Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality among the GreeksRohde, Erwin
Religion
Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality among the Greeks
Rohde, Erwin
Greece -- Religion
[3\7: The remains in Kinkel, _Frag. Epic._ i, 215 ff. This ~Minua/s~
was identified by K. O. Müller, _Orchom_^2., p. 12, with the Orphic
~kata/basis eis Ha/idou~, and this suggestion has been followed,
though with hesitation, even by Lobeck, _Agl._ 360, 373. It rests
solely on the fact that the Orphic ~kata/basis~ was very doubtfully
ascribed according to Clemens to Prodikos of Samos, according to
Suidas to Herodikos of Perinthos (or to Kerkops, or to Orpheus of
Kamarina); while the Minyas, according to Paus. 4, 33, 7, was very
doubtfully ascribed to Prodikos of Phokaia. Müller first identified
Prodikos of Samos with Herodikos of Perinthos, and then both of them
with Prodikos of Phokaia. The justification of such a procedure is
by no means "self-evident" and the identification--entirely
depending upon this quite arbitrary view--of the Orphic ~kata/basis
eis Ha/idou~ with the Minyas is in the last degree hazardous. Such
an alternative title to an ancient narrative poem can only be
defended by fictitious and quite untenable parallels. The name
~Minua/s~ has no parallel in Orphic literature, and suggests rather
a poem dealing with heroic adventure in which the Nekyia would only
be an episode. If we are to believe in the double title we require
at least to be told how the name (Minyas) could possibly have been
given to a poem whose contents as implied by the title ~kata/basis
eis Ha/idou~ plainly consisted in a descent to Hades--made by
Orpheus himself (as Lobeck also understands, p. 373). Besides,
everything we learn about the Nekyia of the Minyas differs widely
from the temper and doctrine of Orphism, which should have
manifested themselves very distinctly in such a vision of the life
to come. Nor is anything from the Minyas given elsewhere under the
name of Orpheus, like so many of the details of underworld
mythology. There is nothing to suggest that it was Orpheus who
sought the _atra atria Ditis_: an unprejudiced interpretation of
_fr._ 1 (ap. Paus. 10, 28, 2) would suggest that it was rather
Theseus and Peirithoos whose descent to Hades supplied the framework
for the Hades episode in the poem. There is then not the slightest
justification for including the Minyas in the list of Orphic poems
or for citing what is known of its contents as Orphic mythological
doctrine (which last Lobeck himself did not do: he knew too well the
real nature and meaning of Orphism). Cf. Dümmler, _Delphika_, p. 19
(Bas. 1894).]
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