ORPHEUS – THE CHRISTIAN CONNECTION
(More On This Subject)
Medieval Art, Stokstad, 1986, p. 8, chapter 1, “Art in the First Centuries of the Christian Era | Christianity and the Early Christian Church”:
http://www.bible.ca/trinity/trinity-Weigall.htm, Weigall, Arthur: The Paganism in Our Christianity, “15. Jesus decent into Hades is of pagan origin”:
It has no scriptural foundation except in the ambiguous words of the First Epistle of Peter; it did not appear in the Church as a tenet of Christianity until late in the Fourth Century; and its pagan origin is shown by its appearance not only in the legend of Adonis, but in those of Herakles, Dionysos, Orpheus, Osiris, Hermes, Krishna, Balder, and other deities. In the case of Orpheus it is to. be observed that his connection with Jesus in the minds of early Christians is shown by the frequency of his appearance in the paintings in the Catacombs." (The Paganism in Our Christianity, Arthur Weigall, 1928, p113)
(Apparently, I forgot to cite):
4. Explain the relevance of "new wine in old bottles" for Early Christian art, and why the earliest Christians would have made use of those "old bottles."
The analogy of "new wine in old bottles" for Early Christian art describes the way in which Christian imges were not too different from the images of the Roman Empire. They simply absorbed images such as the idyllic shepherd or Orpheus [playing to the animals] and applied Christian messages/meanings. Therefore, the images and their significance for Christian teachings were secretive and only known to those in the Christian sect. Until now.
http://www2.open.ac.uk/ClassicalStudies/GreekPlays/conf96/huskinson.htm (The Open University, UK), The case of Orpheus in early Christian art:
The aim of this paper is to look at some issues which may be involved in the reception of subjects into a contemporary but different culture, taking as a case study a scene from classical mythology - Orpheus and the beasts - as used in early Christian religious contexts. … How did these Christians 'receive' Orpheus ? … The Christian examples which I shall take come from Christian funerary contexts in Rome and Ostia on sarcophagi and in catacomb frescoes.[2] I have chosen to concentrate on these pieces because they have a homogeneous background in the earliest period of Christian art, when it was borrowing motifs from classical art to help its own developing iconography. They come from a particular locality (Rome and Ostia[3]) and from a specifically funerary context which in the case of the catacombs was under official church control. However, it is important to note that the scene of Orpheus and the beasts continued to appear after this in the art of the Christian Empire, usually in secular settings as before.
Let us look at these early Christian pieces more closely. The sarcophagi are dated to around AD 230; they were possibly made in Ostia rather than in Rome. There are four main examples (one of which was re-used in a later Christian shrine at Ostia) and other fragments. They follow a popular standard design for sarcophagi of this period with panels of curved fluting alternating with figured scenes. Orpheus and his lyre are depicted in the centre. As this panel is rather restrictive in shape it leaves little room for more than a couple of animals and birds as his audience. Apart from a griffin which is included on the example in Porto Torres,[4] the animals are all sheep. The corner panels show various generic figures which are all permissive of Christian readings, some more so than others - philosophers, a fisherman, a praying woman. The earliest catacomb painting of Orpheus in Rome (that in S. Callisto) may be contemporary with these, but as a group - there are six paintings - they extend in date to the mid-fourth century AD. They decorated the walls of tombs and corridors or were the central feature in a painted ceiling. In these settings they were surrounded by depictions of Christian biblical stories, often used in a loosely programmatic way. Iconographically these examples are more varied than the version on sarcophagi. They show Orpheus playing his lyre to an audience of birds and animals. In the two frescoes in the Catacomb of Domitilla (one is probably based on the other) this is a mixture of wild and domestic creatures, but where they survive in the other scenes they are simply a few sheep and doves. … In fact it is visually very similar to the Good Shepherd figure which was one of the most popular Christian symbols at the time, appearing frequently in the catacombs and on sarcophagi. So we can assume that by using Orpheus, a figure from pagan mythology, rather than the Good Shepherd, Christians were wanting to symbolize something more than the pastoralism of the Good Shepherd. … The question is how to identify and explain it … The choice of Orpheus in this early Christian art has been much discussed but is hard to tie down.