CarnivalCities International Festival of Masks in Pernik Bulgaria || Kulari: Myth & Mystery by mythingLINKS.com The Balkans Opening Page || Bulgaria History page1 || Bulgaria Myth Links -page2
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One of humankind's earliest and most influential stories of Love and Death comes from the civilization buried beneath Bulgaria today. This inspiring Thracian story of revelation and inspiration has been adopted by the Greeks, Romans and anyone with a feeling for the Arts: past, present and future. Countless versions exist, including 'Black Orpheus,' the story most associated with Brazilian Carnaval. As a tribute to Sofia-Pernik, host of the FECC XXIV world conference of Carnival Cities, we present some of the most popular and inspired verses and stories. Orpheus is said to have come from Bulgaria's southern Rhodope Mountains. Here in the sheltered Valley of Roses are grown millions of roses, from which comes the world's purest attar of roses. Over 4000 of the country's caves, some including prehistoric paintings, have been explored and mapped hereabouts. The region is rich in Thracian artifacts. |
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The
Metamorphoses Latin Text | English Translations | Search Page | The Renaissance Reception of Ovid in Image and Text
Latin Text ||English
Translations // French //
The Hymns of Orpheus, translated with
commentary by Thomas Taylor; London [1792]
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Orpheus was the
son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope. He was presented by his father
with a lyre and taught to play upon it, which he did to such
perfection that nothing could withstand the charm of his music. Not
only his fellow Hymenaeus (the god of marriage, son of Dionysus and Venus) had been called to bless with his presence the nuptials of Orpheus with Eurydice, but though he attended, he brought no happy omens with him. His very torch smoked and brought tears into their eyes. In accordance with such prognostics, Eurydice, shortly after her marriage, while wandering with the nymphs, her companions (and sisters), was seen by the shepherd Aristaeus, who was struck by her beauty and made advances to her. She fled, and in fleeing trod upon a snake in the grass, was bitten in the foot and died. Orpheus sang his grief to all who breathed the upper air, both gods and men, and finding it all unavailing resolved to seek his wife in the regions of the dead. He descended by a cave situated on the side of the promontory of Taenarus and arrived at the Stygian realm. He passed through crowds and ghosts and presented himself before the throne of Pluto and Proserpine. Accompanying the
words with the lyre, he sung,
As he sang these tender strains, the very ghosts shed tears. Tantalus, in spite of his thirst, stopped for a moment his efforts for water; Ixion's wheel stood still; the vulture ceased to tear the giant's liver; the daughters of Danaus rested from their task of drawing water in a sieve; and Sisyphus sat on his rock to listen. Then for the first time, it is said, the cheeks of the Furies were wet with tears. Proserpine could not resist, and Pluto himself gave way. Eurydice was
called. She came from among the newly-arrived ghosts, limping with
her wounded foot. Orpheus was permitted to take her away with him on
one condition, that he should not turn around to look at her 'til
they Stretching out their arms to embrace each other, they grasped only the air! Dying now a second time, she yet cannot reproach her husband, for how can she blame his impatience to behold her? "Farewell," she said, "a last farewell," -- and was hurried away, so fast that the sound hardly reached his ears. ![]() Orpheus endeavoured to follow her, and besought permission to return and try once more for her release, but the stern ferryman Charon repulsed him and refused passage. Seven days he lingered about the brink, without food or sleep; then bitterly accusing of cruelty the powers of Erebus, he sang his complaints to the rocks and mountains, melting the hearts of tigers and moving the oaks from their stations. He held himself aloof from womankind, dwelling constantly on the recollection of his sad mischance. The Thracian maidens tried their best to captivate him, but he repulsed their advances. They bore with him as long as they could; but finding him insensible one day, excited by the rites of the Bacchus, one of them exclaimed, "See yonder our despiser!" and threw at him her javelin. The weapon, as soon as it came within the sound of his lyre, fell harmless at his feet. So did the stones that they threw at him. But the women raised a scream and downed the voice of the music, and then the missiles reached him and soon were stained with his blood. The maniacs tore him limb from limb and threw his head and his lyre into the river Hebrus, down which they floated, murmuring sad music, to which the shores responded a plaintive symphony.
