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- Title
Apocalittica orfica Nuove prospettive sulle interferenze greco-iraniche.
- Authors
Albrile, Ezio
- Abstract
A corpus of astrological works was ascribed to Orpheus in antiquity. This mantic material was the source used by Anceus, a member of the Argonautic expedition, accustomed to the «ways of the stars of heaven and the orbits of the planets, who foretold for men the present and the future». Among this documentation, the Dodecaeteris occupy a prominent position. The name is derived from the period of twelve years, called «Chaldaean Year», marked by an alternance of «storms, periods of abundance and famine, disease and prosperity». The surviving fragments of the work do not make it possible to reconstruct a coherent text. According to the scholiast and mythographer John Tzetzes, a prelude was followed by a detailed prediction related to each year, and the Dodecaeteris ended with a section on eschatology. There was exposed the destiny of the world at the end of the «Great Year», in the days before the Great Ekpyrosis. A fragment is preserved in the scholia to Lycophron. This apocalyptic sequence has a striking parallel in Zoroastrian (= Zurvanite) eschatology, in the prophecy of frašgird, the Last Renovation. Hidden in the myth of Zurwān lies a manifold teaching, certainly influenced by the astrological speculation of late Mesopotamian religion. Without doubt Zurvanism - whatever its genesis and interpretation - was bearer of the concept of a cyclical time, the «Great Year» of 12000 years, divided into four periods of 3000 years each. Zoroastrian dualism, as shown by the Gāthā , was instead bearer of a linear conception of time. So, the spread of the theme found in the Orphic text points to the Aramaic-Mesopotamian, «Chaldaean», world, where the late Babylonian astrological speculations interfere with the Iranian idea of an endless, infinite time dominating the cosmos. We find the topic also in the speculations of the Mandaean, heirs of a Gnostic tradition, which borrowed materials from archaic Iranian and Mesopotamian models.
- Subjects
ORPHEUS (Greek mythological character); ARGONAUTS (Greek mythology); ASSYRO-Babylonian astronomy; ZOROASTRIAN eschatology; TZETZES, Johannes, ca. 1120-1183; GNOSTICISM
- Publication
Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni, 2010, Vol 76, Issue 2, p467
- ISSN
0393-8417
- Publication type
Article