[5] To a certain extent this difficulty must reflect Orpheus' own elusiveness as a mythological figure who crosses boundaries between cultures of life and death and of wilderness and civilization … By this I mean that Christians took the scene of Orpheus and the beasts from the regular repertory of decorative art for use in a funerary context where art had clear symbolic and significatory functions. Of course one may argue that Christians often took low-profile secular motifs (such as the dove or victor's palm) and gave them a symbolic value of their own; they also occasionally took a pagan mythological figure to provide the form for a biblical figure which had as yet no iconography of its own … So the questions which concern me are about the likely reactions of Christian viewers confronted with this scene in the catacombs or on the sarcophagi: what did they draw on in making their response to it? How did they relate the image of Orpheus to the Christian setting? (We may note at this point that the same problem exists, but in reverse, for secular representations of Orpheus which post-date these Christian religious pieces; should they be seen as inevitably 'symbolic' or with Christian potential?)[7] … We move now to the Christian standpoint, to see what there may have been in Christian religious experience or vocabulary which found resonances in this mythological scene. This was the route followed by many scholars in the past, beginning with that great seventeenth century explorer of the Roman catacombs, Antonio Bosio.[19] Earlier argument was skewed somewhat by the belief that Orpheus was the only pagan mythological figure to appear in such Christian settings, so that discussions naturally centred on his peculiar acceptability to Christians. … This ideology was at its peak in the third and early fourth centuries, and the Christian Orpheus sarcophagi were very much part of this
http://www.oldandsold.com/articles08/roman-8.shtml, The Roman Decadence:
The most interesting remains of early Christian art are the paintings of the catacombs. These were underground cemeteries to which the early Christians resorted for refuge in times of persecution. Small chapels for prayer and worship were occasionally associated with the burial places of eminent martyrs or saints and are the points at which these decorative paintings are found. The earliest known are probably of the second century A. D., and they continue through the eighth century. The style of these pictures is the same as that of the con-temporary pagan art. The subjects of some of them are adaptations of pagan myths to a Christian use. In one of them Christ appears as Orpheus.
http://spiritandtruth.org///classics/ccel/s/schaff/history/2_ch06.htm (also at: http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/history/2_ch06.htm), History of the Christian Church – Chapter VI: Christian Art, “Historical and Allegorical Pictures”:
Occasionally we find also mythological representations, as Psyche with wings, and playing with birds and flowers (an emblem of immortality), Hercules, Theseus, and especially Orpheus, who with his magic song quieted the storm and tamed the wild beasts. …
The blending of classical reminiscences and Christian ideas is best embodied in the beautiful symbolic pictures of the Good Shepherd and of Orpheus.490
The former was the most favorite figure, not only in the Catacombs, but on articles of daily use, as rings, cups, and lamps. Nearly one hundred and fifty such pictures have come down to us. The Shepherd, an appropriate symbol of Christ, is usually represented as a handsome, beardless, gentle youth, in light costume, with a girdle and sandals, with the flute and pastoral staff, carrying a lamb on his shoulder, standing between two or more sheep that look confidently up to him. Sometimes he feeds a large flock on green pastures. If this was the popular conception of Christ, it stood in contrast with the contemporaneous theological idea of the homely appearance of the Saviour, and anticipated the post-Constantinian conception.
