MARCEL CHICOTEAU THE “ORPHIC” TABLETS DEPICTED IN A ROMAN CATACOMB (C. 250 AD?) aus: Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 119 (1997) 81–83
81 THE “ORPHIC” TABLETS DEPICTED IN A ROMAN CATACOMB (C. 250 AD?) Most commentators of the gnostico-Christian Viale Manzoni hypogeum pay virtually no heed to what they have called ‘the idyllic pastoral scene’, or just a ‘farm’ displayed in Chamber ‘C’1 directly above the more outwardly impressive and often discussed ‘Odyssean’ picture to which it is generally assumed to be related (see Pl. VII). The fresco in question shows what might be described as a well appointed house on each side of a large doorway. In the centre there is a clearly delineated fountain, beside which stands a woman, and to the right another spring provides water to ‘queuing up’ domestic animals. To the right of the central fountain stands an apparently white cypress tree. The evanescent state of the paintings, even in 1924 when O. Ferretti skillfully reproduced them in water-colour for Mgr G. Wilpert’s appraisal, makes it hard to be ultra precise, but the woman appears to be contemplating the animals moving in two opposite directions, drinking from the right-hand fountain and remaining virtually black in colour before and after their drink. The most notable interpretation of the scene prior to my 1976 attempt is that of Ch. Picard2 postulating that both this and the lower panel refer to the Circe episode of the Odyssey; one suspects that having made a case for the lower one featuring Ulysses, the ‘Monte Circeo scene’ as he calls it, up above, completes a set, with the woman above and the one below both representing the enchantress. This, however, would not apply if the more usual acceptance of the lower panel representing Ulysses and Penelope prevailed. The present paper offers a new assessment of the top painting, in which the female figure, far from being the simple ‘housemaid’ that Wilpert suggested, becomes in fact an instrument of initiation more in keeping with the deep spiritual values (notably in other female figures) discernable in this unique catacomb. None of the judgments on the fresco in question takes account of the third element in this mural testimony: the refrigerium inscription by one Remius Celerinus for ‘A . . . Epaphroditus’ directly below the two paintings above mentioned. Here must clearly lie a link of exegetic value regarding the portraying of flowing water in the top panel. It is also noteworthy that in a hypogeum having only three inscriptions (apart from a small caricature of a Christian theme without wording also in Chamber ‘C’) this one should refer to the pre-Christian and Christian theme of énãcujiw, refreshment of souls, and perhaps more importantly that this is possibly 1 I adopt J. Carcopino’s designation here (De Pythagore aux Apôtres, Paris 1956) as I did in my work Glanures au Viale Manzoni, Brisbane 1976. 2 Mém. Acad. Inscript. et Belles-Lettres, 1945. There was also an interesting effort on the part of V. Daniel in Revue Belge de Phil. et d’Histoire, 1924, suggesting the grotto of the nymphs at Ithaca, implying the hope of a happy after-life. However, the reference to a Porphyry text seems debatable on the grounds of chronology. 82 M. Chicoteau the earliest use of refrigerium in a ‘semi-Christian’ catacomb yet discovered, perhaps implying some particular significance.3 In a monument of syncretism such as the Viale Manzoni hypogeum, a reminiscence of orphic tenets is even more feasible than one of Homeric epic. Such a possibility clearly lies behind the equation by E. Norden (albeit at the end of a footnote only) of the Thurii tablet IG XIV 641 dated 4–3 century BC and what he calls ‘the gnostic mysteries’4. This holds all the more interest for this paper in that one of the most recently discovered of the 17 known gold tablets was near Rome itself. The text is given by