Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Orphic & Amerindian Synchronicities
Orphic & Amerindian Synchronicities
The mythical tales of Orpheus and his followers, collectively known as the
Orphics, has been tremendously influential on Ancient Greek society and religion. Many
of the Orphic rites and beliefs have been borrowed by other religions. These borrowed
beliefs include baptism, original sin, that life is suffering, dogmas, selling of indulgences,
secret initiation rites, a divine child, and through sacred ceremonies one becomes one
with god. These patterns of dogma are nearly universal throughout the world, and no
better example can be found than in American Indian societies. The comparisons are so
striking that it is hard not to believe that these societies had no contact with each other.
Alas, Orphism and American Indian religion of the contiguous United States share much
in common.
Geometry posed significance to both American Indian and Orphic, especially the
Orphic off-shoot, the Pythagoreans.1 As geometry was sacred and critical to the
Pythagoreans, geometry to the American Indian was crucial to numbers. Seven was a
sacred number both in the ancient world and to the American Indian. To the American
Indian, 7 is sacred because it symbolizes the four cardinal directions, North, East, South,
West, as well as the Heavens, the Underworld, and the world we live in, the Center. The
number 4, for the four cardinal directions, was the most important number for most
American Indians, for it symbolized the geometrical plane which we live on. The number
4 symbolized many things to the American Indian, such as the four elements of earth
(stone), air, fire, water; the stages in which the earth was created, earth, plants, animals,
1
Hartley Alexander Burr, The World’s Rim, p. 11
1
Jonathan Stults
humans; for the four basic colors, red, blue, green and yellow, which also correspond to
the Sun, Sky, Earth and Stone as well as the four cardinal directions; for the Four Pillars
of the World, and so on.2 The Number 4 also has key significance with the celebration of
the Sun Dance, and 4 is to American Indians what 10 is to the Pythagoreans. To both the
American Indian and the Orphic, the central plane which we live on is at the center of the
cosmos.3 To both Orphic and American Indian, time is cyclical, and is like a living
Duality of the soul is also apparent to both. They believe each of us are born with
two souls. When we die, one of the souls is transmigrated, or born again. The other
descends to the Underworld. For the Orphics to combat this apparent contradiction of
being reborn and ascending to Heaven, they decided that the circle of births is not eternal.
There is a point where the soul is sufficiently tested and can ascend to heaven.5 To
reiterate, the cyclical notion of time means that death is just another beginning, a
beginning for the soul as another living creature or the beginning in a transcendent
hereafter.6
divulged to the reader. Orpheus, who lends his name to the Orphic religion, is first
depicted in 570 BCE on a small black vase walking with his lyre, surrounded by two
2
Jonathan Stults
prophet, musician, healer and muse. In this respect, he shows much in common with the
American Indian medicine man. F.M. Cornford even describes Orpheus as a shaman,8
which alone renders many parallels with the American Indians. There are many
contradicting myths and stories surrounding the ‘founder’ of Orphism, who is Orpheus.
Orpheus was a man who supposedly came from the vicinity of Olympus in Macedonia,
but the most likely home which Orpheus is attributed to is in Thrace. From there, his
religion migrated across the Greek empire and found a strong following in Crete.
Orpheus was many things to many different people, and featured in a variety of literature.
Orpheus’s mother was a Muse, Calliope, and his father was a river god and King of
Thrace named Oeagrus. Orpheus was probably born in a cave in Mount Helicon, Livithra.
Before Orpheus existed, if he even did, was his voice. His charming singing and musical
skill at the lyre are unmatched anywhere in the ancient world. Orpheus traveled with
Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, since the prophetic centaur
Chiron warned Jason that only Orpheus’s voice would allow them to pass the Sirens.
Orpheus also charmed the clashing rocks as their ship Argo passed through, and Orpheus
put the dragon guarding the Golden Fleece to sleep with his sweet song. Paramount to the
religion attributed to his name, Orpheus convinces the Argonauts to become initiated into
the mysteries of Samothrace, to perform a sacrifice after the accidental killing of a king,
and performing purification rites at Malea. Finally by himself, Orpheus performs yet
another purification rite at the gate of Tainaron, the entrance to the Underworld. These
actions performed by Orpheus become critical in the development of the Orphic religion.9
8
F.M. Cornford, Principium Sapientiae, p. 89
9
W.K.C. Guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion, pp. 27-28
3
Jonathan Stults
The Orphics worshipped two gods, Dionysos and Eros.10 Jane Harrison describes
Orphism as being “…the worship of the real mysteries of life, of potencies rather than
personal gods; it is the worship of life itself in its supreme mysteries of ecstasy and love.”
