Abstract

MARTINEZ VILLARROYA, Javier. The Holy Child in Orphism. Or Eros and the Hidden Meaning of ERIKEPAIOS. Nova tellus [online]. 2016, vol.34, n.2, pp.9-37. ISSN 0185-3058.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.nt.2016.34.2.740.

In my PhD thesis (published in 2008), I applied the classification of symbols’ method proposed by Gilbert Durand to the Orphic corpus. From Anthropology, Hermeneutics, Psychoanalysis and Phenomenology of religions, I board the symbols’ hubbub, and I obtain interesting results. Durand defends that the human cosmovisions are tripartites: the symbols of a people have to do with (a) the instinct of “walking upright”, (b) the instinct of nourishment (breastfeed) or (c) the reproduction (sex). Plato, in the Timaeus, also explains the structure of the world from three symbols (father, mother and son).

In this paper I analyze the word ERIKEPAIOS in order to find its original meaning. I based my study on the most recent studies by Alberto Bernabé and his collaborators, and in certain interpretations of Greek philosophy (Marcel Detienne, Peter Kingsley, Walter Burkert, etc.). I conclude that, indeed, in the Orphic texts the protagonist is the dead individual; however, he is the main character because he is alive, as the reborn, the initiated, the saint child.

Keywords : Orphism; Initiation Rites; Eros; Cosmic Egg; Couvade.

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