OK! So, I get to talk about something really cool which I never get to discuss: Variant Greek Mythology! "Everyone" knows the classic stories: Zeus, Hera, Apollo, the Titans, Pluto and Hades, Mount Olympus and Hades.

We're not gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk Orphism. https://twitter.com/grayestofghosts/status/1315665289498054658

DISCLAIMER: I am going to say some things for which I have no accessible primary sources. It's possible some of these statements have been discredited in the 15 to 20 years since I've studied them, I no longer own my textbooks, I only have my notes and memory to go by.

So in the event that I get something wildly wrong, I welcome correction, just please know that it's coming from a place of "incomplete access to very niche sources" instead of blustering ignorance!

So! Greek Myths are complicated. Honestly, the vast majority of mythology is. Even Christian mythology gets really intricate and complex, and that's a religion with directly accessible written history, but Greek mythology is worth a special mention for a big reason.

Because of its impact on the Western Classics of Literature and so on, through Homer's epics, Sophocles and other playwrights and so on, Greek mythology is actually fairly ingrained in American (and possibly others, but I only know America) popular culture.

We have a nice grounding in the mythology, we know about the gods and demigods, and sometimes even more obscure things like the Titans! It's cool stuff!

Except that's only one version, and it's questionable at best, because of Rome.

When Rome took over from Greece, many, many things happened, but one relevant thing was the kersmooshening and coopting of their religious practices. And what we know as Greek mythology in the popular culture these days is actually mostly Roman mythology with a sticker on it.

And even then: Rome didn't snag it all. Rome snagged what my professors called Olympian and Athenian mythology interchangeably: the myth cycles focused on the Gods of Olympus (and favored by Athens). This was probably because they're the most Empire-friendly myth cycles.

But classically, Greek mythology is at least as diverse as Greek culture: when your society started as a loose confederacy of islands, peninsulae and coastal regions, each of those is going to bring their own mythology to the table, their own local deities and practices.

Many names are going to be similar, because cultural exchange happens. Many roles are going to be similar, because societies have similar needs. But you're also going to have many differences.

Olympian mythology centralized the gods into The Gods, for ease of reference/worship.

That's one reason you see characters like Pallas Athena, the Goddess of War, Handicrafts, Wisdom, Cities (especially Athens) and Olive Cultivation: A bunch of different goddesses were syncretized together and their stories reworked to have...honestly, a Millennial resume.

I have said all of this and I'm not even into the really cool stuff yet, but I wanted to set up the idea of Forgotten Gods (ok, fine, "minor and lesser deities and local gods" but you cannot tell me that Forgotten Gods doesn't sound cool as heck).

BRB, getting coffee.

OK, back.

SO.

Because of the combination of reshuffling, renaming, and combining gods into the Olympian myth, a lot of gods just sort of fell through the woodwork. While some of them were (probably) worshiped locally still, others had their roles divided up among the Olympians.

One of those gods was Zagreus. You've probably seen the name thrown around a lot recently, as he's the main character of a game called Hades which is very good, very thirsty, and getting a lot of press, but we don't actually know very much about mythical Zagreus.

We know Zagreus:
- Was an Underworld god, but not a name for Plouton or Hades
- Was PROBABLY the son of Plouton, but not definitely (from Aeschylus' Sisyphus works)
- Was religiously linked with Gaia (!) the Titan (!!!!!)
- Was likely a cannibal god(??) (Euripedes: Kretes frag.)

So:
- IF Zagreus is the son of Plouton, that means he's also the son of Persephone, the only significant relationship in the Plouton myths (and unlike cousin Zeus, Plouton was not known for philandery)
- The "cannibal god" is described as "fevered feasts of raw flesh".

Put a pin in Zagreus for a moment, I want to talk about two other gods: Iacchus and Dionysus.

We'll come back to Zagreus soon.

We don't know much about Iacchus. Or, rather, I'm sure there are people who know much more about Iacchus than I do, but he's not very present in remembered Olympian myth - Most of what we know about Iacchus is linked to the Eleusinian cult.

The Eleusinians were a mystery cult centered around Persephone/Kore, Demeter, and (probably) Eileithyia. There's a lot there which I will skip over, but importantly: they were an agrarian cult, but also dealt with certain parts of the underworld, like Elysium (citation needed).

