Orpheus' Erotic Mysteries: Plato, Pederasty, and the Zagreus Myth in Phanocles F 1

Abstract

In his Ἔρωτɛς ἢ Kαλoί, Phanocles tells how Orpheus was decapitated by Thracian women because he ‘revealed’ homoerotic love and rejected women. Iconographic and literary evidence suggests that Orpheus is associated with homoeroticism and misogyny from the Classical period. Phanocles' poem also exploits Orpheus' ambivalent status: as founder of the Eleusinian mysteries, his authority was immense. But he was also seen as the guru of a countercultural fringe, who preached reincarnation and vegetarianism. The fact that Phanocles presents Orpheus' erotic predilections as mysteries points to Plato, who rejected the mainstream, Eleusinian Orpheus, and embraced the counter‐cultural (Pythagorean) one. Orpheus rejects generative love because he is associated with the transcendent, rather than earthly, realm. Plato re‐configures both Orpheus' mystical teachings and his music‐making as philosophy/philosophical love, benefiting from traditions of interpreting Orphic poetry allegorically.

Pins, Pestles, and Women: A Material Approach to Female Violence in Ancient Greece

“…Although the Thracians are sometimes considered to be maenads, 63 they do not act in the frenzied manner we would expect, nor show any identifiable signs of madness. 64 Since the act takes place in the countryside, as attested to by the trees and rocks depicted in the pictorial field of several of the scenes, it follows that they must have brought all of their improvised weaponsdomestic and otherwisewith them. The planned nature of the attack is also supported by a scene decorating several vases in which we see the Thracian women standing alongside Thracian men and listening to Orpheus' music while already armed with their attacking objects.…”