Caves were also important to the American Indian and Orphic. Among American Indians
of the Northwest and Northeast Coasts, sanctity attaches itself to mountains and caves.11
Similarly, the symbol of the cave corresponds directly to the American Indian and Orphic
have been discovered on the island of Crete.12 Also the child Dionysos was slain in the
cave he was raised in. A striking parallelism between Orphism and American Indian
mystic practices involves the bull-roarer (rhombus, or churinga). The bull-roarer has been
used across cultures, from the Aborigines and Siberians, to the Ancient Greeks and
American Indians. It is a sacred instrument used in initiation rites. The device itself
consists of a cord attached to an oval piece of wood, and then the bull-roarer is swung in
the air, twisting on it axis. It makes a ferocious sound; it represents the sound of thunder,
or the voice of the Sky God or his son or servant. In its use during Orphic initiation rites,
the bull-roarer represents the thundering of Zagreus, or Dionysos.13 The 5th century B.C.
poet Aeschylus describes the bull-roarer as follows; "And bull-voices roar thereto from
somewhere out of the unseen, fearful semblances and from an image as it were of thunder
underground is borne on the air heavy with dread." The idea of the bull-roarer sounding
the voice of God is also common among many California and Sierra Nevada Amerindian
tribes
10
Jane Harrison, Prolegomena to the study of Greek Religion, p. 657
11
Wilson D. Wallis, Religion in Primitive Society, p. 29
12
C. Kerényi, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, p. 19
13
Mircea Eliade, Birth and Rebirth, p. 22
4
Jonathan Stults
Dionysiatic and the Mysteries of Eleusis, which the Orphics even adopted and added to.14
Orphism can be described as a refined version of the Dionysiatic cult, and there is
nothing preventing an Orphic follower from also being a follower of the very popular
Eleusinian cult. Paramount to the Bacchic cult was the sacrament of wine, while the key
sacrament to the Eleusinian cult was a beverage called kykeon. However, the Orphics
were ascetics, except during their purification and initiation rites. Dr. Albert Hofmann,
the founder of the potent psychedelic drug LSD, believes kykeon was a brew made of
mushrooms, or a chemical cousin to LSD that can be found in ergot (as well as the
common Morning Glory flower seeds that the Aztec priests took as a sacrament), LSA:
In professional circles of Greek scholars, it is absolutely clear that the ancient Greeks
used some psychoactive substance in their cult. There exist many references to a sacred beverage,
kykeon that was administered to the initiates after preparations which took one week. After the
adepts got this potion, they had, all together, powerful mystic experiences that they were not
allowed to talk about and describe exactly. I had worked about twenty years ago with the Greek
scholar, Professor Kerényi, on this problem.
The interesting question is: what were really the ingredients of this kykeon, this sacred potion?
We had studied many plants that Professor Kerényi had suggested as possible candidates, but they
were not at all psychedelic. Then came Gordon Wasson with his hypothesis; naturally, it involved
mushrooms, because he saw mushrooms everywhere! He asked me, if the men in Greek antiquity
had the possibility to prepare a psychedelic potion from ergot. He came to this idea, because the
Mysteries of Eleusis were founded by the Goddess Demeter and Demeter is the goddess of grain
and ergot (Mutterkorn). That gave him the idea that ergot could be involved in the preparation of
kykeon.15
Albert Hofmann expounds this view further in his book The Road to Eleusis.
Since Orpheus probably hailed from Thrace, it is possible he picked up on the Scythian
that the goal of consuming a psychedelic drug is to achieve union with the god in
question. Psychedelic peyote cactus is taken as a sacrament among most American Indian
14
J.D. Bury, A History of Greece, p. 301
15
Stanislav Grof interview with Dr. Albert Hofmann, 1984
5
Jonathan Stults
groups today, and its use has spread as far as Canada and the Carolinas. Peyote is used for
its ease of creating visions and mystical experiences, without the need of hunger/sleep
deprivation or severe grief. The Orphics however, were probably forbidden from drinking
alcohol. However, their initiation and sacred rites are shrouded in secrecy and it is
unknown for certain whether a brew like kykeon could have been consumed by them. It is
likely that the wine the Orphics drank in their rituals, as shown through the Eleusinian
Mysteries, did not contain alcohol as the only intoxicant but instead was a mixture of
various inebriants.16 Similarly among American Indians, the ecstatic ritual of smoking the
sacred pipe filled with tobacco or willow bark consummated a communion with man and
the divine.17
androgynous.18 The idea of perfection consisting in a being that encompasses full unity-
totality is evident throughout the world.19 Remaining Orphic fragments describe Phanes,
the supreme god who started creation and life, as being “female and male” and “female
and father.” Phanes is often described as being three gods; Eros, because Phanes must not
only be creation but procreation; Zeus, since he became Phanes by swallowing him; and
Dionysos, because Phanes was reborn as him.20 Dionysos therefore was the most bisexual
of all the gods.21 In order to show the sheer awe of Phanes, and to solve the conundrum of
having a male deity procreating without a female one, Phanes was resolved to be asexual.
16
Albert Hofmann, The Road to Eleusis, p. 89
17
Åke Hultkrantz, Prairie and Plains Indians, p. 23
18
Weston la Barre, The Ghost Dance, p. 439
19
Mircea Eliade, The Two and the One, p. 108
20
W.K.C. Guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion, pp. 100-102
21
Mircea Eliade, The Two and the One, p. 109
6
Jonathan Stults
And hence the paradox of procreation was solved. Bisexuality symbolizes totality, and
hence symbolizes perfection.22 Among Greek gods alone, Attis, Adonis, Cybele, along
preserved by the philosopher Proclus, men are created by the tears of the creator
described as being both ‘Mother Earth’ and ‘Father Sky.’ From the Navajo, the bisexual
Ahsonnutlia created the four giants to support the Four World Pillars, in the four cardinal
directions.
