The Orphic Hymns
← all texts · Greek · c. 200 BCE – 200 CE (collection)
What this is
Eighty-seven short ritual hymns attributed to Orpheus — incense-offerings to the gods of the Orphic mysteries, with their own theogony centered on Phanes, Nyx and Dionysos. The liturgy of a Greek mystery cult.
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Companion reading path
What to read alongside it, and why.
Hesiod — Theogony
Greek
Read Hesiod first for the mainstream theogony the Orphics deliberately rewrote.
The Homeric Hymns
Greek
The non-mystery praise-hymns — compare the public and the initiatory voice.
The Corpus Hermeticum
Gnostic & Hermetic
The other great body of Greek mystical-philosophical religion from the same era.