G. Pugliese Carratelli as follows: ¶rxetai §k kayar«n kayarã, | xyon¤vn bas¤leia EÎkleew EÈbou|leË te, DiÚw t°kow églaã. ¶xv d¢ Mnhmo|sÊnhw tÒde d«ron éo¤dimon ényr≈|poisin: Kaikil¤a S<e>kounde›na, nÒmvi | ‡yi d›a geg«sa. This tablet is in the British Museum (Catalogue of Jewellery, Oxford 1911, p. 380 no. 3154), and is probably not much earlier than the 3rd century AD catacomb, i.e. 4 to 5 centuries later than all the other lamellae aureae (from Magna Graecia, Crete and Thessaly). My contention is that the mural in question, independently of the one directly beneath it, is a direct representation of orphic ritual elements – guides to entering the underworld for pure souls – as handed down to us by these tablets (though not only the Roman one).5 Much has been written on these ‘amulets’6. I confine myself to stressing two particular elements of similarity, using Ferretti’s watercolour reproduction of what is now a fast vanishing fresco: 1. The feminine element One sole being, a female, is the picture’s centrepiece. I do not think she is the Sophia of Chamber ‘B’. Dressed in a white garment, still unsullied by time, she stands near the left of the two sources or wells of water7 which I take to be that of Memory (from which she may be drawing water to be drunk by the elect (gnostic pneumatics?) and that of Oblivion, to be avoided by them. She may be Persephone (as in Thurii texts IG XIV 641–2) but more likely to be the goddess Mnemosyne as purveyor of a gift (d«ron) in the form of a password (‘Be thou godlike’) for the mystes about to enter the underworld reigned over by the gods duly invoked8. Here, as xyon¤vn bas¤leia she holds sway, receiving the elect’s vow of purity (¶rxetai §k kayar«n kayarã, formula taken up from Thurii by the Roman tablet). Finally she will confer divine – and legal – status on the godlike soul (nÒmvi ‡yi d›a geg«sa). The candidate for these supreme honours, in the Roman tablet, was also a woman, by name Caecilia Secundina. 3 Credit must go a) to F. Cumont, Les religions orientales dans le paganisme romain, 1905–1963, for his consciousness of a link (p. 247 note) between the refreshment tenet of the early Church and ‘orphic tablets’ and b) to N. Maurice Denis- Boulet, Rome souterraine, Paris 1965, for holding the Viale Manzoni text as the earliest we possess to date on this theme (p. 150). NB in Carcopino, op. cit. the reconstruction epigraphically of refrigerium here by my former mentor Paul Fabre (p. 96). One also notes with interest that as long ago as in 1903, J. A. Stewart returned to the orphic tablets as a source of refrigerium (Classical Review 17, p. 117) cuxrÚn Ïdvr . . . 4 Agnostos Theos, Leipzig/Berlin 1923, p. 193. 5 The Thurii texts are grouped with that of Rome by G. Pugliese Carratelli, Parola del Passato, XXIX, 1974. However, one needs to have all the texts in mind (e.g. with O. Kern, Orphicorum Fragmenta, Berlin 1922), particularly having regard to two notable divergencies in them (positioning of the 2 wells as of the shining/white cypress). Something of the gist, but without the emphasis of this paper, appears in my Glanures, op. cit., p. 54, and black-white illustration opposite p. 56. 6 In ZPE, in particular 17, 1975; 23, 1976; 25, 1977; in Epigraphica 35, Firenze 1974, 1–2. 7 Not mentioned in the Roman tablet, but e.g. Hipponion places Lethe on right whereas Petelia places Memory on the right . . . 