#orphic

[shisasan]

While I write I am the dreamer,  June 23, 1924 Journals of Anais Nin 1923-1927 [volume 3]

[sickdoctor-art]

Musings on Dionysus from last night:

—

Dionysus is young and old.

He is, in his earliest myths, a son of Persephone. It is with her that the seasons change, and he does also.

In the spring he is flowering and young, emblazoned with youthful vigor and excitement. Dionysus Intonsus. Dionysus the unshorn youth.

In summer, he is fertile- ripe and ready. Drunk and enticing in the warmest months. It is with him that your cares are taken from you, and celebration is an order. Dionysus Lyaeus. He who frees us from care.

In the fall, it is the slow descent into the cold. The vine is plucked, the wind turns. It is here he is pressed and he provides for all in the feast. Here he sits at the head of the table and offers council and comfort to all- Dionysus Hestius. Dionysus of the feast.

Finally, death is in winter. It is this time when the warmth of mulled wine is sweetest- when it fills the heart, even in the absence of the growing vine. It is when he guides through the cold and dark, encouraging in the final moments before he is born again that we can follow this cycle. He lights our way, and shows us through. Dionysus Lampterus- he of the torches.

—

Personally, I have always viewed Dionysus as a teacher and mature more figure- in line with his Bronze Age depictions. This is not to say that the younger depictions of him are incorrect- not at all. These concepts and aspects of him can exist simultaneously. They are not at odds, but instead work in tandem to create the full picture.

Dionysus isn’t only the young and carefree God. He is a God of Good Counsel, and he who guides the wild growth carefully.

[thetelesterion]

I will sing of Zeus, chiefest among the gods and greatest, all-seeing, the lord of all, the fulfiller who whispers words of wisdom to Themis as she sits leaning towards him. Be gracious, all-seeing Son of Cronos, most excellent and great!

-Homeric Hymn to Zeus, No. 23 Praised be Zeus, the Alpha and the Omega, the Pantokrator and Celestial King!

[sasoukee]

☽⋆ yoυ looĸ loɴεly…ι cαɴ ғιх тнαт⋆☾

[keysatthecrossroad]

I call Ækátî of the Crossroads, worshipped at the meeting of three paths, oh lovely one.

In the sky, earth, and sea, You are venerated in Your saffron-colored robes.

Funereal Daimôn, celebrating among the souls of those who have passed.

Persian, fond of deserted places, You delight in deer.

Goddess of night, protectress of dogs, invincible Queen.

Drawn by a yoke of bulls, You are the Queen who holds the keys to all the Kózmos.

Commander, Nýmphi, nurturer of children, You who haunt the mountains.

Pray, Maiden, attend our hallowed rituals;

Be forever gracious to Your mystic herdsman and rejoice in our gifts of incense.

- The Orphic Hymn to Hekáte

[dryococelas01]

Shout out to Baubo in orphic fragment 52, a woman who, when demeter was too in mourning to accept food and wine and so hospitality, decided the correct response was to lift her skirts and flash her genitals at demeter.

And it was the correct response apparently because Demeter found it delightful and accepted hospitality.

Just goes to show. Um...

It goes to show something I'm sure.

Don't try this at home.

[siren-nereide]

Orphic Hymn to Phanes

An Allegory of Power" by Georg Janny (1864-1935)

𝘖 𝘔𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵-𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 [𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘴], 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺'𝘳, 𝘵𝘸𝘰-𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘥, 𝘦𝘨𝘨-𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘥'𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰' 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘪𝘳,

𝘉𝘶𝘭𝘭-𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘳, 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴, 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴.

𝘌𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘱æ𝘶𝘴 [𝘌𝘳𝘪𝘬𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘰𝘴], 𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘸'𝘳, 𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵, 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸'𝘳.

𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘱'𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘢𝘭𝘭-𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘳, 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.

𝘏𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘗𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭'𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘬𝘺, 𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰' 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘭𝘺.

𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘱𝘶𝘴, 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬-𝘦𝘺'𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘦 𝘐 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘢𝘭, 𝘢𝘭𝘭-𝘱𝘳𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳-𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨,

𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦.

[kafkasapartment]

(AFTER) Rythme / 3, 1953. Robert Delaunay. Color screenprint on cream wove paper.

[tylermileslockett]

"The Death of Eurydice" (#2 in my Orpheus and Eurydice series)

But the three Moirai (fates) weave and cut their strings of mortal’s destinies, and this love was not destined to last. Dancing barefoot upon the forest floor with the nymphs, Eurydice was bitten by a venomous snake and tragically died. Orpheus played such music of melancholy mourning as to make the trees bow and weep.

The Latin poet Virgil gives a lush description of lament from his poem, “Georgicks:”…“But the choir of sister Dryads filled the tops of the mountains with their cries: the rooks of Rhodope wept, and high Pangaea, and the martial land of Rhesus, and the Getae, and Hebrus, and Attic Orithyia. He assuaging his love-sick mind with his hollow lyre, lamented thee, sweet wife, thee on the solitary shore, thee when day approached, thee when it disappeared.” (-translated by John Martyn.)