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"Although by some he was held
to be a Greek, the tradition of his Thracian origin was most
generally accepted. His name does not occur in Homer or Hesiod, but
he was known in the time of Ibycus (c. 530 B.C.), and Pindar (522—442
B.C.) speaks of him as “the father of songs”.
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In Greek legend, Orpheus was the chief representative of the art of song and playing the lyre, and of great importance in the religious history of Greece. The derivation of the name is uncertain, the most probable being that which connects it with "dark". "Orpheus" may also possibly be a derivative of "ophruoeis" - which translates to "on the river bank". This may be in reference to his untimely and brutal demise at the hands of the bachanntes, and his subsequent dismembering into the river Hebrus. It might also be a reference to trees along the river bank, as his father, Oeagrus, translates to "of the wild sorb-apple" and both of these things refer to the Hellenic River Goddes, Halys (also known as Elis or Alys) Orpheus may have been originally a god of darkness; or the liberator from the power of darkness by his gift of song. It is possible, but very improbable, that Orpheus was an historical personage; even in ancient times his existence was denied. Although by some he was held to be a Greek, the tradition of his Thracian origin was most generally accepted. His name does not occur in Homer or Hesiod, but he was known in the time of Ibycus (c. 530 B.C.), and Pindar (522—442 B.C.) speaks of him as “the father of songs”. From the 6th century onwards he was looked upon as one of the chief poets and musicians of antiquity, the inventor or perfecter of the lyre, who by his music and singing was able not only to charm the wild beasts, but even to draw the trees and rocks from their places, and to arrest the rivers in their course. As one of the pioneers of civilization, he was supposed to have taught mankind the arts of medicine, writing and agriculture. Closely connected with religious life, he was an augur and seer; practiced magical arts, especially astrology; founded or rendered accessible many important cults, such as those of Apollo and Dionysus; instituted mystic rites, both public and private; prescribed initiatory and purificatory ritual. He was said to have visited Egypt, and to have become acquainted there with the writings of Moses and with the doctrine of a future life. |
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As a professional mathematician with a specialty in Chaos theory, Professor Abraham became interested in better understanding the growing popularity of his branch of mathematics when he found himself increasingly called by journalists for comments. His research brought forth a creation story as old as any known history. The long line of Orphism extends from our paleolithic past into the foreseeable future. Its chief characteristic features are encoded into the Roman fable of Orpheus and Euridice, one of our oldest living legends. |
ORPHEUS TODAY
I'm in the process of investigating this and writing abook about my results. That is how I got into Orphism, and today I would like to speak to you about Orphism and Bach, or Montaverde. What has survived of Orphism in the modern world and from the time of Christ onward is the myth of Orpheus and Euridice. In ancient Greece it was just a small component of the whole religion of Orphism, which had its roots in the paleolithic past. This article is devoted to the long line of Orphism - the origin of Orphism in the paleolithic past, its representation in the religion of ancient Greece, our heritage of that past in the form of the Orpheus myth, its relationship to opera, and its importance in the present day. 25,000 years of history, or rather pre-history calls for a speculation more or less as vague as science fiction. We do, however, have something like history in the archeology of the past in the form of pottery shards that people have dug up, some with drawings." |
The
Veil of Isis or Mysteries |
Joseph Cambell
www.jcf.org
carnaval.com/
Joseph
Campbell Foundation Web Site |
"St. Paul's great insight on the road to Damascus was that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross could be interpreted in terms of the mystery religions' understanding of the death and the resurrection of the savior--that is, as the death of one's purely material, animal existence and the birth, then, of the spiritual life. This is symbolized in Christian terminology by the transformation of the old Adam into the Adam.. Then we have the refrain of O feix culpa, "O happy fault"-original sin-and the notion that the fall of man into the field of time out of the timeless rapture of Eden was followed by the coming of the Savior, who represented a sublimation-a higher manifestation of the consciousness of humanity than that which had been represented in the garden-and so, without the fall, there would have been no savior. Well, all of this is really mystic language from the Greek mysteries."
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