Wstęp
31
życie”
59
. Jednocześnie
wykazuje Guthrie, że „Orfizm zawsze był literaturą, po
pierwsze i głównie. Różnica między literaturą a kultem jest użyteczna na wiele
sposobów, lecz nie może czynić nas ślepymi na fakt, że oryginalna, żywa religia
może równie dobrze być ufundowana na zbiorze świętych pism, jak bez wątpie-
nia było z orfizmem”
60
. Przyjmuje również zdecydowanie starsze pochodzenie
wierzeń orfickich, niż czynił do Linforth, uznaje też kult Dionizosa za istotny
element orfizmu (choć zarazem podkreśla zreformowanie tego kultu przez Orfe-
usza)
61
. W odniesieniu do związków z pitagoreizmem przyjmuje Guthrie pier-
wotność koncepcji orfickich, które następnie przejmie pitagoreizm i wkomponu-
je we własną doktrynę
62
.
Inni badacze dostrzegają z kolei nierozerwalność literatury orfickiej z orfic-
kimi misteriami. Punktem wyjścia tych misteriów czynią kult dionizyjski. Jak
stwierdza Karl Kerényi, „tak złożony wytwór ścisłej wewnętrznej logiki, którym
była tajemna dionizyjska ceremonia ofiarna, jest faktem o zasadniczym znacze-
niu w dziejach greckiej religii. Dał on początek
rozmaitym nurtom rozwojowym
o szerokim zasięgu. Należała do nich orfika w formie nadanej jej przez Onoma-
——————————
59
„Orpheus, whatever may have been his origin, appears in history as a human prophet and
teacher, whose doctrine was embodied in a collection of writings. He did not have a new and
entirely distinct species of religion to offer, but a particular presentation or modification of reli-
gion. Those who found it congenial might take him for their prophet, live the Orphic life and call
themselves Orphic. Their rites would become
Orphica, and a new spirit would
be infused into their
religion; but they would not be called upon to worship a different god or to worship their own in
a way that was always obviously different”. W.K.C. G u t h r i e:
Orpheus and Greek Religion.
A Study of the Orphic Movement. New Jersey 1993 (1. wydanie — London 1952), s. 9.
60
„Orphism always was a literature, first and foremost. The distinction between literature and
cult is a useful one in many ways, but it must not blind us to the fact that a genuine living religion
may well be founded on a collection of sacred writings, as Orphism undoubtedly was”. Ibidem,
s. 10.
61
„To the question »who was the god of the Orphic religion?« there can be but one answer —
Dionysos. Orpheus was a religious founder, and the religion he founded was a species of the Bac-
chic. [...] If he preached the religion of Dionysos he at the same time reformed it”. Ibidem, s. 41—
42.
62
„After what has been said, the difficulty of deciding whether Orphism or Pythagoreanism
came first needs no further emphasis. It nevertheless seems most likely
from the character of the
two systems, and in particular from the fact that Pythagoreanism takes up Orphism into itself but
has as well an intellectual system to reinforce it, that Orphic dogma was already formulated, at
least in its main outlines, when Pythagoras founded his brotherhood. Those who formulated it
were themselves no thoughtless primitive minds. They were consciously trying to solve the same
problem as Pythagoras — the generation of the many out of the One. But to the present writer at
least the most natural assumption seems to be that Pythagoras had the mythological solution before
him, and, realizing its religious value but impressed by the claims of the intellect as well,
evolved
as a complementary scheme his mathematical conception of reality. The two are nearer together
than they seem at first sight, and although the one may be a little in advance of the other, they
belong undoubtedly to the same mental age — the age of the first stirrings of intellectual curiosity
about the origins and nature of the universe”. Ibidem, s. 220—221.
32
Wstęp
kritosa”
63
. Podkreśla także Kerényi związki między orfizmem i pitagoreizmem,
wyprowadzając ten drugi z pierwszego (Pitagoras byłby w pewnym sensie tym,
który dokonał syntezy orfizmu i badań matematycznych)
64
.