The most important myth in Orphic theology is that of Orpheus’s decent to the
Underworld. Orpheus wife was either a Thracian nymph, or more likely a Dryad named
Eurydice (‘wide-ruling’). Orpheus won Eurydice over with the music from his lyre, and
their love knew no bounds. Aristaeus was envious, and sought to take Eurydice by force.
She fled and stepped on a deadly viper, killing her. Orpheus, refusing to be without his
beloved, sought her back. As he mourned at her grave, the outline of the road to the
Underworld becomes clear to him. Orpheus follows it and encounters many monsters
along the way, but manages to tame them with song. He passed through the gate of
Tainaron into the Underworld, playing his lyre. The beauty of Orpheus’s music charmed
the guardian Cerberus, allowing Orpheus to pass, and his lyre-playing stopped Ixion’s
wheel from turning. Orpheus eventually reached Hades and Persephone, and played for
them the sorrow he felt over his lost beloved, which moved the King and his Queen to
tears. They led Orpheus to Eurydice, now just a shade, (eidolon) allowing her to leave
with him. But Hades had one condition; that Eurydice must follow Orpheus out of the
22
Mircea Eliade, Birth and Rebirth, p. 26
23
Mircea Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, p. 421
7
Jonathan Stults
Underworld, and Orpheus must trust Hades’ promise of allowing her to leave. If Orpheus
did look back at Eurydice, she would stay a shade in the Underworld forever; if Orpheus
did not look back at his beloved, she would become a mortal once again. Orpheus
rejoiced, and began to leave the Underworld. But after awhile Orpheus could still not
hear Eurydice walking behind him, and started to think Hades was just playing a trick to
get him out of the Underworld. Only a few feet from the entrance, Orpheus turned around
to look for her, but only saw a mere glimpse of her shade as she was pulled back into the
Underworld for eternity. Orpheus was incredibly distraught, and could not enter the
Underworld again for he could not enter the same way twice. Orpheus now shunned all
female attention. 24 Some accounts of the story say Orpheus committed suicide, others
that he was struck dead by Zeus’s thunderbolt. Aeschylus's version of the story tells that
Dionysos was jealous at Orpheus’s devout worship of Apollo, and Dionysos saw this as
obstructing his conversion of Thrace to his own Bacchic religion. He sent the Mænads to
kill him. These vicious women tore him apart in an orgiastic frenzy, and hence recreating
the death of Dionysus himself. Ovid’s account tells of Orpheus angering the Mænads for
his sexual love for boys that resulted form the death of Eurydice. The Mænads tore him to
pieces like in one of their ceremonial orgies. Orpheus’s singing head and lyre floated
down the River Hebrus to the shores of Lesbos, where he was buried and a shrine built
upon his grave. His severed head now served as an oracle.25 Orpheus’s soul was now
24
W.K.C. Guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion, pp. 29-33
25
Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, p. 181
8
Jonathan Stults
contiguous United States. Orphic myths that tell of a semi-divine figure descending to
the Underworld to bring back his wife, only to have her taken away at the last possible
moment, are common to American Indian mythology. Myths of this type can be found
Okanagan, Carrier; Salish, and Interio, to name just a few. Most American Indian tribes
have some sort of Orpheus myth. The Chinook have an Orpheus myth quite analogous to
the ancient Greek one.26 The myth begins with the death of Coyote’s and Eagle’s wives.
Coyote and Eagle decide to go on a quest to find their dearly departed, by the western
edge of the world. Upon arriving at the western edge, where the land of the dead is
located, Coyote and Eagle find themselves in a gigantic meeting lodge. The moon is on
the lodge floor, illuminating the lodge. The dead appear only when an old woman
swallows the moon, and Coyote and Eagle see their wives amongst the dead. The old
woman swallows the moon to create night, and vomits it up to begin day. After the old
woman had vomited the moon up again, Coyote built a huge wooden box and placed
leaves of all the different kinds of plants in the world into it. Coyote and Eagle then kill
the old woman, and Coyote put on her dress, and placed the huge wooden box behind the
entrance to the lodge therefore setting a trap. Coyote and Eagle waited, and when the
time was right Coyote swallowed the moon. Once again the dead appeared, and Coyote
vomited up the moon. As the dead exited the lodge, they were trapped in the box. Coyote
threw the moon into the sky, where it stands today, and they began their journey home
with Eagle carrying the box. Upon hearing his wife’s voice in the box, Coyote begged
26
John Bierhorst, The Mythology of North America, p. 144
9
Jonathan Stults
Eagle to allow him to carry the box, and when they were almost home Eagle acquiesced
to Coyote’s request. In his blind desire to see his wife again, Coyote opened the box. All
the dead rose up and disappeared back into the west. If Coyote had not opened the box,
people would be immortal and only die for a season like the plants. Ever after, plants die
in the winter and live again in spring. But people will not because of Coyote’s
impatience.