We have multiple sources giving variations recounting Eurydice’s death. According to Ovid, she was walking along the riverside with her sister dryad nymphs, while Vergil has her escaping a rape attempt by another son of Apollo; a pastoral god named Aristaeus. But the authors agree that her death results from the bite of a poisonous viper.

As always, thanks for looking! And if you could share this post with your followers I'd be so grateful as to rescue you from the pits of tartarus with only my lyre. :D xoxo

we should also add this kickstarter info at the end of every post: 

Like this art? It will be in my illustrated book with over 130 other full page illustrations coming in march to kickstarter. Please check my links in my linktree in my bio to join the kickstarter notification page. 🤟❤️🏛

[brimo5]

Personally, I only think of Melinoe as Persephone's daughter, and I feel that in some retellings, she gets too much focus as Hades' daughter. But I don't think it's more accurate to claim she is just another creature of Zeus' crime. Remember, the only Orphic hymn of Melinoe does not clearly tell us what is going on.

Interpretations of these two verses vary widely. The antecedent of ἧι could be Persephone or Melinoe. The subject of ἐμίγε could be 'Pluto deceived' (the transmitted reading, ψευσθεὶς Πλούτων), or Zeus (from v. 3) 'having deceived Pluto' (Gesner, ψευσθεὶς Πλοῦτων, but this requires giving the passive participle ψευσθεὶς an active sense), or (Zeus again) the 'false Pluto' (Ricciardelli, ψεύστης Πλούτων). In v. 5, the subject of ἔσπασε could be Pluto (or Zeus) or Melinoe, and the verb could mean 'drew' (Laur. 36.35, Scaliger, Ricciardelli) or 'tore' (Athanassakis, Charvet, Fayant). The myth remains, perhaps intentionally, obscure. (……) It may be, as Gesner suggests, that Melinoe has a double paternity, accounting for her double appearance, 'a Plutone furvum, lucidum a Iove'. (Daniel Malamis, The Orphic Hymns, p130)

As appealing as the idea of Zeus being a fake Plouton is, it must be assumed that Persephone is already married to Plouton and remains Zeus' daughter in this context. Therefor, Zeus have to fake his identify and do the crime again. However, without concrete evidence, I think the idea of Zeus' incest is overused, since both Proclus and Nonnus suggest that Zeus' union with Persephone earlier than her relationship with Plouton.

Instead, to me, it's still reasonable to think that Plouton lay with Persephone after Zeus, and that Persephone bore Melinoe after Dionysus, similar to the case of Heracles and Iphicles. Heracles was called both "son of Zeus" and "son of Amphitryon" since Homer. Dioscuri and Theseus are also examples of heroes who has two fathers. Unlike the heroes whose two fathers are totally distinct figures, the idea of Zeus and Hades being one is much more common and older (I might write a post about it later), which might suggests that this poem is simply another version of Persephone's abduction, though it is still very disturbing.

Yet that's just my interpretation. People can choose to believe father of Melinoe is Zeus or Hades or both, to believe that this is a awful variation of the Alcmene myth. But interpretations are not the original source. The so-called orphic texts are already problematic, the simplified summary makes them worse. (I'll never stop complaining about Zagreus replacing Dionysus.)

[olgadealexandria]

🏺THE MYSTERIES OF ISIS: SYNCRETISM IN ANCIENT ROME PT.2🏺

Left: Priestess of Isis,John Cheere (18th century), National Trust Collection. Right: Priestess of isis, Museo Archaeologico Regionale, Palermo, Sicily.

As we've seen in the previous post, foreign gods made their way into Roman culture. In the case of Egyptian gods, they were usually adopted by the Greeks before arriving to the Italic peninsula.

In this post, we're going to talk about the mysteries of Isis. Unlike typical religious practices, which were often public services, mystery rites promised their followers a closer connection to a particular god.

Isis wasn't the only nor the first god to have a mystery rite. In fact, it surged as a way to honour the foreign godess in a somewhat "familiar" way.

The Eleusinian (honouring Demeter and Persephone, also known as Kore) and the Orphic mysteries (Orpheus) had an earlier development in Greek culture and would become the most famous mystery rites.

Wall painting depicting Isiac rites.

The practices of the cult was, as the name suggests, a mystery. Participants had to swear a vow of secrecy, and, as a consequence of its private character, many things are unknown to us.

The rites heavily focused on death and belief on the afterlife, and also recreated the myths surrounding the godess Isis, like the murder of Osiris.

One of the only accounts of the mysteries of Isis is depicted in The Golden Ass. In Book 11, Lucius, the protagonist, is transformed back into a human guided by the Egyptian goddess. In return, Lucius becomes part of the cult.

