The Orphism and their Importance for the Philosophy
by
Carlos Antonio Fragoso Guimarães
Musica: Bach's prelude in B
Orpheus and the orphism
To the that everything indicates, Orpheus was a Greek poet of great musical ability and a mystic of great charisma, but whose historical lines are for us completely lost, to not to be for the legends and myths that arrived us its respect, transforming it in a halfgod. Already in the century VI B. C. the poet Ibico spoke about " Orpheus of famous name", testifying the great fame that Orpheus had in the whole helenic culture , and that is only explained by the existence of a charismatic founder and for the diffusion of its religious movement. Eurípedes, Plato, Heródoto, Aristófanes and Aristotle left us written on the orphism, and we know the as Plato owes to the orphics mysteries in his philosophy, especially in what it concerns to the doctrine of the reincarnation. It is very probable that the man Orpheus has had a strong mystic influence in the Greek culture in the beginning of the century VI B.C.
The public religion in Greece and the Orphics Mistérios
The religion exercised a deep influence in the genesis of the Greek philosophy, and, for consequence, in the western philosophy. But when it is spoken about the helenic religion, it makes himself necessary to distinguish among the public religion, that had its model in the representation of the gods and of the cult that it was delegated by Homero (Homerus), and adopted by most of the population by its explanatory simplicity of the natural phenomenons and humanos,antropomorfizando-them, and the call religion of the mysteries. In spite of they be in common religions with points, there are important differences among these two religiosity forms (as, for example, man's conception, of the sense of the life and the last destiny of the human soul).
Both religiosity forms are fundamental for the genesis of the Greek philosophy, but the second are formed it highlights much more in this genesis that the first.
Nor all the Greeks considered believable or you accepted the presuppositions of the public religion, stuffed of human plenty gods. That, in restricted circles, they were developed called " them mysteries ", with elements of the oriental religiosity, tends its faiths more logically connected and its own rituals thankfully symbolic and with strong arquetípico-psychological content. The orphism is particularly important because it introduces in the Greek civilization a new interpretation of the human existence (Reale & Antiseri, 1990). While the traditional conception, from Homero, considered the man with an unknown soul, that got lost in the area of Hades after the death, almost as a total end of the human existence, the orphism proclaims the immortality of the soul, being this that gives the man's personality, heiress of a history and of an evolutionary itinerary, always if improving in this and in countless other lives, until that is gotten to resemble each other to the maximum to God. This conception is similar to the of the oriental religions, and it is found in the occident among the Celts, and, modernamente, in the modern Spiritism, as well says
Allan Kardec
.
The main elements of the orphic doctrine are:
a) In the man there is a divine beginning, a soul that dropped in a body to correct an imperfection. b) That soul not only it pre-exists to the body as well as he/she survives him, being destined to reincarnate in successive bodies until that gets to debug of the imperfections and of the mistakes that make it to return to the world. c) With its practices and symbolic ricts, the orphism looked for to wake up in the man the understanding of these truths, helping him to take conscience than and who he is, and motivating it to take courage to have the total controls of its life, being improved and putting an end to the cycle of the reincarnations - we have here, in some way, an echo of the Buddhist teachings.
We met some maximum orphics, that arrived us through fragments found in little planks and in tombs belonging to followers of the doctrine. Some of those maxims summarize the central nucleus of his doctrine very well:
"It cheers you, you that suffered the passion: before, you ignored what was the suffering. Of man that you were now you were born God !". "Be Happy and blessed, you will be God instead of a mere human! Of man, you will be born God, because you are son of the Divine "! - This passage reminds me some words and Christ's passages that says: " I and the Father we are ONE " and " You are gods ", etc. In a general way, the orphic message is the that we everybody is gods, for divine inheritance, and we should return the to be near God.
Without the orphism it would not be explained the philosophy and the doctrine of Pitágoras, nor the one of Empédocles and, above all, it would not be explained Sócrates and good part of the thought of Plato, as well as of all the tradition that derives of both.
Bibliografia Sugerida
Reale, Giovanni.-
"História da Filosofia Antiga"
Vol. I Edições Loyola, São Paulo, s/d.
Reale, Giovanni & Antiseri, Dario.-
"História da Filosofia"
Vol.I Ed. Paulus, São Paulo, 1990
The Western Spiritualism
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João Pessoa, 12/28/1996 - Translated in 03/15/98
Copyright (C) 1996 by Carlos Guimarães
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