Another Orphic myth comes from the Cherokee, and is similar to the Orpheus and
Eurydice tale of original sin. The story differs from the Orphic version in that the taboo
violated involves a box, which can also be found among the Chehalis, Wishram, Wasco,
Kalispel, Yakima, Tenino and Nez Pierce. Everyday as the Sun climbs to the west, She
stops at her daughter’s house for dinner. Sun hated the people of Earth below, for they
always cover their eyes and turn away when they look at her. However Sun’s brother,
Moon, liked the people of Earth because they always smiled upon him at night. Sun was
jealous of Moon, and to get back at him she decided to kill all the people of Earth.
Everyday as she rose, Sun would torch the Earth with her rays, killing scores of people.
The remaining humans sought aid from the friendly spirits, the Little Men. The spirits
knew the only way to save the people of Earth was to kill the Sun, so the spirits created
medicine to turn two humans into snakes. One would be a copperhead, the other a
spreading adder. They were to wait outside Sun’s daughter’s house, and kill her Sun as
she came for dinner. The snakes went into the sky to wait. Once Sun had come, the
spreading adder was too blinded by her light to kill her, and Sun went into the house. The
copperhead slithered away, afraid to try to kill Sun herself. People began to die again, and
10
Jonathan Stults
humans went to the spirits for help once more. For the second time, they made medicine
and changed one human into Uktena, the great water monster, and another human into a
rattlesnake. Like the copperhead and spreading adder, Uktena and the rattlesnake waited
outside her daughter’s door for Sun. But rattlesnake was so anxious that he bit the first
thing to exit the door, which was Sun’s daughter. She died, and too discouraged to wait
for Sun, the rattlesnake and Uktena went back to Earth. When the Sun found her daughter
dead, she locked herself in her house grieving, and the people of Earth were plunged into
darkness. Humans went to the spirits again, who told them they must retrieve Sun’s
daughter. Seven men chose to make the journey to the ghost country, Tsusgina’i, in the
land of the dead towards the west, Usunhi’yi. The spirits told the seven men to bring a
box, and each man to carry a sourwood rod. The spirits said that when the men arrived,
the ghosts would be in a circle dancing, and that the men should stand outside the circle
and when Sun’s daughter walks by, strike her with the rods and take her back to Sun in
the box. The spirits strictly forbid the men from opening the box. The seven men do as
they’re told, and none of the ghosts realizes what has happened to Sun’s daughter. As the
seven men head home towards the east, Sun’s daughter comes to life again and cries to be
let out. The men refuse, but when they’re almost home, Sun’s daughter complains that
she’s suffocating. Fearful that she really will die, the men cracked the box lid just a bit to
let in air. They heard a fluttering sound as something flew out of the box, and heard a
redbird chirping. The men, unsure of what happened, carried on towards home. When
they finally reached their village and opened the box, nothing was in it. Because the
seven men had opened the box, humans are forever unable to bring back their loved ones
for the land of the dead. People will never be able to be reunited with their loved ones
11
Jonathan Stults
after they die ever again, but the Sun is finally reconciled with music and dance.
The following is an account of the Orphic myth is found among the Comanche. A
young couple were in love, when the woman suddenly died. The man refused to allow
this, and vowed to follow her to the Underworld. He waited outside her lodge until he
saw her spirit rise like a cloud out of her body, then jumped on his horse and followed it
for months. He traveled so long and hard that his horse died, and all his belongings that
he carried with him were worn out. On foot he finally reached the realm of the dead. He
soon found the lodge belonging to his dead wife’s father, where she lived as well. His
wife was inside, and when he asked her to come back with him to the world of the living,
she had mixed feelings. She has happy in the realm of the dead, but she loved her
husband dearly. Her father resolved her inner conflict for her, and said to the husband,
“Well, go back with her. But remember this: when you leave the camp you must go
eastward. And you must not touch her before you come to the place where the buffalo is.
You must give her a buffalo’s kidney to eat. When she eats this she will become flesh,
and after that she can live with you as your wife. But you must never strike her. If you
strike her she will come back to us.” So the young couple left the realm of the dead
together. Eventually they came to the buffalo plains, and the husband killed a buffalo and
fed his wife its kidney. She now became a living human being again. They embraced and
forgot all about the realm of the dead, and soon reached their village. When autumn came
around, everything was still going well for them. One day they were lying down together
in their lodge, when the husband reached for a blanket and accidentally struck his wife.
12
Jonathan Stults
She yelled, “You struck me in the head! Now I must return to the realm of the dead!” And
so she faded away and went, never to return to this world again.
