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  • Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity
  • David Konstan
Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui . Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity. Sozomena, 7. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2010. Pp. xiii, 442. €82.24. ISBN 978-3-11-020633-3.

This is a splendid book. Herrero's scholarship is exhaustive, his judgment balanced, the coverage is extensive, and, to top it all off, he writes clearly and elegantly (although the translators of the book, which appeared in Spanish in 2007, are named only in small type in the library catalogue information, I take this opportunity to state that Jennifer Ottman and Daniel Rodríguez have done a magnificent job: the English is perfect, and a pleasure to read).

Herrero provides an initial summary of all that is known about Orpheus as a subject of myth and cult, from the Hellenistic period on down. He defends, however provisionally, the use of the label "Orphic," making clear the problems that the blanket term conceals (26). There are, of course, two aspects to Orpheus. On the one hand, he was regarded in antiquity as the author of [End Page 379] cosmogonie poems and eschatological doctrines, which were interpreted by later scholars (e.g., in the Derveni papyrus) and were associated with certain rituals or cultic practices (the number of such writings increased dramatically in the Hellenistic period and thereafter). On the other hand, there were myths about Orpheus, in which he was represented as a singer who could enchant not just human beings but even animals and inanimate nature, and who was famous for having sought to rescue his wife from the underworld and, when he failed to do so and had abandoned all commerce with women, for being torn apart by raving women or Maenads. All this was evidently known in the fifth and fourth centuries BC; Roman poets such as Virgil and Ovid added further details that embellished the core myth.

The connection between the literary mythological tradition and the cultic practices is, however, mostly indirect, where it exists at all. Thus, Herrero argues that the cult never really established itself in Rome, where Dionysiac rituals were viewed with suspicion and at times harshly repressed, despite the popularity of Orpheus' story: in a word, "there never was a Roman Orphism" (73). The more mystical aspects of Orphism survived via conflation with Pythagorean doctrines, and the rites were assimilated to the Eleusinian cult, both of which enjoyed a certain popularity at Rome. The literary tradition, however, remained available, and led to constructions of Orphism as one model of pagan religion, both by pagan philosophers, above all the later Platonists (with Porphyry and Iamblichus, "the integration of the Orphic tradition into Neo-Platonist philosophy is total" [91]), and by the Christians, who conceived of paganism as a systematic doctrine analogous to their own which they had to combat by means of theological and other arguments (cf. 103, 127). Herrero meticulously traces the evolution of Christian responses to Orphism, indicating where possible the sources of their polemics (virtually entirely literary), delineating the dependency of later authors on earlier (elaborate stemmata are provided), and evaluating the possibility that some genuine information about Orphic practices or doctrines may have been transmitted. Much of Christian interpretation follows well-worn paths; Herrero remarks that "Lactantius is the only apologist who takes the theogonic material in a different and original direction" (177), by inverting earlier interpretations. After a survey author by author, Herrero analyzes the several strategies employed by the Christian polemicists in dealing with the rival doctrine (e.g., omission, distortion), resulting in what Herrero calls "the Christian recreation of Orphism" (265).

It is impossible even to suggest the riches of this fine study, in which the author is equally at home in literary texts, papyrological evidence, and archaeological remains. This is to be expected of a student of Alberto Bernabé (the book originated in a thesis under his direction); but Herrero more than fulfills such expectations, and has written a magisterial work which is essential reading for anyone interested in the evolution of ancient Orphism.

David Konstan
New York University
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