. Apollo became fond of Orpheus and gave him a little golden lyre, and taught him to play it. Orpheus's mother taught him to make verses for singing.
Death of Eurydice
Orpheus and Eurydice, by Federigo Cervelli The most famous story in which Orpheus figures is that of his wife Eurydice (also known as Agriope). While fleeing from Aristaeus (son of Apollo), Eurydice ran into a nest of snakes which bit her fatally on her legs. Distraught, Orpheus played such sad songs and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus traveled to the underworld and by his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone (he was the only person ever to do so), who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. In his anxiety he forgot that both needed to be in the upper world, and he turned to look at her, and she vanished for the second time, but now forever. The story in this form belongs to the time of Virgil, who first introduces the name of Aristaeus. Other ancient writers, however, speak of Orpheus' visit to the underworld; according to Plato, the infernal gods only "presented an apparition" of Eurydice to him. Ovid says that Eurydice's death was not caused by fleeing from Aristaeus but by dancing with naiads on her wedding day. The story of Eurydice may actually be a late addition to the Orpheus myths. In particular, the name Eurudike ("she whose justice extends widely") recalls cult-titles attached to Persephone. The myth may have been mistakenly derived from another Orpheus legend in which he travels to Tartarus and charms the goddess Hecate. The descent to the Underworld of Orpheus is paralleled in other versions of a worldwide theme: the Japanese myth of Izanagi and Izanami, the Akkadian/Sumerian myth of Inanna's Descent to the Underworld, and Mayan myth of Ix Chel and Itzamna. The mytheme of not looking back is reflected in the story of Lot's wife when escaping from Sodom. The warning of not looking back is also found in the Grimms' folk tale "Hansel and Gretel." More directly, the story of Orpheus is similar to the ancient Greek tales of Persephone captured by Hades and similar stories of Adonis captive in the underworld. However, the developed form of the Orpheus myth was entwined with the Orphic mystery cults and, later in Rome, with the development of Mithraism and the cult of Sol Invictus. It is very clear that much of early Christian Myth was touched by the concept of this powerful, healing "Son of God".who suffers a martyrs death. Death
According to some versions of the story (notably Ovid's), Orpheus forswore the love of women after the death of Eurydice and took only youths as his lovers; he was reputed to be the one who introduced pederasty to the Thracians, teaching them to "love the young in the flower of their youth." According to a Late Antique summary of Aeschylus's lost play Bassarids, Orpheus at the end of his life disdained the worship of all gods save the sun, whom he called Apollo. One early morning he went to the oracle of Dionysus (there are ongoing discussions whether this is Perperikon or Mount Pangaion) to salute his god at dawn, but was torn to death by Thracian Maenads for not honoring his previous patron, Dionysus. Here his death is analogous with the death of Pentheus. Ovid (Metamorphoses XI) also recounts that the Thracian Maenads, Dionysus' followers, angry for having been spurned by Orpheus in favor of "tender boys," first threw sticks and stones at him as he played, but his music was so beautiful even the rocks and branches refused to hit him. Enraged, the Maenads tore him to pieces during the frenzy of their Bacchic orgies. Later, the story would sometimes be seen from a Christian moralist angle: in Albrecht Dürer's drawing (illustration, right) the ribbon high in the tree is lettered Orfeus der erst puseran ("Orpheus, the first sodomite"). His head and lyre, still singing mournful songs, floated down the swift Hebrus to the Mediterranean shore. There, the winds and waves carried them on to the Lesbos shore, where the inhabitants buried his head and a shrine was built in his honour near Antissa; there his oracle prophesied, until it was silenced by Apollo (Life of Apollonius of Tyana, book v.14). The lyre was carried to heaven by the Muses, and was placed among the stars. The Muses also gathered up the fragments of his body and buried them at Leibethra below Mount Olympus, where the nightingales sang over his grave. His soul returned to the underworld, where he was re-united at last with his beloved Eurydice. Another legend places his tomb at Dion, near Pydna in Macedonia. Other accounts of his death are that he killed himself from grief at the failure of his journey to Hades, or that he was struck with lightning by Zeus for having revealed the mysteries of the gods to men, or he was torn to pieces by the Maenads for having abandoned the cult of Dionysus for that of Apollo.[3]
Orphic poems and ritesA number of Greek religious poems in hexameter were attributed to Orpheus, as they were to similar miracle-working figures, like Bakis, Musaeus, Abaris, Aristeas, Epimenides, and the Sybil. Of this vast literature, only two examples survive whole: a set of hymns composed at some point in the second or third century AD, and an Orphic Argonautica composed somewhere between the fourth and sixth centuries AD. Earlier Orphic literature, which may date back as far as the sixth century BC, survives only in papyrus fragments or in quotations. In addition to serving as a storehouse of mythological data along the lines of Hesiod's Theogony, Orphic poetry was recited in mystery-rites and purification rituals. Plato in particular tells of a class of vagrant beggar-priests who would go about offering purifications to the rich, a clatter of books by Orpheus and Musaeus in tow (Republic 364c-d). Those who were especially devoted to these ritual and poems often practiced vegetarianism, abstention from sex, and refrained from eating eggs and beans — which came to be known as the Orphikos bios, or "Orphic way of life".[4] The Derveni papyrus, found in Derveni, Macedonia (Greece) in 1962, contains a philosophical treatise that is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem in hexameters, a theogony concerning the birth of the gods, produced in the circle of the philosopher Anaxagoras, written in the second half of the fifth century BC. Fragments of the poem are quoted making it "the most important new piece of evidence about Greek philosophy and religion to come to light since the Renaissance"[5]. The papyrus dates to around 340 BC, during the reign of Philip II of Macedon, making it Europe's oldest surviving manuscript. 
Orpheus with the lyre and surrounded by beasts,
Byzantine & Christian Museum,
Athens
The historian William Mitford wrote in 1784 that the very earliest form of a higher and cohesive ancient Greek religion was manifest in the Orphic poems.[6] W.K.C. Guthrie wrote that Orpheus was the founder of mystery religions and the first to reveal to men the meanings of the initiation rites.[7]
Orphic Hymns and the Heliocentric TheoryMore contemporary scholars have claimed that in the small part of cosmogony in the Orphic Hymns which was saved to date we can see evidence of knowledge regarding our solar system and the movement of celestial bodies. It has been claimed that the heliocentric theory may actually have dated back at the time the hymns were created. In support of this, the study of the Greek astronomer K.Chasapis (1914-1972), based on astronomical data cited in the poems, claims that the hymns were composed around the 2nd millennium B.C. In his doctoral thesis “Greek Astronomy of the 2nd millennium B.C. in Orphic Hymns” (1967), he refers to the periodic appearance of a particular zodiac formation, cited in Orphic Hymns, which takes place every 10,000 years and lasts for about 500 years, at the end of which the zodiac reverts to its former spatial order. This phenomenon, which is cited twice in the ancient text, allows a more objective dating of the Orphic Hymns, as their unknown composer apparently lived at the time it took place.
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