Iacchus was supposedly a child of Persephone, and a lesser god of poisons (which also included the psychidelics used in the ceremonies and other ecstatic substances, including wine).

And then there's Dionysus, whomst I have finally mentioned uh.... how many tweets in? Heck.

You all know Dionysus. God of revelry and wine, of poisons and the harvest, of...ecstatic and...cannibalistic...fervor...

...son of...Persephone...?

WHERE HAVE I HEARD THAT BEFORE. HMM.

Here's an interesting thing about Dionysus: no one is entirely sure where he came from. It's incredibly likely that he's a synthesis of multiple lesser gods, each overlapping in some part of the Divine Venn Diagram. Also: https://twitter.com/ankhani/status/1315672257214115840?s=20

By now, we're used to the singular Dionysus/Bacchus (which looks similar to Iacchus, but don't let English similarities fool you, going into the Greek is a different deep dive - this is PROBABLY not a connection even though it looks like one.)

This was not always the case.

We are now, FINALLY, touching on Orphic mythology instead of just Olympian mythology. Everyone who's still here, get yourself a treat of choice. You deserve it.

Orphic/Oriphic/Orpheic/etc mythology is named for Orpheus, who we know for the can-can dance.

I'm actually not kidding: the Can-Can came from Offenbach's "Orpheus in the Underworld", and amusingly, this is kind of relevant in a slantwise fashion. If I have energy in the wrap-up, I'll talk about that easter egg.

Here you go:

OK so what we ACTUALLY know Orpheus for is the famous story of Orpheus and Eurydice, where he descended into the Underworld, swayed Plouton/Hades into releasing his dead lover to return to the living world, but looked back at the last moment, breaking the agreement and losing her

The Orphic mysteries deal with a lot of mythology through the lens of Orpheus as Mystic, rather than just Orpheus as Poet, and unlike most of the Olympian stories we hear to this day, the Orphic stories deal with the Underworld as the central pillar of enlightenment.

Particularly, they deal with the themes of descent into the Underworld as mystical journey and trial, returning renewed, harrowed, purified, or otherwise changed upon your return to life.

Not directly relevant: Yes, there are many heavy trans themes in Orphic myth. Blessings.

Now, Orpheus returned emotionally harrowed from his journey to the Underworld. He'd succeeded at his trial, but then bobbled it at the last minute; the most bittersweet failure in Greek mythology because it wasn't even classical Hubris, it was just eagerness.

However, other harrowings were more physical. And Orpheus isn't a divine figure, more of a prophet-analogue (I am super-skimming here because it gets COMPLEX, there's a lot).

You know who IS a divine figure at the heart of Orphic myth?

DIONYSUS.

But what the heck does Dionysus have to do with the underworld? If you look at God-Of-Revelry Dionysus/Bacchus/Eleutherios (HEY THERE'S THAT ROOT AGAIN, YOU KNOW, THE ONE RELATING TO ELYSIUM?) he really doesn't. Not Thracian Dionysus, at least. Oh god, must resist tangent...

But here we loop back around to divine syncretism.

"Mainstream" Orphism holds that Thracian Dionysus, God Of Revelry, Bacchus, he's a reincarnation of PREVIOUS Dionysus...ses. Dionyses? Bacchoi?

Including Iacchus and Zagreus. Hey! I said we'd be back!

See, the cult of Dionysus isn't just the cult of wine and weed (though that was there aplenty). Other Dionysian cults included the Maenads. Who would run wild in ecstatic fervor consuming the flesh of those they ran across, serving as a bridge to the underworld.

Making a long story short, a core tenet of Orphic myth is that the god-who-would-be-Dionysus was killed and consumed by the Titans while an infant (hey, there's that cannibalism again, Zagreus!), causing Zeus to destroy them with lightning, from whence sprang humanity.

For various reasons depending on sub-mythos, including but not limited to grief, Fate, anger, the eventual rightness of things, and Dionysus from the future, the god-who-would-be-Dionysus was raised from the Underworld by Zeus, in the very first Orphic cycle.

