Pythagoreans, Orphism and Greek religion

Abstract

Modern assessments of the extent, nature and direction, of the connection between Orphism and Pythagoreanism remain widely divergent. This chapter examines a number of examples and concentrates on individual actors, phenomena, and specific texts. It focuses on those features that are most commonly considered as the principal areas of overlap between Orphism and Pythagoreanism. The chapter suggests that a number of texts coming from Pythagorean and Orphic sources share a general methodology of giving new religious relevance to concepts issuing from and integrated into natural philosophy. Thus, the connection between Orphism and Pythagoreanism might take subtler forms than adherence to metempsychosis and a vegetarian diet. Greek religion is marked by a high degree of variation at the level of local communities and individual conceptions. It turns to the level of literary phenomena, texts written by Pythagoreans and poems attributed to Orpheus, and the more specific doctrinal points expressed in them.

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