8 Texts given here in Greek from the Roman tablet. The “Orphic” Tablets Depicted in a Roman Catacomb 83 2. The importance of colour, especially white: Mgr Wilpert claimed9 that Ferretti’s work failed to do justice to the background contrasts and thought that the shining white elements (woman, fountain of Memory and adjoining house or palace) were too obscured under dark woodlands. Be this as it may, the most notable feature (and one I failed to take into account in my 1976 appraisal of the fresco) must be the whiteness of the cypress near the life-giving fountain. One critic suggested that the tree had ‘dried up’10. Whilst there is no reference to this phenomenon in the Roman tablet, there has been ample debate on its significance. It appears to play some sort of indicative, not to say initiatic role, illuminating the way to Hades. But whereas the divergency displayed in its positioning in the various texts makes one disinclined to be dogmatic about it, it is clear that to the Roman artist of the Viale Manzoni hypogeum who placed it next to the fountain of Memory, it played a vital part. Its colour still shines out, to this day. One hardly needs to add that the white sections of the painting are in sharp contrast with the extreme blackness of the animals (gnostic psychikoi or sarkikoi, v. supra). Whether the above-detailed interpretation of this Viale Manzoni catacomb painting, linked with the refrigerium inscription, has, if justified, any bearing on the scene depicted on the panel directly below it, is a further conundrum.11 Brisbane, Australia Marcel Chicoteau 9 Atti della Pontif. Accad. di Arch. III, 1924. 10 G. Germain, La genèse de l’Odyssée, Paris 1954, p. 367. But he is referring to the Petelia text which places the cypress near the water not to be drunk by the elect. 11 One briefly glimpses the orphic mysteries, like a palimpsest for this lower panel, in R. Turcan’s Ulysse et les prétendus prétendants, in Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum, 21–22, 1978–79, p. 169. Fresco in the Viale Manzoni Hypogeum
Theophile Roller (Protest.): Les Catacombes de Rome. Histoire de l’art et des croyances religieuses pendant les premiers siècles du Christianisme. Paris, 1879–1881, 2 vols. fol, 720 pages text and 100 excellent plates en hétiogravure, and many illustrations and inscriptions. The author resided several years at Naples and Rome as Reformed pastor.
Celestial pastures in funerary art served as symbols of the kingdom of heaven. Prefigured by Orpheus of pagan mythology, David signified the Judaic shepherd and Jesus the Christian shepherd in catacomb renderings of Paradise.
The Vanished Pastoral Scene 150. On the vandalized rear wall in the Vigna Randanini catacomb, vestiges of an arboreal scene suggest Orpheus, tamer of beasts, a theme common to Christian catacombs. This 1881 view of cubiculum II in the Vigna Randanini catacomb is from a work by Théophile Roller, Les Catacombes de Rome, I, plate UV, b. (See no. 15 fro a recent view of the same.)
Code: 0075962 Artist: ******** Title: Vault of the cubiculum with the Good Shepherd Location: Catacombs of Priscilla City: Rome Country: Italy Period/Style: Early Christian Genre: Fresco
A la première catégorie appartiennent deux peintures du cimetière de Domitilla. C'est d'abord un plafond : au milieu d'un cadre octogonal, qu'entourent huit compartiments à scènes bibliques, Orphée, vêtu d'une tunique flottante et coiffé d'un bonnet phrygien, est assis sur un rocher et joue de la cithare ; à droite et à gauche, un arbre où perchent un paon et d'autres oiseaux ; aux pieds du chanteur, divers animaux, dont un lion, un cheval, une tortue, un serpent. Une autre fresque, au fond d'un arcosolium, montre Orphée dans la même attitude et le même costume, entre deux arbres et des oiseaux ; à droite, deux lions ; à gauche, un boeuf et deux chameaux. Ces deux fresques sont étroitement apparentées à l'art païen.
Tout autres sont les peintures de la seconde catégorie. La figure du héros, moins personnelle et moins vivante, y devient un symbole. Dans un arcosolium du cimetière de Priscilla, Orphée n'a plus autour de lui que les animaux symboliques, familiers à l'art chrétien : le bélier, la brebis, le chien, la colombe.
La scène est encore plus simple et plus abstraite sur un plafond du cimetière de Calliste : Orphée, transformé en «Bon Pasteur», n'a plus pour auditeurs que deux brebis.
