%0 Journal Article
%T Orphism as a scientific paradigm
%A Biernat Przemyslaw
%J Littera Antiqua
%D 2012
%I John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
%X In my essay I would like to examine current interpretative paradigm, which western scholarship cast on heterogenous and ambiguous data first to create and then to modify the notion of ¡®orphism¡¯. In case of paradigms preceding the actual one, the role which ¡®orphism¡¯ played in contemporary theories and controversies centered around the question of its significance for emergence of Christianity is well known. That is why in my work I would like to focus on deconstruction of interpretative consensus, elaborated in recent years, which is to be found in such works as Martin West¡¯s The Orphic Poems (1983), Ritual Texts for the Afterlife. Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets by Fritz Graf and Sarah Iles-Johnston (2007) or monumental Orfeo y la tradici¨®n ¨®rfica. Un reencuentro (2008) edited by Alberto Bernab¨¦. What is significant, inasmuch as we can write the history of Athenian religion or the history of Hellenistic kings¡¯ worship, we still cannot write the history of orphism. In formulation of all these scholars it is an ahistorical phenomenon, a hidden constant in the sphere of Greek religion, never expressed directly and entirely, but always alluded to y ancient authors. I find difficult to agree with such a statement. The aim of my inquiry is to reveal assumptions of current paradigm, which are hidden in it, but leave a distinct impression on data.
%K orphism
%K scholarship on orphism
%K paradigm
%U http://litant.eu/artykuly/nr5/Biernat%20P.pdf