CLASS 40 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Greco-Roman Mysteries, Beautiful Music, Liminality
Document Summary
The greeks don"t have any strong feelings about death. Mystery cults are about empathy and feeling. Mystery: they did not share their secrets about their findings about life and death in their specific cults. He loses his wife, she goes to the underworld, orpheus goes down to bring her back. Hades says he can"t look back at her; he just has to lead her back up. He looks back at her and she goes back to the underworld. Orpheus plays music, it"s beautiful put you in a trance/drive you mad. Tattooed women get crazed and slaughter him. Chop off his head and throw it in the river, and he"s still singing. Idea that he even overcomes his own death. Mystery cults were optional; but if you wanted to. Initiation was going in seclusion to a sanctuary where strange things would happen to you orphic. Orphics left gold road maps for the dead.