Some conclusions can be drawn from Orpheus and his American Indian
counterparts. In all of them, the Elysian Fields which Orpheus goes to, or the realm of the
dead is always happy place. The dead wife is almost universally indifferent to returning
to the land of the living, and sometimes even hostile to the idea. Both Orpheus and all
the American Indian heroes must charm the guards of the underworld with music to gain
entrance. This is exemplified in Orpheus’s ability to play the lyre and soothe anyone with
his songs. Another common theme is that the road to the underworld becomes apparent at
the grave of the Orpheus hero’s beloved, which he is able to follow to the underworld. In
order for this to happen, the wife’s body must always be buried, and not cremated. At
other times, the hero waits outside the lodge where his beloved’s body is, and follows her
soul as it exits the lodge. Dancing is also a common Underworld theme; usually the
American Indian heroes find his wife, she is in a circle dancing, and Orpheus dances and
observes dancing while he is in the underworld. The variety of dance taking place is
usually the ghost dance. The ghost dance also inspires many American Indian Orpheus
myths, not only the original Orphic. Orpheus and his American Indian counterparts may
have descended to the underworld by means of severe grief. Their intense sadness would
have been the catalyst to send them on their voyage, but the Orphic and American Indian
initiates used sleep deprivation, drugs, or would have starved themselves to send them on
their journey.
13
Jonathan Stults
Three different initiatory rites are typical to American Indian and Orphic
ceremonies. Puberty, or initiation rites, which all members of a society much go through.
The second is not obligatory for all members of society, and include the initiates who join
a secret society. These secret societies are usually made entirely of male, and jealously
guard their secrets. Secret societies are observed among the Pueblo people, which
penetrates the social fabric of society even after death. Orphic initiation differs from this
in that the most important secret ceremonies were performed by women. This was
because the female rites were considered beneficial to both men and women, since female
rites were concerned with the life of all.27 However, since women alone were allowed
communion with the god, they became sinners through possession of the god.
Onomakiritos apparently changed this more archaic belief to allow men only of the
primordial age to partake in communion with the god, so as both men and women were
sinners and could partake in these sacred rites.28 It was believed not only in female
followers of Dionysos, but in all human beings lurked original sin. Since all humans are
created from parts of the gods, the third initiation is required to achieve a higher religious
status.29 Although the second two kinds are similar, a condition of ecstatic union with the
god is necessary to achieve a higher religious status. This third kind of initiation is quite
apparent in the Orphics, while all three kinds of initiatory rites can be seen among the
American Indians. As far as puberty rites for the Orphics are concerned, they were
inherited by the earlier Dionysian cult.30 For the American Indian, puberty rites usually
comprised of a vision quest, at least for boys. Here the youth sought to recreate the hero’s
ecstatic descent to retrieve his wife by going on their own journey; the youth would also
27
C. Kerényi, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, p. 240
28
C. Kerényi, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, p. 240
29
Mircea Elidae, Birth and Rebirth, p. 2-3
30
C. K Kerényi, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, pp. 374-375
14
Jonathan Stults
discover his spirit guide, an animal that would accompany and guide him for the rest of
his life.
The actual initiation rites (teletai) of the Orphic and American Indian initiations
are shrouded in secrecy, as is common with initiation rites around the world.31 There is
also a great deal of variety and sheer number of rituals, the Osage themselves having 168
different rituals for attaining priesthood.32 They are shrouded in secrecy because in these
initiations, the original creation myth is shown to the initiate; the creation of mankind is
revealed. The powers of creation remain shrouded in myth because they exist very far
away in time and space.33 A face covered in plaster, invoking the initiates as ancestral
spirits or ghosts, is revealed in the Orphic Hymn to the Titans as described by the poet
spirits or ghosts.
probably what are being alluded to.35 To become an Orphic initiate, (Bacchos) the
inductee musts confess. The confession, as told in the Cretans is standard for all initiates.
The initial avowal for the confession is, ‘the servant I, Initiate, of Idæan Jove.’36 The
Idæn Jove refers to is none other than the supreme Orphic god Zagreus, who is the reborn
Dionysos, and whose name is used interchangeably with Dionysos. In the initiate
ceremony, a live bull was dismembered and so commenced a feast of raw flesh,
31
Mircea Eliade, Birth and Rebirth, p. 4
32
Francis La Flesche, The Osage and the Invisible World, p. 56
33
Hamilton A. Tyler, Pueblo Gods and Myths, p. 81
34
C. Kerényi, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, pp. 267-268
35
Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, p. 182
36
Jane Harrison, Prolegomena to the study of Greek Religion, p. 479
15
Jonathan Stults
(Omophagia). The sacrificed bull, in a recreation of the death of Zagreus, was quickly
torn apart as quick as possible, and its warm blood poured into a cup. The blood was
drunk to inherit the life of Zagreus.37 Since the bull is a divine incarnation for the god,
consuming its raw flesh was to achieve complete communion with Zagreus. There was no
other way to achieve a more ecstatic union with the divine. The eating of the bull appears
to occur mainly in Crete; in Thrace, a goat was substituted, and in Athens the ritual eating
of raw flesh was not practiced. There are also stories that young boys were sacrificed
instead of bulls, to more accurately recreate the death of Dionysos. However if this
