From: ian glendinning (psybertron@gmail.com)
Date: Mon Aug 08 2005 - 02:21:53 BST
Interestingly Marsha, I think DMB actually makes your point ...
He didn 't use the words "feminine side" but those words rang in my
head where DMB says "the Romans preferred their heros more macho".
(And two correspondents on my blog, both women, picked up on that
too.)
FWIW - I don't think DMB actually tried to re-tell us the whole Orphic
myth in his paper - just a papaphrase of the plot, to remind us how
ubiquitous it is. My first response, in the report on the conference
was "the Orphic thread must grow from here". I think David gave us
something to build on, something new MoQ-Discuss-wise in my short
experience.
Ian
On 8/7/05, MarshaV <marshalz@charter.net> wrote:
>
> From 'The WOMAN'S DICTIONARY of Symbols & Sacred Objects' by Barbara G.
> Walker:
>
> Pre-Hellenic Mother Goddesses often appeared holding lyres, both as a
> symbol of the alter *horns*, and as a reminder that the musical sounds they
> invented were said to have initiated the birth of the universe. According
> to Scipio the Elder, the seven-stringed lyre was directly connected with
> the heavens: "The spheres . . . produce seven distinct tones; the septenary
> number is the nucleus of all that exists. And men, who know how to imitate
> this celestial harmony with the lyre, have traced their way back to the
> sublime realm.
> One of the men most frequently credited with this ability was the highly
> popular savior Orpheus, whose cult was a serious rival of early
> Christianity and a model for many of its sacraments. Orpheus descended
> into the underworld and returned, like Jesus, bearing the revelations
> whereby his followers could achieve resurrection. The classic myth of
> Orpheus's descent in search of his bride Eurydice was a red herring,
> designed to conceal the fact that Eurydice was only another name of the
> underground Goddess, Persephone, to whom Orphics prayed for a happy
> afterlife. The Orphic Mysteries taught that the Goddess would make each
> enlightened one "god instead of mortal." The *head* of Orpheus was
> supposed to reside in a sacred *cave* and produce oracular speeches and
> songs, like the head of Osiris at Abydos. The lyre that served as his
> instrument of transcendence was placed in the stars, as the constellation
> Lyra, which contains the brightest star of the summer, Vega. That the lyre
> first produced the seven-toned "music of the spheres" became embedded in
> European tradition and contributed to the formation of the present musical
> scale.
>
>
> Dear David,
>
> Your paper was very good. You might even be said to have some of the
> lyre's touch. But your telling of the Orphic story was very shallow. The
> story is much older and much deeper than your telling. The story is about
> something lost. The important question is: What's been lost??? What has
> been lost in our patriarchal, anthropocentric lives and culture? It's our
> connection to the FEMININE, the creative and dynamic experience. Until
> there is cohesion between the masculine and the feminine humanity will
> remain lost.
>
> Marsha
>
>
>
>
>
>
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