“Between written transmission and oral tradition: the case of the Orphic Hymns”

DANIEL ALEJANDRO TORRES

Berlín

Congreso; XIII. Congrès de la Féderation International d'Etudes Classiques (FIEC); 2009

Alexander von Humboldt Universität zu Berlin

The present paper explores the consequences of the theories of orality of Archaic poetry and the evidence from the Derveni Papyrus (Laks-Most 1997, Betegh 2004) of the use of hymns in Orphic circles for the accepted date of composition of the Orphic Hymns. From the state of scholarship about ancient Hymnody (Furley-Bremer, 2001) the inquiry pursues the elements of continuity and transformation in the late Hymns, based on the hypothesis of an oral transmission of the Orphic Hymns from the Archaic Age to its compilation and written fixation in the second century A.D.  The accumulative use of epithets that evoke extensive mythological narrations follows a principle of economy proper to the epic language. The written fixation of the Orphic Hymns takes up elements that are present in sources of the Classical and Hellenistic Age, especially those concerning cosmogony and eschatology. These elements allow us to investigate the process of transmission and the instance of written fixation in attention to the demands of a literate audience acquainted with philosophical, religious and mythological trends of different origins. In this sense, the Orphic Hymns, transmitted in previous ages by relatively closed communities and for restricted audiences, reflect in the Late Antiquity the exploration of new ways of philosophical speculation in the mythopoietic language.