This cycle of reincarnation would also be entwined with humanity: as long as a soul remained unenlightened, unpurified through the Mysteries, it would follow the path of Dionysus forevermore. Only through enlightenment and trial can we become our ideal selves and escape this grip

So Dionysus is linked with the underworld because of the cannibal practices of Zagreus and the bridge of Iacchus, who were probably conflated with Dionysus/Bacchus during the Olympian Smoosh. Early Orphic myths talking about Dionysus may actually have been about Zagreus, etc.

But now we get into the REALLY cool and strange.

Thank you again for sticking with me this far.

I mentioned above that the reasons behind Diozagiacchusephoneleutherium returning to live after the Sparagmos (being eaten by the Titans as maybe-a-child-maybe-not-it's-hard-to-tell-with-gods-in-myth) were varied based on specific cult and retelling.

There were SECTS.

All of the Orphic sects held basically true to the central principle of religious practices and mysteries revolving around mystical Underworld cycles: descent, trial, and rebirth.

And transition.

BTW: in case it wasn't clear, Trans Rights are human rights.

Some sects handled it one way, some handled it others. Some believed in a literal Dionysian reincarnation, others believed in the "essence of Dionysus" returning to inhabit other gods or humans, until eventually it would reach a certain perfection.

One sect believed that Dionysus didn't exist.

...except they still worshiped him as fervent believers.

.......because he existed.

.............but he didn't exist, and never had.

THIS IS THE COOLEST PART, I need a second to phrase it.

OK, SO: DISCLAIMER.

I CANNOT SOURCE THIS ASSERTION.

I have done some poking online in between thread posts here, and haven't turned up anything. I no longer have the textbooks that talked about this, it was 2005 and I lost a lot of my references in 2007, to a flood.

Now that I've said that.

One Orphic cult, primarily centered around Thessaly/Aeolia, believed that Zagreus' devouring did give rise to humanity, through infusing the ashes of the Titans with divine essence and soul.

But this left a god-shaped void.

What happens when a god dies? The Underworld wasn't built for gods. The stories on why the Underworld exists could fill a whole thread and more by themselves so I'm skipping here but...

...Zagreus was just...GONE. Poof. No more god.

Except that the universe still understood the "shape" of Zagreus, and the people who would spring forth from the ashes of the Titans had a divine spark in them.

And so eventually, from a far-off land (of Thrace, not that far), a stranger arrived on Olympus.

According to this Orphic sect, Dionysus was the perfect god because he had no obligations of birth, because he didn't actually EXIST. He was the result of the divine spark of humanity filling the god-shaped hole left by Zagreus' death with an example of who we could be.

Dionysus, carefree god of revelry and joy (and ecstatic proclamation, poison, harvest, cannibalism, gateway to the underworld, and a lot of other things) IMAGINED HIMSELF INTO EXISTENCE FROM NOTHING.

Other sub-sectarian takes on this particular myth include:
- Dionysus wasn't a singular god, but a role the Olympians gave to a succession of favored minor gods in honor of Zagreus' memory
- Dionysus was the final reincarnation, a future-god,

and my favorite:

Dionysus never actually existed, but could be interacted with as though he did, because the "negative space" left by Zagreus' death echoed in the presence of the other Olympians as tangible sorrow and joy commingled, defining a "god" by the absence of one.

Now this story has no place in Olympian myths, because the Olympian myths are a compiled mass-marketing of pre-Delian myths further squeezed through the Roman lens and then, later, the British Historian lens and that idea just...doesn't fit.

I mean, the pop-culture retellings talk about some of the heroes and sometimes even the Fates, but they don't talk about the Erinyes or the lesser gods or the pillars of the Underworld or the great realms of the Sea and THAT mythology. This wild story? Forget it.

But there was, at one point, a god that could only be defined as what he wasn't, because he didn't exist, and was therefore unknowable.

OH. One more tidbit.

Did you know there's a high likelihood that Thessalonian Dionysus showed up in the Bible?

In Acts 17:23, Paul was in Athens and walking around the Areopagus (large forum wherein many gods were venerated). He spotted an altar labeled "TO AN UNKNOWN GOD" and used that as the basis for an impromptu sermon, in the time-honored style of philosophers everywhere.