practiced ever existed, it seems to have died out by the 5th or 4th century BCE. Yet there
was another method in which to achieve communion with Zagreus, which was by
devouring the flesh of the goddess by eating the Eleusinian meal-cake.38 Rubbing meal
with mud was also a purification ritual among the Orphics.39 The initiates partook in the
mother of the child.40 The mother and child can only be Rhea and Zagreus. This desire to
seek communion with the mother is found among American Indians. Furthermore the
not only with the Orphic initiation41 but in some American Indian societies and creation
myths as well. In the Wintun creation story, Olelbis sends two buzzard brothers to build a
stone ladder from Earth to Heaven, right before he creates man.42 Man and woman can
37
Jane Harrison, Prolegomena to the study of Greek Religion, p. 483
38
Weston la Barre, The Ghost Dance, p. 548
39
Martin P. Nilsson, A History of Greek Religion, p. 218
40
C. Kerényi, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, p. 118
41
Mircea Eliade, Shamanism, p. 488
42
Hartley Burr Alexander, The World’s Rim, p. 199
16
Jonathan Stults
communion with Zagreus was their sole exception, because of its divine relevance. The
Orphics had great respect for animals, and therefore abstained from killing them. They
also were forbidden from eating meat. Also among the American Indians, respect for
animals was critical, as animals are seen as human’s brothers. Various taboos were
apparent in their ritual; for instance there’s a common taboo against eating the animal
which one’s spirit guide presents itself.43 American Indian boys must observe taboos
throughout their puberty rites and vision quests. The most apparent taboo of all in
American Indian societies is the taboo from speaking a dead person’s name. In the
Wichita Orpheus myth, the taboo is from sleeping with another woman. The hero
foolishly does soon after his wife is brought back from the underworld, and therefore
loses her once again. In the Pawnee myth, the hero must not speak angrily to his deceased
wife, similar to the Comanche hero’s taboo from striking his wife. Like the Orphic myth,
the Tlingit, Klikitat, Modoc, Western Mono, Navaho, Zuni, Fort Hall Shoshoni,
Blackfoot, Malecite, and Huron, the Orpheus hero must not turn around to look at his
Among the American Indians, the sweat lodge represents the most significant
custom of purification. It is almost universal among American Indian tribes. The return to
life which the hero in their Orpheus myth experiences is symbolically demonstrated by
American Indians in the sweat lodge. The sweat lodge is a purification ceremony used to
protect oneself against evil spirits, and to heal one’s ailments. The hero of the Ojibway
43
Åke Hultkrantz, The Religions of the American Indians, p. 77
44
Åke Hultkrantz, The Religions of the American Indians, pp. 131-132
17
Jonathan Stults
Orpheus myth returns after only one night from the land of the dead. She builds a sweat
lodge, puts her husband’s corpse and two boxes, containing his brains and soul, pours hot
water over the stones to create the steam for the sweat lodge, and waited outside. Within
minutes her husband was resurrected. The Sweat Lodge Rite, (Inikagapi) is a separate rite
in itself, and one of the seven sacred rites of the Lakota.45 The sacred pipe is instrumental
in this ceremony, as smoking tobacco or willow bark is with every American Indian
ritual. The ceremony is usually dedicated to the Creator or Great Spirit. Black Elk, a
Lakota, dedicates his offering of the sacred pipe to “the Six Powers and to the four-
leggeds and the wings of the air.”46 The actual sweat lodge itself contains a pole,47 no
doubt symbolizing the axis of the ‘cosmic tent’. The sweat lodge is often a larger part of
the Sun Dance or peyote rituals, since often one would experience visions in the sweat
lodge. Just like the Orphic purification rites, both sexes were included. One 19th century
Now the robe is thrown down [to cover the door], and then the holy men speak
(woklakapelo). They speak in the spirit language (he hanploklakapi eciyapelo). These are the
things they say:
‘Sweat lodge stones (tonkan yatapika), pity me! Sun, pity me! Moon, pity me! Darkness
of night (hanokpaza kin), pity me! Water, standing in a waken manner (mni wakanta najin ki) pity
me! Grass, standing in the morning (pejihinyanpa najin kin) pity me! Whatever pitiful one is
scarcely able to crawl into the tipi and lie down for the night (takuxika teriya tiyoslohanhan
hinyunke), see him and pity him.’48
To the American Indian, the Sun Dance was a religious ceremony to recreate and
renew the world,49 much like the Orphic ritual which involved tearing apart the bull to
represent Zagreus’s recreation of the world. The Sun Dance was an act of tribal
45
Arlene Hirschfelder and Paulette Molin, Encyclopedia of Native American Religions, p. 293
46
John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks, p. 185
47
Howard L. Harrod, Renewing the World, p. 105
48
Raymond A. Bucko, The Lakota Ritual of the Sweat Lodge, p. 125
49
Åke Hultkrantz, Prairie and Plains Indians, p. 9
18
Jonathan Stults
purification,50 and food gathering as well as procreation are key themes, just like the
Orphics. The Sun Dance’s most common goal was to bring back the herds of bison and
was practiced once a year. It was practiced by over twenty tribes generally in early or
mid-summer, and like the Orphic initiation rite, was thoroughly woven into their
respective society’s social fabric. The Sun Dance was not exclusive to one gender, but
required the presence of the whole tribe, and sometimes necessitated thousands of on-
looking spectators. The Sun Dance was taught to a holy man in a vision, and is one of
seven sacred rituals foretold by the Lakota prophet White Buffalo Calf Woman.51 The Sun
Dance had many purposes, among them for renewal of crops, protection from danger, and
giving thanks. It usually includes purification by using the sweat lodge. The Sun Dance
festivities include some rites solely for men, but is generally open to all members of the
tribe. One interesting aspect of the Sun Dance is that it includes self-mutilation. The
cutting off of a piece of skin, the removal of a finger joint, or the tying of oneself to the
The Corn Dance is akin to rejuvenation ceremonies practiced by the Orphics, and
