Orgia

This article is about the form of worship in ancient Greek religion. For the village in Tuscany, see Orgia, Sovicille. For other uses, see Orgy.
Dionysian scene on a 3rd-century AD sarcophagus

In ancient Greek religion, an orgion (ὄργιον, more commonly in the plural orgia) was an ecstatic form of worship characteristic of some mystery cults.[1] The orgion is in particular a cult ceremony of Dionysos (or Zagreus), celebrated widely in Arcadia, featuring "unrestrained" masked dances by torchlight and animal sacrifice by means of random slashing that evoked the god's own rending and suffering at the hands of the Titans.[2][3] The orgia that explained the role of the Titans in Dionysos's dismemberment were said to have been composed by Onomacritus.[4] Greek art and literature, as well as some patristic texts, indicate that the orgia involved snake handling.[5]

  1. ^ Georg Luck, Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, 2006, 2nd ed.), p. 504.
  2. ^ Madeleine Jost, "Mystery Cults in Arcadia," in Greek Mysteries: The Archaeology and Ritual of Ancient Greek Secret Cults (Routledge, 2003), pp. 144–164.
  3. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Orgy" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  4. ^ Pausanias 8.37.5; Fritz Graf and Sarah Iles Johnston, Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets (Routledge, 2007), p. 70.
  5. ^ Jacquelyn Collins-Clinton, A Late Antique Shrine of Liber Pater at Cosa (Brill, 1976), pp. 33–34. Among Church Fathers see Arnobius, Adversus Nationes 5.19; Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus 2.12.2; Firmicus Maternus, De errore profanarum religionum 6.