The picture of Orpheus is twice found in the cemetery of Domitilla, and once in that of Callistus. One on the ceiling in Domitilla, apparently from the second century, is especially rich: it represents the mysterious singer, seated in the centre on a piece of rock, playing on the lyre his enchanting melodies to wild and tame animals—the lion, the wolf, the serpent, the horse, the ram—at his feet—and the birds in the trees;491 around the central figure are several biblical scenes, Moses smiting the rock, David aiming the sling at Goliath (?), Daniel among the lions, the raising of Lazarus. The heathen Orpheus, the reputed author of monotheistic hymns (the Orphica), the centre of so many mysteries, the fabulous charmer of all creation, appears here either as a symbol and type of Christ Himself,492 or rather, like the heathen Sibyl, an antitype and unconscious prophet of Christ, announcing and foreshadowing Him as the conqueror of all the forces of nature, as the harmonizer of all discords, and as ruler over life and death.
http://www.thechristianactivist.com/vol8/V8Art-Icon.htm (The Christian Activist: A Journal of Orthodox Opinion), The Art of the Icon:
Yet in one sense this early Christian art can hardly be called specifically Christian at all. For, to start with, it has no specifically religious or Christian content. Where its form is concerned, this is the same as that of contemporary products from non-Christian workshops, whether these were intended for cult purposes or simply for decoration; and where its subjects are concerned, these are drawn, with slight adaptations to suit their new Christian setting, from the vast storehouse of classical tradition: Christ as the Good Shepherd derives from Hermes Criophoros, Jonah asleep under his gourd is the sleeping Endymion; and whole mythological themes, such as those connected with Orpheus, Psyche and Eros, are taken over entire, the only change being the message they are intended to convey. This early Christian art is indeed really a language of signs: it is meant to point the way to the Christian mystery, to the mystery of deliverance from death and sin through the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. It is not either descriptive or expressive; there are no individualized saintly figures or real evocations of sacred themes. In its chaste, self-denying abruptness, early Christian art seems almost a renunciation of art.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07664a.htm (Catholic Encyclopedia), Veneration of Images, “II. CHRISTIAN IMAGES BEFORE THE EIGHTH CENTURY”:
And the catacombs were covered with paintings. There are other decorations such as garlands, ribands, stars landscapes, vines-no doubt in many cases having a symbolic meaning.
One sees with some surprise motives from mythology now employed in a Christian sense (Psyche, Eros winged Victories, Orpheus), and evidently used as a type of our Lord.
http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0705VenerationImages.html, The Veneration of Images, “Images in Early Christianity”:
The catacombs were covered with paintings. There are other decorations such as garlands, ribands, stars, landscapes and vines—no doubt having a symbolic meaning. Perhaps surprisingly, motifs from mythology appear, used in a Christian sense (Psyche, Eros, winged Victories, Orpheus).
The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture, 1996, p. 94, “Catacombs”:
Out of the hundreds of pagan gods, Eros, Bacchus (vines), and Orpheus seem to be the main ones that the earliest Christians were inspired to leave for future interpretation. That obviously doesn’t mean they worshipped pagan gods over Christ, it just means there’s a common point to be made.
Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology, Mike Dixon-Kennedy, 1998, p. 232, “Orpheus”:
http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0650MysteryReligions.html, Christianity Revealed: Mystery Religions I, “Seekers after Love”:
Love was thus an element common to the mystery religions. Osiris, Orpheus, Herakles, Christ, Dionysus, Attis and Adonis were all slain and resurrected; they all descended into the underworld to redeem the souls there also.
http://www.askwhy.co.uk/christianity/0653MysteryReligions.html, Christianity Revealed: Mystery Religions II, “Orpheus”:
Orpheus was clearly connected with Jesus in the minds of the early Christians from his frequent depiction in the Roman Catacombs. Orphic figures represented King David or Jesus himself.
