Article: Orphic Eschatology
Within: Eschatology in Antiquity, edited by Hilary F. Marlow, Helen Van Noorden, and Karla Pollmann
Publisher: Routledge
Abstract
There was no such thing as Orphic eschatology in the classical world, but among the texts and rituals associated with the name of Orpheus, eschatological ideas, visions of the afterlife, and speculations on the interrelation of body and soul all make their appearance. Some previous scholars have imagined Orphic texts to be especially focused on the afterlife, and the label “Orphism” is often attached to evidence that presents a vision of a differentiated afterlife as a compensation for the injustices of this life. Such compensatory visions are not exclusive to Orphic texts, however, and Orpheus’ authority in rituals might also be borrowed by other thinkers who put Orpheus’ name to their compositions in order to disseminate their cosmological ideas. Orphic texts make use of eschatological images from the common mythic tradition to discuss the interrelation of body and soul, as well as the shape and nature of the cosmos. There may have been no exclusively Orphic eschatology, but the Orphica include a rich variety of eschatological ideas.