C'est ce dernier type qu'adoptèrent les sculpteurs chrétiens. Sur un sarcophage d'Ostie (fig. 5136), Orphée, en costume romain du temps, n'est plus caractérisé que par le bonnet phrygien, équivalent conventionnel du bonnet thrace ; il ne joue que pour une colombe et un bélier, d'ailleurs très attentifs ; la scène laisse une impression toute mystique. Mêmes caractères sur des sarcophages de Porto Torres et de Cacarens, sur une pyxis de Brioude, sur un sceau de Spalato.
''On a récemment découvert à Jérusalem, près de la porte de Damas, une mosaïque où est représentée une scène analogue. Cette mosaïque se trouvait dans un cimetière chrétien, et parait elle-même chrétienne. Orphée s'y montre avec sa physionomie symbolique, comme dans les fresques les plus récentes des Catacombes ; près de lui sont deux femmes, Theodosia et Georgia, en qui l'on a voulu reconnaître des saintes. Si l'interprétation est justifiée, cette mosaïque de Jérusalem, qui date probablement du iv ou du ve siècle, marquerait la dernière étape dans l'évolution du type. Orphée ne serait plus seulement un symbole de christianisme ; associé à des saints, il serait devenu lui-même une sorte de saint. Mais il convient d'attendre de nouvelles découvertes, avant d'admettre cette conclusion.
En Occident, aucun des monuments chrétiens où figure Orphée ne parait postérieur au IVe siècle. Et l'on s'explique aisément pourquoi. A force de simplifier et d'idéaliser la scène, on en avait supprimé tous les traits caractéristiques : Orphée disparut sans doute de l'art chrétien, parce qu'il s'était identifié avec le Bon Pasteur.
P. Monceaux
Pour aller plus loin...
Les représentations iconographiques d'Orphée dans les monuments chrétiens Article Orphée du Dictionnaire des Antiquités chrétiennes de Martigny (1877)
L'orphisme Article Orphici du Dictionnaire des Antiquités grecques et romaines de Daremberg et Saglio (1877)''
''In accepting rites and customs which were not offensive to her principles and morality, the Church showed equal tact and foresight, and contributed to the peaceful accomplishment of the transformation. These rites and customs, borrowed from classical times, are nowhere so conspicuous as in Rome. Giovanni Marangoni, a scholar of the last century, wrote a book on this subject which is full of valuable information.16 The subject is so comprehensive, and in a certain sense so well known, that I must satisfy myself by mentioning only a few particulars connected with recent discoveries. First, as to symbolic images allowed in churches and cemeteries. Of Orpheus playing on the lyre, while watching his flock, as a substitute for the Good Shepherd, there have been found in the catacombs four paintings, two reliefs on sarcophagi, one engraving on a gem. Here is the latest representation discovered, from the Catacombs of Priscilla (1888).''
''Its resemblance to the name of the Annei reminds me of another remarkable discovery connected with the same city, and with the same question. There lived at Ostia, towards the middle of the second century, a manufacturer of pottery and terracottas, named Annius Ser. . . . . ., whose lamps were exported to many provinces of the empire. These lamps p18are generally ornamented with the image of the Good Shepherd; but they show also types which are decidedly pagan, such as the labors of Hercules, Diana the huntress, etc. It has been surmised that Annius Ser. . . . . . was converted to the gospel, and that the adoption of the symbolic figure of the Redeemer on his lamps was a result of his change of religion; but to explain the case it is not necessary to accept this theory. I believe he was a pagan, and that the lamps with the Good Shepherd were produced by him to order, and from a design supplied to him by a member of the local congregation.''