http://19.1911encyclopedia.org/O/OR/ORPHEUS.htm (Online Classic Encyclopedia), “Orpheus”:
The so-called Orphlc Poems, still extant, are of much later date, probably belonging to the 4th century A.r.; they consist of: (i) an Argonautlca, glorifying the deeds of Orpheus on the Argo, (2) a didactic poem on the magic powers of stones, called Lithica, (3) eighty-seven hymns on various divinities and personified forces of nature. Some of these hymns are probably earlier (1st and 2nd centuries). The Orphic poems also played an important part in the controversies between Christian and pagan writers in the 3rd and 4th centuries after Christ; pagan writers quoted them to show the real meaning of the multitude of gods, while Christians retorted by reference to the obscene and disgraceful fictions by which the former degraded their gods. … On the representations of Orpheus in heathen and Christian art (in which he is finally transformed into the Good Shepherd with his sheep), see A. Baumeister, - Denkmdler des classischen Altertums, ii. p. 1120; P. Knapp, fiber Orpheusdarstellungen (Tubingen, 1895); F. X. Kraus, Realencykiopadie des christlichen Alterthums, ii. (1886); J. A. Martigny, Dictionnaire des antiquitis chrtiennes (1889); A. Heussner, Die altchristlichen Orpheusdarstellungen (Leipzig, 1893); and the articles in Roschers and Daremberg and Saglios Lexicons.
http://www.oldandsold.com/articles08/art-7.shtml; Italian Painting Early Christian And Medieval Period, 200-1250; “Early Christian Painting”:
Classic story was also borrowed to illustrate Bible truth. Hermes carrying the sheep was the Good Shepherd, Psyche discovering Cupid was the curiosity of Eve, Ulysses closing his ears to the Sirens was the Christian resisting the tempter. The pagan Orpheus charming the animals of the wood was finally adopted as a symbol, or perhaps an ideal likeness of Christ.
“Hermes” has something to do with the worship of the phallus (sculpture of a penis).
http://campus.belmont.edu/honors/catacombs/catacombs.htm (Belmont University), The Christian Catacombs of Ancient Rome: An Introduction:
Such mixing of pagan and Christian meanings was not unusual, just as Christ/Orpheus and Christ/Apollo are often conflated in early Christian art.
http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/SUS_TAV/SYMBOL_Gr_o_u_3oXov_a_sign_.html (Online Encyclopedia), Symbol:
“ Orpheus charming the wild beasts,” which, when painted in the catacombs, was probably intended as the representation of a type of Christ.
http://www.medievalart.uk.com/introduction%202.htm, Medieval Art: Forms of Salvation, “David’s Salvation”:
It explains why the image-idea of Christ as Salvator Mundi is present from the beginning to the end of the Middle Ages, from the Good Shepherd who took over from Orpheus,
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/fabrics.htm, Ancient Coptic Christian Fabrics:
The attribute of the purity of the pearl to Christ could be linked with the myth of Aphrodite's birth, and Orpheus holding the animals under his spell, was compared to Christ because the former had the revelation of "divine unity".
http://www.anthonymludovici.com/na_3-1.htm, Nietzsche's Art Principles in the History of Art: Part I; Christianity and the Renaissance, “2. The Pagan Type appropriated and transformed by Christian Art | p. 177”:
The Pagan type was thus the first thing to be assimilated and absorbed, and in the early Christian paintings of the catacombs you must not be surprised to find the Saviour depicted with all the beauties and charms of the classical god or hero. Here he appears as a Hermes, there as an Apollo, and yonder as an Orpheus.
http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/sheldon/painting.html, The History of the Christian Church: THE EARLY CHURCH, Chapter VI: PRODUCTS OF THE ARTISTIC SPIRIT IN THE EARLY CHURCH: III.--PAINTING:
Since the catacombs were the chief depositories of early Christian art … In individual instances the classic mythology was not eschewed, and scenes having a capital aptitude for the expression of religious truth, like that of Orpheus enchanting the beasts with his music, or of Ulysses encountering the wiles of the Sirens, were utilized for Christian purposes. From whatever source derived these symbolic representations have the same characteristic. … The form of Orpheus easily suggested to the Christian mind the office of Christ as the unrivalled charmer of souls.