is practiced by the Zuni and other Pueblo tribes. In this respect, a ritual was performed to
ensure the crops would return. A key Orphic theme of rebirth and renewal is seen in the
“Paiyatemu said, ‘The Corn Maidens left us because one man desired them and wished to
lay hands on them. We are their flesh and they give us themselves to eat. If they give it to us again
and we plant in the spring for the rain to water we shall be fed again with their flesh. They will be
our mothers and we shall be their children. If at any time we think evil thoughts or are unhappy
they will go away from us again and we shall have nothing. When we dance the Corn Dance we
shall carry their flesh in our hands. We shall not see them but they will be there in spirit. They will
be among us and when we speak to them they will hear us.’ The people answered, ‘It shall be as
50
Hartley Burr Alexander, The World’s Rim, p. 140
51
Arlene Hirschfelder and Paulette Molin, Encyclopedia of Native American Religions, p. 289
52
Alice lee Marriott, Peyote, p. 13
19
Jonathan Stults
you have said.’ Yellow corn (girl) said to the priests, ‘At the end of the year send for us and we
will come to Itiwana. Newekwe Youth will always lead us. Pekwin [chief Sun priest] will go first
(make the road) and Pautiwa will follow Newekwe, and after him Father Koyemci. My flesh is
your flesh. When you put my flesh in the ground it sprouts and does not die. It is like your bodies.
When they are buried in the ground they do not die, our flesh is like your flesh.’ It is so. The
people went home.”53
Paiyatemu is the god relevant to corn for the Pueblos, and like Orpheus is a master
musician. The passage coincides with the dismemberment of Zagreus and Orpheus. The
passage also demonstrates the importance of the Corn Dance to the Pueblo people, for
they saw themselves as being composed of corn.54 It was therefore necessary to renew the
corn crops every year in December, to rebirth not only corn but the Pueblo people
themselves.
Secret societies, as already mentioned, were also important to the Orphic and
American Indian. Among the Omaha tribe, secret societies were based upon what
guardian spirit, the buffalo, ghost, grizzly bear and rattlesnake, and water-monster, one
shared in common.55Confession was also integral to Orphic and various American Indian
tribes, among them being the Okanagon, the Plains Indians, Chippewa, Pueblos and
Iroquois.56 The Okanagon would have confession dances whenever a cosmic event
frightened them, and the Iroquois would have confession at their New Year ceremonies.
Important to note that for the American Indian and Orphics, the New Year was a rebirth.
It was the death of the past year, and birth of the new, for the year was seen as living.
Much like the Orphic initiations, the Ghost Dance Religion of 1890 exhibits fundamental
similarities with secret societies, the key similarity being that the Ghost Dance and
53
Hamilton A. Tyler, Pueblo Gods and Myths, pp. 145-146
54
Hamilton A. Tyler, Pueblo Gods and Myths, p. 145
55
Åke Hultkrantz, Prairie and Plains Indians, p. 30
56
Wilson D. Wallis, Religion in Primitive Society, p. 113
20
Jonathan Stults
Orphic religions were open to anyone with a predisposition and willingness to go through
The infamous Ghost Dance religion of 1890 initially formed in 1889, fully died
out in the 1890’s, and exhibits many Orphic influences. The ghost dance from which it
takes its name is a dance to seek reunification with the dead in a perfect afterlife, and is
common to American Indians. The ghost dance also probably inspired the Pomo tribes
Orpheus myth;58 the Sarcee and Winnebago’s ghost dance has strong connections to the
original Orphic myth. The ghost dance in the Orpheus tradition was probably
contaminated with shamanic initiation visions.59 In fact the myth of Orpheus even served
as an “institution legend” for the Ghost Dance.60 The Ghost Dance of 1890 has
connections to the Orphic myth in that it was comprised of ritual dances to strengthen the
connection with the dead; the Western Mono and Yokuts have their religious beliefs
firmly aligned to that of the Orphics. The Ghost Dance prophet, a Paiute named Wovoka,
or Jack Wilson, “died” on January 1, 1889. He was taken up to heaven with the death of
the sun in the form of the eclipse. The early anthropologist James Mooney, gave the
“…he saw God, with all the people who had died long ago engaged in their oldtime sports and
occupations, all happy and forever young. It was a pleasant land and full of game. After showing
him all, God told him he must go back and tell his people they must be good and love one another,
have no quarreling, and live in peace with the whites; that they must work, and not lie or steal, that
they must put away all the old practices that savored of war, that if they faithfully obeyed his
instructions they would at last be reunited with their friends in this other world, where there would
be no more death or sickness or old age. He was then given the dance which he was commanded
to bring back to his people. By performing this dance at intervals, for five consecutive days each
time, they would secure this happiness to themselves and hasten the event. Finally God gave him
57
Mircea Eliade, Shamanism, p. 314
58
Åke Hultkrantz, The North American Indian Orpheus Tradition, p. 29
59
Åke Hultkrantz, The North American Indian Orpheus Tradition, p. 311
60
Åke Hultkrantz, Belief and Worship in Native North America, p. 13
21
Jonathan Stults
control over the elements so that he would make it rain or snow or be dry at will, and appointed
him his deputy to take charge of affairs in the west, while “Governor Harrison” would attend to
matters in the east, and he, God, would look after the world above. He then returned to earth and
began to preach as he was directed, convincing the people by exercising the wonderful powers that
had been given him”61
Jack Wilson transverses the spirit world much like Orpheus. The Ghost Dance
Religion was supposed to create a palingenesis; all Amerindians, dead and alive, would
inhabit this new ‘regenerated earth.’62 This directly correlates to the Orphics belief in
original sin; the world we live in now is a palingensis of the world Orpheus lived in.