The Good Shepherd, the story of Jonah, and orants, painted ceiling of a cubiculum in the Catacomb of Saints Peter and Marcellinus, Rome, Italy, early fourth century -synchretism, typology, program
Die Katakombe „Santi Marcellino e Pietro“: Repertorium der Malereien (The Catacomb “Saints Marcellino and Peter”: Repertory of the Paintings), Deckers, 1987
Talisman or cylinder seal of Orpheus-Bacchus Crucified (False color)
''Another piece of archaeological evidence is a talisman or cylinder seal depicting a figure nailed to a cross, with a half moon and seven stars residing overheard. Across the bottom reads, �Orpheus Bacchus,� Bacchus being the Roman name for Dionysus. This artifact came to an unfortunate end as well. It was kept in the Berlin Museum until it was lost or destroyed during the Second World War and it�s image has only survived in a black and white photograph of it. This ornament features in both Campbell�s book as well as the cover of the book, The Jesus Mysteries: Was the �Original Jesus� a Pagan God?, by Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy. The last two artifacts are featured in Freke and Gandy�s book as well.
Orphic Sacramental Bowl from Pietroasa, Romania, 200s or 300s A.D. Orpheus holding a fisher�s net and staff, wheat and grapes growing above his shoulders
Christian catacomb in Rome, portraying Orpheus sitting with a lyre in center panel with animals and trees, Surrounding panels portray Biblical scenes dated 300s A.D.
''This is not the first archaeological find to show an intermixing of early Christianity and the Orphic mysteries. Many other ancient Roman artifacts, most of them dating from the 300�s A.D., also show definite links between the two religions. The first three of these I will show are referenced in Joseph Campbell�s fourth book in his Masks of God series: Creative Mythology. Campbell�s book provides a drawing of the restored ceiling of the Domitilla Catacomb in Rome, with are eight panels circling the dome (p. 7). Four of the panels exhibit scenes from the Bible and four of them show pastoral scenes of a bull (the pagan sacrificial animal) or a ram (a Jewish sacrificial animal). The Bible scenes include: Moses drawing water from the rock, David with his sling, Daniel being cast into the lion�s den, and Jesus resurrecting Lazarus using a wand similar to the augur�s wands used by the Roman priestly class. In the center of the eight panels is Orpheus playing the lyre. ''
2004.07.54: Marcel Detienne, The Writing of Orpheus: Greek Myth in Cultural .... Elsner, Jas': 95.09.05: Castriota, David, The Ara Pacis Augustae and the ... bmcr.brynmawr.edu/by_reviewerE.html
Contact Information 773.702.7946 jas.elsner@ccc.ox.ac.uk
Jas' Elsner is Humfry Payne Senior Research Fellow in Classical Art at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and Visiting Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago.
The casket from Grado, however, depicts, in addition to Christ, .... (2) The interfusion of the Aristaeus and Orpheus stories, ...... the problem of double-selfhood between personal identity and the inner self is also discussed. ...... Simon Swain, Stephen Harrison and Jas Elsner (edds.), Severan Culture. ... www.bmcreview.org/2009_01_01_archive.html
''The other BAR article was Double Identity: Orpheus as David. Orpheus as Christ? by Jas¥ Elsner. It concerns a mosaic, originally from a Jerusalem structure, now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. Found in 1901, the 18.5' x 10.5' work was once a floor decoration in a small building of uncertain use. Previously scholars believed it to have been a Christian tomb or funerary chapel, but Elsner feels this is incorrect. He notes that the original archeologist believed the structure and mosaic was Christian, but there was no corroborative physical evidence of either. (The structure no longer exists.) Pagan imagery within Judeo-Christian contexts was not uncommon in the first centuries of the Common Era, as illustrated by a known image of King David as Orpheus from an early 6th c CE synagogue. (Has his name right on it, so no question there.) However, Elsner feels the Jerusalem mosaic as it is known may be entirely Pagan. It features a seated Orpheus taming the wild animals by playing his lyre. I looked at perhaps 15 websites trying to find a decent image I could link to, but unfortunately I found nothing that comes close to the stunning photos in BAR. Even their own website features only this small segment, along with a teaser for the full article. Any further images they may have are in the online members only edition. The color here is better than that in another image I'll link to in a moment, but still not up to the magazine quality. So if you happen to be at your local library, bookstore, or full-line newsstand (if there is such a thing anymore) check out the print version's multiple images. A.b.s.o.l.u.t.e.l.y S.t.u.n.n.i.n.g. And did I mention they're stunning?