http://www.oldandsold.com/articles11/art-and-heart-30.shtml, Highest Purpose Of Art:
Christian worship is not to supersede the pagan's piety, but his idolatry. " Christianity has neither superseded, nor, by itself, excelled heathenism; but it has added its own good, to all that was good and noble in heathenism, but our present thoughts and work when they are right, are nobler than the heathen's." We believe that forms of art borrowed from pagan mythology are generally out of place in Christian art,. though we would not forbid the Christian artist from catching pure and sublime conceptions and drawing useful material from any source, even as early Christian. art occasionally pressed pagan mythology into its service. We hardly felt like condemning a beautiful fresco ceiling which we saw taken from one of the Roman Catacombs where the fabled Orpheus is represented with his lyre taming the wild beasts, thus symbolizing: the peaceful sway of Christ. It is well to " Receive the truth where'er 'tis found, On Christian or on pagan ground."
http://ars-interpres.nm.ru/v_p_an_1.html, Pleasing The Shadows:
If Dante rhymes “Творец / вконец / певец” (Creator / finally / singer, Paradise, XXX: 18, 22, 24, in the Russian version), the young Brodsky identifies with Orpheus: “возлюбленный твой – нынешный Орфей” (Your beloved is a contemporary Orpheus, I: 179), and Orpheus is identified with Christ “Так шествовал Орфей и пел Христос… Так шествовал Христос и пел Орфей” (Thus Orpheus walked and Christ sang […] Thus Christ walked and Orpheus sang, I: 181). As is well known, in early Christian times the figure of Orpheus in the frescos on the stone walls of the catacombs symbolised Christ.
http://anglicanhistory.org/england/dolling/osborne/21.html, The Life of Father Dolling:
Jesus Christ, in Father Dolling's conception of Him, was not only the Man of Sorrows, but also the Divine Orpheus, as He is represented in the Catacombs, with pipe and song driving out the madness of evil passions by the strains of beauty, harmony, and joy.
http://www.veritas.com.hr/observer/language_of_christian_art.php, The Language Of Christian Art:
To the pagan intruder nothing was more familiar than the representation of Orpheus subduing the wild beasts with his inspired music. To the Christian, this was the divine musician Christ, wearing the beardless face of youth to denote the Eternal that knoweth not age, who with His heart-shattering music had drawn them from the bestiality of paganism.
http://www.adherents.com/lit/Na/Na_359.html, Religious Groups in Literature:
|
Group |
Where |
Year |
Source |
Quote/ |
|
Orphism |
California |
1975 |
Dick, Philip K. "Man, Android and Machine " in The Dark-Haired Girl. Willimantic, CT: Mark V. Ziesing (1988; c. 1975); pg. 228. |
Pg. 228: "Christianity is a later form of the worship of Dionysos, refined through the strange and lovely figure of Orpheus. Orpheus, like Jesus, is real only in the sense that Dionysos is becoming socialized; born here as a child of another race, not a human one but a visiting race, Zagreus has had to learn by degrees... "; Pg. 229: "Dionysos-Zagreus-Orpheus-Jesus was always pitted against the City of Iron, be it Rome or Washington D.C... " [More, not in DB.] |
http://www.christianism.com/articles/2.html, Glyptography:
The commonest subjects are Christ the good Shepherd, represented after [are?] the old pagan types of Hermes Psychopompos or Orpheus playing to the listening beasts--subjects which frequently occur among the early Catacomb paintings. The Christian monogram [see: Footnote A.] P, the dove [see: Footnote B.] and olive branch, and other symbols of this kind were very often cut on gems of the 4th and 5th century. "
Again, the dove represents Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love.
http://www.atheistalliance.org/jhc/articles/AbrahamsenOrante.pdf, THE ORANTE AND THE GODDESS IN THE ROMAN CATACOMBS: Religious Symbols in the Catacombs:
Symbols such as the tree, the vine, wine, fish and bread are found frequently in the catacombs. The tree, like the palm, represents for Christians either a sign of victory (the presentation of a palm to the winners of the games) or a sign of life — or both. Of course, in many contexts victory could mean victory over death, which parallels the promise of eternal life. Church historian Graydon Snyder asserts that the tree appears “most frequently in the context of the Good Shepherd,” which may derive from Orpheus with the tree symbolizing “satisfactory existence.”