Stanowisko Kerényiego do pewnego stopnia koresponduje z ujęciem Marti-
na P. Nilssona, wybitnego szwedzkiego badacza religii starożytnej Grecji. Uj-
muje on orfizm jako syntezę trackiego, omofagicznego kultu dionizyjskiego
z pochodzącym z Krety kultem „Boskiego Dziecięcia”
65
. Sugeruje jednocześnie,
że orfizm mógł łączyć w sobie więcej religijnych źródeł, formując je w jeden
system
66
. Istotą orfickich misteriów jest, według Nilssona, „wyzwolenie czło-
wieka z wrodzonej występności”, osiągane dzięki oczyszczeniom i ascezie
67
.
Podkreśla także Nilsson pokrewieństwo między orfizmem i pitagoreizmem,
wskazując jednak szerszy kontekst tych zbieżności, dotyczący między innymi
związku pitagoreizmu z misteriami delfickimi
68
.
——————————
63
K. K e r é n y i:
Dionizos. Archetyp życia niezniszczalnego. Tłum. I. K a n i a. Kraków
1997, s. 221.
64
K. K e r é n y i:
Pythagoras und Orpheus. Präludien zu Einer Zukünftigen Geschichte der
Orphik und des Pythagoreismus. Amsterdam 1940. (3. wydanie — Zürich 1950). Zob. J. G a j d a:
Pitagorejczycy..., s. 14.
65
„The myth of Dionysos and the Titans appears to be founded on a combination of the
Thracian rite of the
omophagia and the conception of the Divine Child”. M.P. N i l s s o n:
The
Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and Its Survival in Greek Religion. Lund 1968, s. 581.
66
„The origin and the early development of Orphism are hidden in a cloud, which owing to
the nature of our sources will never be wholy dispersed; but one thing is clear, that Orphism com-
bined elements from various and different religious sources into one system”. Ibidem, s. 580.
67
„Hence it is the duty of man and the aim of the Orphic mysteries to free man from his in-
nate viciousness, and this is attained by purifications and ascetism, which
are prominent features
of the Orphic ritual”. Ibidem, s. 581.
68
„The Pythagoreans knew themselves to be something more than others and, therefore, shut
themselves off from the surrounding world. They show close affinity to the Orphics but their
connexions with Delphi were also quite plain to antiquity. »Pythagoras« means »mouthpiece of
Delphi«; it sounds like a
nom de guerre”. M.P. N i l s s o n:
A History of Greek Religion. Transl.
F.J. F i e l d e n. Oxford 1925, s. 201—202. Dodaje również: „This law of retribution may have
sufficed for the people and indeed also for the simpler souls among the Orphics themselves, but
Orphicism taught something more, the transmigration of souls, its
most obvious point of resem-
blance to the doctrines of the Pythagoreans”. Ibidem, s. 221; „The circle of births is not eternal;
there is an end when the righteous have been tested sufficiently and pass into eternal bliss. This is
doubtless in fact a compromise between the doctrine of soul-migration and the idea of the kingdom
of the blest, but the content and depth of the conception are in no way diminished by the fact. This
doctrine forms the very summit of Orphicism, man’s final liberation from his Titanic inheritance
by means of the observation of strict purity. Therein lay the higher meaning of the purifications
and the asceticism to which the Orphics submitted; like the Pythagoreans they extended their
asceticism to the abstention from animal food”. Ibidem, s. 222; „There is
a rich Orphic literature
which is ascribed to the sixth century, but extremely little of it has been preserved. Among the
poets several take the name of Orpheus. Most of them belong to Sicily and Greater Greece. These
lands too were for long a centre of Orphicism, and therein is shown the relationship of Orphicism
to the doctrines of Pythagoras. A Pythagorean also, Kerkops, is mentioned among the authors of
Orphic poems”. Ibidem, s. 214.