I did find some less than stellar examples of this mosaic online, along with other mosaics of Orpheus from the same general time period. I know there is an Orphic Tradition mystery religion but have not yet read anything about it yet. Intriguingly, in all the images I've seen, Orpheus is portrayed wearing a Phrygian cap, the same cap worn by the Magi, priests of the Zurvanist Zoroastrians, as well as featured in various symbolic genres over the millenia. It renders him rather reminiscent of Mithra. In this particular example, the four corners of the mosaic's outer border (not visible in the online images) feature what look to my eyes rather like four Green Men, although they may simply be four, bearded, gray-haired elders. But the outer border also features interwoven acanthus leaves encircling various animals, as well as the four men, which is the source of the Green Man look. More animals are featured in the main scene, including what appears to be a weasel or mongoose in a harness squaring off with a snake, and, additionally, a centaur and a satyr or Pan figure (likely Pan as it holds a set of Pan pipes). Below the main portion is a small image of two women, identified by name, standing on either side of a column. The author suggests they are the patrons or dedicants of the artwork. There is something about them, though, along with that column that says "symbolic" to me, perhaps the similarity to an axis mundi, or one of the two columns in Solomon's Temple and pictured on the High Priestess Tarot card. In this case there are two women, two "living columns," with a single axis between them. In the bottom register of the display are two small hunting scenes featuring nearly nude, yet caped huntsmen with spears, one approaching a lion, the other a leopard. This too seems to have mystery religion hints to it, if for no other reason than the impracticality of hunting with a cape on. (I did find other such images though. Go figure.)
Amazingly, but not at all surprisingly for this thread, or for HP discussions in general, one of the better online versions I found was here. You can find the mosaic image not quite half-way down the page. Be sure not to give yourself whiplash gawking at the titles and other pics as they go by.''
Double Identity Orpheus as David. Orpheus as Christ? By Jas´ Elsner
Picture
A splendid mosaic now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum is said to portray Christ as Orpheus playing his lyre. A similar figure in a synagogue mosaic discovered in Gaza in the 1960s—resembling the traditional form of Orpheus but labeled “David”—may be thought to support this interpretation of Orpheus as Christ. But on closer examination the comparison falters. Allow me to unpack this. The Istanbul mosaic—or, more appropriately the Jerusalem mosaic, for it was discovered in 1901 northwest of Damascus Gate during the years of Ottoman dominion over Palestine—is one of the most impressive products of late antique mosaic production to survive from the Holy Land. Although Orpheus taming the animals with his lyre is the central panel, it is only a small part of a grand mosaic floor that includes a series of registers, each with panels of figural imagery inset into the complex and delightful decorative framing typical of Roman mosaics.1
Good general introductions to ancient mosaics include R. Ling, Ancient Mosaics (London: British Museum Press, 1998) and K. Dunbabin, Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1999).
Titre du document / Document title Double Identity : Orpheus as David. Orpheus as Christ? Auteur(s) / Author(s) ELSNER Jas ; Résumé / Abstract Over a century ago, a spectacular. mosaic of Orpheus enchanting animals with his magical lyre was discovered in Jerusalem. Since then, scholars have looked to other ancient depictions of the mythical musician for guidance in determining if this image is actually an early Christian representation of Christ. Jas Elsner revisits this famous mosaic and demonstrates that although pagan imagery, often found its way into Christian or Jewish contexts in antiquity, sometimes things really are just as they appear. Revue / Journal Title The Biblical archaeology review ISSN 0098-9444 Source / Source 2009, vol. 35, no2, [Note(s): 2, 34-45, 68 [11 p.]] Langue / Language Anglais Editeur / Publisher Biblical Archaeology Society, Washington, DC, ETATS-UNIS (1975) (Revue) Localisation / Location INIST-CNRS, Cote INIST : 25366, 35400018731738.0020
''Éva: Milyen aprócska mű. S milyen érdekes elképzelni, mennyire kicsi, finom szerszám kellett elkészítéséhez. (Talán egy kicsi, keskeny gömbölyű végű véső) Mennyire biztos kézzel, egy-egy apró mozdulattól a negatívba, már domborodik a comb, a fej, a kereszt. No, meg az apró csillagok... De szépek a betűk is. Az "A" és az "P" szép karcolása - még a talpai is -, ahogy kell. :)
εγώ: Vannak olyan finom munkak amelyeket meg mai nagyitasi technikakkal, eszkozokkel is csak nehezen lehetne megvalositani.''
