Orpheus was one of the handful of Greek heroes to visit the Underworld and return his music and song even had power over Hades. 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, and divert the course of rivers. 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 had perfected it. Orpheus (left, with lyre) among the Thracians, from an Attic red-figure bell-krater (c.
Shrines containing purported relics of Orpheus were regarded as oracles. He was credited with the composition of the Orphic Hymns and the Orphic Argonautica. įor the Greeks, Orpheus was a founder and prophet of the so-called "Orphic" mysteries. 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. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music (the usual scene in Orpheus mosaics), his attempt to retrieve his wife Eurydice from the underworld, and his death at the hands of the maenads of Dionysus, who tired of his mourning for his late wife Eurydice.
Īncient Greek authors as Strabo and Plutarch note Orpheus' Thracian origins. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, and even descended into the Underworld of Hades to recover his lost wife Eurydice. Orpheus ( / ˈ ɔːr f iː ə s, ˈ ɔːr f juː s/ Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ) is a legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion.
0 kommentar(er)