http://tony_green.typepad.com/pouhu/2005/05/ceremony_settin_2.html, Ceremony & Setting in th Sacraments, V: Part V. Poussin and the false worship of the pagans:
It was realised that many pagan practices had ben adopted by the early Christians and given a new significance. The catacombs and the sarcophagi contained numerous examples, like that of Orpheus in the catacomb pictures. Instead of arguing that this was merely a question of cultural continuity, Severani and his contemporaries pointed to further, more subtle reasons for the reappearance of pagan symbols in a Christian context.
http://www.ourlifeinchrist.com/Program%20Notes/icons3_101004.htm, Our Life in Christ - Orthodox Christian Ministry, “Sayings from the Fathers | Icons and the Early Church | The Art of the Catacombs”:
The main purpose of the art of the catacombs was to teach There are few direct images of Christ in the catacombs, but there are a number of symbolic representations. Christ is a lamb, a fish, a vine, the good shepherd or Orpheus calling the wild beasts.
http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/andre/poems/09.html, Calling Orpheus:
Early Christians in times of blight when life issued red and thick from limbs and catacomb chalices saw Him everywhere and kept a secret code in that pentecostal delirium scratched on those dank funeral walls. He was the fish, the young shepherd, the spreading palm, the delicate sovereign lamb, the sustaining anchor and between them glances shot like mystical arrows when the legend, the image, the name, the very thought of Orpheus would appear.
http://www.catacombe.roma.it/en/overall.html, The Christian Catacombs of Roma – Overall View:
The meditations constitute a real catechetical text in the original form of meetings with the people shown in the catacombs. They are drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures and from pagan mythology e.g. Psyche, Orpheus, Ulysses.
http://www.musicasacra.com/publications.html, Publications of the Catholic Church Music Associates:
In addition to the abundant literary evidence presented, the book also contains a well-documented chapter discussing the relevant archaeological evidence, centring upon the figure of Orpheus in the catacombs and on early Christian sarcophagi, whereby a new interpretation of the of the Orpheus images is presented. The subject in all its aspects has been investigated with an unprecedented thoroughness : the author cites more than 70 classical and 600 modern authors in text and notes. In addition to several pages of illustrations, the book contains scriptural and patristic indexes along with indexes of the classical and modern authors cited. Already referred to as "a typical product of the Doelger school," the volume (written in English) will prove valuable not only to church musicians and liturgists but to church historians, patrologists, classical philologists and early Christian archaeologists as well.
http://www.2020site.org/catacombs/art.html, Art of the Roman Catacombs:
The frescoes which cover the walls and ceilings of the burial chapels in the catacombs are distinguished from the mural decorations employed by their pagan contemporaries (as seen at Pompeii and elsewhere) by the absence of all that was immoral or idolatrous, and that it was only very slowly and timidly that any distinctly, religious representations were introduced. These were at first purely symbolical, meaningless to any but a Christian eye, such as the Vine, the Good Shepherd, the Sheep, the Fisherman, and the Fish. Even the personages of ancient mythology were pressed into the service of early Christian art, and Orpheus, taming the wild beasts with his lyre, symbolized the peaceful sway of Christ;
World Religions, Bowker, 1997, p. 137, “Christianity | The Early Church”:
The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture, 1996, p. 358, “Orpheus”:
http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/world/med/my-imo3.htm (The Theosophical Society), Creative Power in Orphic Myths:
There is also a marked similarity between the Orphic rites and those of the earliest Christians, such as baptism, eucharist, and sacrifice. Paintings on old Christian sarcophagi of the Good Shepherd are copies of Greek originals depicting Orpheus taming wild animals by his magical music (Darrow).
http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=4302 (Catholic Culture), Language Of Christian Art, The:
that fresco of the Good Shepherd meant everything. To the pagan intruder nothing was more familiar than the representation of Orpheus subduing the wild beasts with his inspired music. To the Christian, this was the divine musician Christ
http://web.clas.ufl.edu/users/kvhrtgn/orpheus (Univ. of Florida), Orpheus & Orphism:
Orpheus thought of as the good shepherd > iconography borrowed by Christian art.