Sir Orfeo: Introduction Edited by Anne Laskaya and Eve Salisbury Originally Published in The Middle English Breton Lays Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, 1995
''Friedman, John B. Orpheus in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970. [Examines the Orphic narrative as it appears in numerous literary, philosophical, theological, and historical texts written in the Middle Ages and their various uses and interpretations of the myth. See also his article, "Eurydice, Heurodis, and the Noon-Day Demon." Speculum 41 (1966), 22-29.]''
''Masi, Michael. "The Christian Music of Sir Orfeo." Classical Folia 28 (1974), 3-20. [Reads the lay as Christian narrative by examining connections between Orpheus and Christ and by exploring the Christian music symbolism found in medieval moral and cosmological concepts of the harmony of the universe. Makes specific connections between the music symbolism in Sir Orfeo and Boethius' De Musica.]''
"Famous Orpheus," in Orpheus: The Metamorphosis of a Myth, ed. John Warden (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982), pp. 3-23. See also Joan M. Erikson, Legacies: Prometheus, Orpheus, and Socrates (New York: Norton, 1993); William K. C. Guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion: A Study of the Orphic Movement, rev. ed. (New York: Norton, 1966; rpt. Princeton University Press, 1993); Elizabeth A. Newby, A Portrait of the Artist: the Legends of Orpheus and Their Use in Medieval and Renaissance Aesthetics, Harvard Dissertations in Comparative Literature (New York: Garland, 1987); The "Vulgate" Commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses: The Creation Myth and the Story of Orpheus, ed. Frank T. Coulson (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1991); Le Mythe d'Orphée aux Animaux et ses Prolongements dans le Judaisme, le Christianisme et l'Islam, ed. Andre Dupont-Sommer (Rome: Accademia nazionale dei lincei, 1975).''
''John Block Friedman, Orpheus in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970); also Klaus Heitmann, "Orpheus im Mittelalter," Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 45 (1963), 253-94; Kenneth R. R. Gros Louis, "Robert Henryson's Orpheus and Eurydice and the Orpheus Traditions of the Middle Ages," Speculum 41 (1966), 643-55. Orpheus, the Metamorphosis of a Myth, ed. John Warden (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982), especially the essays by Eleanor Irwin, "The Songs of Orpheus and the New Song of Christ," pp. 51-62); and Patricia Vicari, "Sparagmos: Orpheus among the Christians," pp. 63-83.''
John Block Friedman - 2000 - Literary Criticism - 267 σελίδες 3) shows a much more thoroughgoing effort to adapt Orpheus to the motif of ... lyre and his Phrygian clothes, he is clearly intended to represent Christ. ... books.google.gr/books?isbn=0815628250...
Title / Description: Catacombs of Domitilla, Orpheus-Christ with animals Object Location: Rome, Italy Object Location: Rome, Italy Object Type: image - fresco Date: 3rd c. CE Commentary: Compare a late antique relief of Orpheus. Source: Meeks, Wayne A. Wayne Meeks slide collection
Title / Description: Catacombs of Domitilla, Orpheus-Christ with animals