The Orphics and the American Indians had much in common. Not only their
eschatology, but their religious practices as well align peculiarly. The tale of Orpheus’s
decent to the underworld in search for his lost lover transcends geographical and cultural
restrictions and is almost universal throughout American Indian religion. Also, the use of
bull-roarers, the symbolic significance of caves, the ghost dance, purification and
initiation rites, as well as various other synchronicities are discerned in both Orphic and
Works Cited
Alderink, Larry J. Creation and Salvation in Ancient Orphism. Ann Arbor, Michigan:
Alexander, Hartley Burr. The World’s Rim. Lincoln, Nebraska. University of Nebraska
Press, 1955
Barre, Weston la. The Ghost Dance. New York: Doubleday & Company Incc, 1970
Bianchi, Ugo. The History of Religions. Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1975
61
Alice Beck Kehoe, The Ghost Dance: Ethnohistory and Revitalization, p. 6
62
Mircea Eliade, Shamanism, pp. 320-322
22
Jonathan Stults
Bierhorst, John. The Mythology of North America. New York: Quill William Morrow,
1985
Bucko, Raymond A. The Lakota Ritual of the Sweat Lodge. Lincoln, Nebraska:
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero’s Journey. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1990
Campbell, Joseph. The Masks of God. New York: The Viking Press, 1968
Cave, Alfred A. Prophets of the Great Spirit. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska
Press, 2006
Cornford, F.M. Principium Sapientiae. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1965
Curtin, Jeremiah. Creation Myths of Primitive America. Boston: Little, Brown, and
Company, 1898
Deloria, Vine. The World We Used to Live In. Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing,
2006
Eliade, Mircea. Birth and Rebirth. New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1958
Eliade, Mircea. The Two and the One. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1965
Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred and the Profane. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1959
Eliade, Mircea. Cosmos and History. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1959
23
Jonathan Stults
Eliade, Mircea. Myths, Rites, Symbols Vol. 1. New York: Harper & Row Publishers,
1975
Eliade, Mircea. Patterns in Comparative Religions. New York: Sheed & Ward, Inc., 1958
Farnell, Lewis Richard. Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality. London, England:
Friess, Horace L. and Schneider, Herbert W. Religion in Various Cultures. New York:
Guthrie, W.K.C. Orpheus and Greek Religion. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1952
Harrison, Jane. Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion. New York: Meridian Books,
1955
Harrod, Howard L. Renewing the World. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press,
1987
Highwater, Jamake. The Primal Mind. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1981
Hoffman, Albert and Ruck, Carld A.P. and Wasson, R. Gordon. The Road to Eleusis.
Hultkrantz, Åke. The North American Indian Orpheus Tradition. Stockholm: Caslon
Press, 1957
Hultkrantz, Åke. Belief and Worship in Native North America. Syracuse, New York:
24
Jonathan Stults
Hultkrantz, Åke. Native Religions of North America. New York: Harper & Row, 1987
Hultkrantz, Åke. Prairie and Plains Indians. Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1973
Kehoe, Alice Beck. The Ghost Dance. New York: Hold, Rinehart and Winston, 1989
Kingsley, Peter. Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic. New York: Clarendon Press,
1995
Kramer, Samuel Noah. Mythologies of the Ancient World. New York: Doubleday and
Company, 1961
La Flesche, Francis. The Osage and the Invisible World. London, England: University of
Laks, André and Most, Glenn W. Studies on the Derveni Papyrus. New York: Oxford
Landes, Ruth. Ojibwa Religion and the Midéwiwin. Madison, Wisconsin: University of
Leeming, David Adams. Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero. New York: Harper & Row
Publishers, 1981
Marriott, Alice Lee. Peyote. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1971
Mylonas, George E. Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries. Princeton, New Jersey:
25
Jonathan Stults
Neihardt, John G. Black Elk Speaks. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press,
1961
Press, 1949
Press, 2002
Sisken, Edgar E. Washo Shamans and Peyotists. Salt Lake City: University of Utah
Press, 1983
Stanislav Grof interviews Dr. Albert Hofmann. Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California, 1984
Wilson, Wallis D. Religion in Primitive Society. New York: F.S. Crofts & Co., 1939
26