The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mythology, Cotterell / Storm, 1999, p. 69, “Orpheus”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abattoir_Blues/The_Lyre_of_Orpheus, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, “Connection to the Orphic myth”:
Orpheus also speaks of -
"The many voices
Speaking to me from the depths below
This ancient wound
This catacomb
Beneath the whited snow"
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/leckidxkz.htm History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, “Rationalism in Europe”:
Orpheus, regarded as a symbol of the attractive power of Christianity, i. 214 … Symbolism, great love of, evinced by the art of the Catacombs, i. 213. The peacock the symbol of immortality, 213. And Orpheus, of the attractive power of Christianity, 214.
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/lecky03z.htm, History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, “Footnotes to Chapter III”:
Orpheus is spoken of by Eusebius as in this respect symbolising Christ. The reverence that attached to him probably resulted in a great measure from the fact that among the many apocryphal prophecies of Christ that circulated in the Church, some of the most conspicuous were ascribed to Orpheus.
http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC06612305&id=9MIPAAAAIAAJ&printsec=titlepage&#PPA192,M1, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History – Google Book Result, by John Jortin, 1751, p. 192:
P. 193:
P. 194:
http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=6031 (Catholic Culture), The Church as Culture:
Other images portray the figure of Orpheus (understood as Christ) holding his lyre and surrounded by animals (Christ, unlike Orpheus, tames even the wildest of beasts, the human being, said Clement of Alexandria),
http://www.ctinquiry.org/publications/reflections_volume_7/wilken.htm (Center of Theological Inquiry), Amo, Amas, Amat: Christianity and Culture:
The construction of a Christian catacomb required careful planning and money. Not only was it necessary to decide the layout of the whole complex including staircases, chambers, chapels, but also how the ceilings would be decorated and what pictures would adorn the walls—and pay the workmen. Most of the rooms are square, allowing for a symetrical design to be imprinted on a ceiling of white plaster. The ceiling forms a kind of canopy over the whole room and a medallion was painted at the apex to highlight a prominent image. In some cases the figure of a young shepherd carrying a lamb on his shoulders occupies the central medalion. Other paintings included the figure of Orpheus (understood as Christ) with his lyre surrounded by animals [Christ unlike Orpheus tames even the wildest beast, human beings, said Clement of Alexandria], Daniel as a heroic nude, and Jonah being cast overboard. The form of the images is familiar from Roman art, but putting them together with wall paintings of the sacrifice of Isaac, Moses striking the rock in the desert, Daniel in the lion’s den, the Baptism of Jesus, these Roman Christians created a uniquely Christian sanctuary.
http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/apologia/vpost?id=517509&trail=24#23, The Parables of Lord Christ, “From the Catholic Encyclopedia”:
Clement of Alexandria perhaps wrote the well-known Orphic hymn which contains a similar appellation. The "fiery furnace", the "tears and the gnashing of teeth", going beyond the figures in the story, belong to its meaning and to Christian dogma.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911, Vol 11, p. 464, “Parables”:
Christ Himself made reference to Orpheus:
http://www.halkidiki.com/thiseus/orph.htm, Life of mythic Orpheus, “Genealogic Tree of Orpheus”:
His musical instrument was the lyre given to him by Apollo, the Muses teaching him to play the instrument. Such was the quality of his music that wild beasts became calm when they heard it, while trees and even rocks danced and followed him.
http://www.activated-storytellers.com/folktales/orpheus.html, Activated Stroytellers Travelling Theatre, “Orpheus – A Greek Myth”:
Long, long ago in Greece, there was a man named Orpheus, who played an excellent lyre. His music was so good that it soothed the savage beasts, and even the rocks and stones were moved.
Jesus makes reference to Orpheus:
Luke 19:37-40:
37Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, 38saying: “‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” 40But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”