The Pauline assertion is that "See, you worship that which is UNKNOWN, but I am here to tell you that the unknown is Josh Mason, the son of God, whose churches I am building right now, let me tell you about him".

And that's cool. Good object lesson. Relatable. 10 points.

The traditional historical assertion is that the curators of the Areopagus acknowledged that hey, Greece has uh, a LOT of gods. Not an Animist-level "everything is/has a god" lot, but LOOOOOTS of gods, not just the Olympians, and so they dedicated an altar to "gods unknown." OK.

However, it is also plausible, based on Greek syntax, that the actual inscription would be better translated as "To the god that is UNKNOWABLE".

Such as a god that exists only because of his reflection in the universe and humanity.

So! I think this is it? Mostly? I mean, not REALLY, there's so much there. Mythology is, quite literally, a religious experience to delve into and learn from. But I can't think of a better place to leave it for now than the most audacious idea of a god that imagined himself.

I don't actually know how to end one of these, so uh...I guess I can try to answer questions! Or throw out other interesting tidbits!

I should see if I can contact the professor, get the names of those textbooks. I would really like to get sources back. Feels bad without 'em.

UPDATE: I promised an easter egg! I talked earlier about the can-can!

Well I guess I Can-Can talk a little more about that!

....oh lord I feel remorse for that low-effort pun already.

Orphée aux enfers (translated: Orpheus in the Underworld, or alternately Orpheus in Hell / Orpheus in the Inferno) was a comic opera

a...

a COMIC opera.

About Orpheus.

Jesus, Offenbach, what were you thinking?

First performed in 1858, it was popular enough that by 1875, it had been revised from 2 acts up to a full 4, and was being performed at major venues.

Today, it's straight-up considered a classic piece. And the music is pretty good! Here's the Overture:

Orphée aux enfers was straight-up a satire/protest piece/hit piece. It was a musical parody of Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck, and the Olympians behaved in exaggerated caricatures mocking the nobility of the time.

Yes, protest music existed in the 1800's too.

It recasts a lot of the primary actors of the myth, too. Orpheus isn't a mystical poet/bard, he's a country violin teacher. Eurydice isn't a spirit/muse, she's just his wife. He has to be bullied into getting her back.

This actually ends in a twist where Bacchus gets the girl after Orpheus looks back, but instead of being wracked with shame for his failure, Orpheus shrugs and says "I tried, she'll be happier there" and goes about his life a lighter man.

I don't know if I want to unpack that.

The most enduring cultural legacy of Orphée aux enfers is the infamous "can-can" dance, though.

The climax of the piece, before the ascent begins, is a raucous party on the shores of the Styx, where the Olympians are throwing a party.

...yes I know they don't belong there.

Zeus proposes a minuet, insists on it, everyone else says it's BORING, Zeus sings a song that boils down to "come on, fam, a minuet is okay!" and no one is having any of it, and so instead they start playing the Galop Infernal.

Jesus why do we call it can-can, that's way better.

The Galop Infernal, besides being an absolute BANGER, is a song that starts off, intentionally or no, as a hymn declaring dedication to Bacchus, AKA Dionysus.

From Eurydice.

Who is declaring her intention to pursue a Dionysian path.

Some lyrics here:

But the unintentional similarities don't end there: Orpheus, despite VAST dissimilarities to the classical and traditional Orphic figure, still:
- Descends into the Underworld
- Purifies himself through ordeal
- Emerges to life again, changed!

(I mean, you're retelling the story, so that's going to happen, don't get me wrong)

But unlike the classical Orphic myth, this version shows that an Everyman's view of purification and enlightenment may look a great deal different at the end of the tunnel than a Classical Greek Hero, and is no less valid a journey for it.

Additionally, there's something poetic about the enduring legacy of the Orphic myth's most prevalent European incarnation being a bawdy, raucous Dionysian dance (linked here again for good measure, I like the energy from the claps so they stay):

So there you have it: 5'th Century BCE mysticism accurately portrayed in a 19'th century comic protest and satire opera including lewd dancing, which despite being added mostly to piss off prudish upperclass folks, was entirely appropriate to Dionysian rites!