As other pagan cults and worships, the mystery rites died out when Christianity rose to power.

[shisasan]

To live not loudly, but luminously To move in grace, and speak only what burns true To let beauty rise from the ordinary To heal the old wounds, as one touches sacred relics and craft the kind of magic that leaves the air different, fluid That is the pulse, and vow, of my soul 🜍 ⟡ ⟢ Spring 2025

[featheredclover]

Orphic

An SS inspired by this prompt by @arshifiesta

Also on Wattpad

Chapter One

Next chapter>>

It’s raining men, hallelujah! It’s raining men!

Khushi twirled on her toes, before sashaying her hips. She danced without a care along the long corridor of her beautiful home. Well, it was a mansion really, but nobody could tell that to the daughter of Lucknow’s biggest builder.

Khushi hummed the songs blasting in her ears out loud, as she pranced around in just a white negligée, enjoying a rare evening of solitude. Her mum ensured that she was well chaperoned when she was out with friends, a driver accompanied her to her job as an apprentice to her interior designer aunt Madhumati and the house was always filled with too many guests.

So when her papa and mummy had declared their plans to go visit a friend who had recently returned from abroad that evening , she had bursted with joy from within.

And here she was, wearing a full face of makeup, her headphones hooked to her walkman, in her barely anything outfit which would have given her mummy the fits.

She halted in front of a beautiful brown door, embossed with gold. Her papa’s office. As a child she had seen him as such a powerful figure and partly responsible for that was this beautiful office tastefully decorated by her aunt. It was where Khushi envisioned herself after a decade. Powerful enough to have a beautiful office and a huge chair, almost like a throne!

Giggling at the mischievous thought brewing in her head, she rested her hand on the carved door knob. Twisting it, she pushed it open as the smell of mahogany invaded her nose. Letting out a sigh of contentment, she walked in.

The music put her on her feet again, spinning with such grace, her ballet teacher would have been proud. She found herself drawn to the liquor cabinet. Feeling bold that evening, she took the wine bottle and weighed it in her arms.

Her eyes then caught sight of the small metal flask.

Whiskey it is!

Her lips curved into a wicked smile.

The first sip sent a burn down her throat. The next sip seemed to grow on her. And soon she was pleasantly intoxicated!

Prancing around, enjoying her evening of freedom she settled on her father’s lush velvet chair. Crossing her legs with the flask dangling from her hand , she felt so powerful.

“ I would suggest you go easy on the drink”

Her walkman dropped from her grip, crashing onto the floor as she startled. Her heart raced and she paled as fear gripped her. Breathing deeply for courage, she took a moment more before turning around the chair.

A man in a suit. A man who was smirking. A man who stood lazily, arms crossed across his broad chest.

“ Drunk already?” His voice seemed almost sinful. Or was it her intoxicated brain?

“Who are you?”

He smiled this time.

“ Arnav Singh Raizada. Mr and Mrs Gupta came to visit my father tonight and invited us back to their place for some business. I took my own car and I am afraid I arrived earlier than them. And met…. you”

His eyes slipped down her face and Khushi became uncomfortably aware of her state of undress. Well not really! But the white negligée was far from suitable for polite company.

She gulped in trepidation.

“ Umm yeah, I thought I would be alone”

“ You should hurry back. They’ll be here any moment. Khushi? Is that your name?”

She nodded. She felt like a dimwit. The whisky was being blamed, but this Adonis in front of her could have made her dizzy with desire even when sober.

She stood up and put the flask back in the cabinet. Just when she reached Arnav, she found herself begging.

“ Please don’t tell my parents. Please.”

His gaze darkened as they pierced her.

“ What will I get in return?”

“Anything you ask” she promised brashly in her fear.

“Anything?” His voice dropped down to almost a whisper.

She nodded. Her eyes bright and wide on her pale face.

He looked on, as she left the office and rushed back to her room.

She flopped down on her bed. Her heart still racing, she ran her hands over her face.

Why did it feel like she had just made a deal with the devil?

Tagging: @jalebi-weds-bluetooth @barshifan @andli @shiyaravi @muttonthings @hand-picked-star @msbhagirathi @phuljari @sankititaliya @thenainitaldisaster @thedupattaknowswhatsup @chutkiandchotte @laad-governess @laadgovernors @laadgovernorandsankadevi @leila1 @hi-this-is-permabanned @arshispyaar @minpdnim @thedustyshehnai @bigfatreader @arshiradio @simplycurlz @scorpio-smiles @bengudill

————

Chapter Two>>

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[thetelesterion]

Orphic Zeus, lord of the Kosmos. Source and origin of all that is, and all that will ever be. Containing all things within his body. Ge (Earth) is in his belly. He gives birth to all wisdom and all knowledge, and his eyes are the fires of Helios.

[orphic-academia]

[glaufxgarland]

Protogonus, Music 310, Orphic Myst Electronic Music 1980-2025 Vol 29 Gla...