Spurned Women: The violent death of Orpheus

Orpheus is best known as a musician that could play so beautifully he charmed even the most violent animals.  As such he is portrayed in numerous mosaics, paintings, and on ceramics.  So I was surprised to see a red-figure calyx krater attributed to the Villa Giulia Painter and dated to 460-450 BCE depicting Orpheus being violently attacked by Thracian women, one with a spear and one with an axe. I realize taste in music is quite personal but this extreme response is so antithetical to all of those peaceful images I have seen of Orpheus surrounded by mesmerized animals that I had to research this event further.

According to a Late Antique summary of Aeschylus' lost play Bassarids, Orpheus, towards the end of his life, disdained the worship of all gods except the sun, whom he called Apollo. One early morning he went to the oracle of Dionysus at Mount Pangaion to salute his god at dawn, but, like Pentheus, was ripped to shreds by Thracian maenads for not honoring his previous patron (Dionysus). It has been speculated that the Orphic mystery cult regarded Orpheus as a parallel figure to or even an incarnation of Dionysus so his abandonment of Dionysus would have been viewed as the ultimate sacrilege. Pausanias writes that the river Helicon sank underground when the women that killed Orpheus tried to wash off their blood-stained hands in its waters. 

Other legends claim that Orpheus became a follower of Dionysus and spread his cult across the land and abstained from the love of women. In this version of the legend, it is said that Orpheus was torn to shreds by the women of Thrace for his inattention.

Ovid's account of the death of Orpheus in Metamorphoses Book X is quite similar:

"[Orpheus] had abstained from the love of women, either because things ended badly for him, or because he had sworn to do so. Yet, many felt a desire to be joined with the poet, and many grieved at rejection. Indeed, he was the first of the Thracian people to transfer his affection to young boys and enjoy their brief springtime, and early flowering this side of manhood."

Feeling spurned by Orpheus for taking only male lovers (eromenoi), the Ciconian women, followers of Dionysus, first threw sticks and stones at him as he played, but his music was so beautiful even the rocks and branches refused to hit him. Enraged, the women tore him to pieces during the frenzy of their Bacchic orgies.

His head and lyre, still singing mournful songs, floated down the River Hebrus into the sea, after which the winds and waves carried them to the island of Lesbos, at the city of Methymna. There, the inhabitants buried his head and a shrine was built in his honor near Antissa where his oracle prophesied, until it was silenced by Apollo. Orpheus' soul is said to have returned to the underworld, to the fields of the Blessed, where he was reunited at last with his beloved Eurydice.

As with many myths, scholars believe Orpheus may have actually existed. Only Aristotle, alone, thought he did not.  Most believed he lived several generations before Homer.  He is thought to have been a poet, augur, and astrologer who also earned a living as a musician and some say, a wizard.  Aristophanes, in his play "Frogs" refers to Orpheus as one of the oldest poets and characterizes him as a religious teacher.

When I read the part about Orpheus' eventual rejection of all gods except the sun which he called Apollo, I couldn't help but think about that old Star Trek episode "Bread and Circuses" where the Enterprise crew intercepts radio transmissions from a planet they are orbiting that refer to worship of the "sun".  As the episode progresses, the crew realizes some of the planet inhabitants are not worshipping the sun up in the sky but the Son. Perhaps this was the case with Orpheus - why else would he give the entity the name of an anthropomorphic deity? 

Attic Red-figure calyx krater attributed to the Villa Giulia Painter and dated to 460-450 BCE depicting Orpheus being violently attacked by Thracian women now in the collections of the Getty Villa, image courtesy of the museum.

Detail of Attic Red-figure calyx krater attributed to the Villa Giulia Painter and dated to 460-450 BCE depicting Orpheus being violently attacked by Thracian women now in the collections of the Getty Villa, image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributors Dave and Margie Hill/Kleerup.

Attic Red-figure calyx krater attributed to the Villa Giulia Painter and dated to 460-450 BCE depicting Orpheus being violently attacked by Thracian women now in the collections of the Getty Villa, image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributors Dave and Margie Hill/Kleerup.

The Death of Orpheus, detail from a silver kantharos, 420-410 BCE, part of the Vassil Bojkov collection, Sofia, Bulgaria, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Gorgonchica.

Attic red figure stamnos with lid depicting Thracian women killing Orpheus by the Dokimasia Painter, 480-470 BCE, at the Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig in Basel, Switzerlandm courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor ArchaiOptix.

Hydria fragment with the death of Orpheus, c. 460 BCE at the Martin von Wagner Museum in Würzburg, Germany courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Daderot.

Thracian Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus on His Lyre (1865) by Gustave Moreau, now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus (1900) by John William Waterhouse (PD), now in a private collection, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.