Myth & LegendGreek → English
Orphic
/ˈɔːrfɪk/adjective
Mysterious and oracular, or belonging to the ancient mystery cult that credited its poems to Orpheus.
The Greek roots
Ὀρφεύς
Orpheús
Orpheus, the singer
Literally: “of Orpheus”
Follow a root:Ὀρφεύς3 words
The story of the word
Orphism was a real movement with real texts, teaching that the soul is buried in the body and reborn until purified. Gold leaves have been dug from graves in southern Italy and Crete carrying route instructions for the underworld, telling the dead which spring to drink from. The adjective drifted into English in the seventeenth century meaning no more than cryptic, and the singer's own name still has no accepted etymology.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
OrphismOrphean
In a sentence
His late poems turn Orphic, full of instructions nobody can follow.