PRE-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: THE ORPHICI
The Orphic poems and the Pythagoreans—The Orphic Theology and Legend of
Dionysos—Orphics first to connect this with man’s fate in next
world—Asceticism of Orphic ideal—Initiation a substitute for
asceticism—Gold Plates of Italian Orphics and their likeness to Egyptian
funerary literature—Orphic propaganda at first confined to
Rhapsodists—Orphics seize upon worships of foreign gods—Demosthenes’
oration against Aeschines and its explanation—Orphics probably form
_thiasi_ and other religious associations—The Orpheotelestae, wandering
charlatans—The Orphic Hymns—Hymns to Persephone and Dionysos and their
explanation—Influence of Orphics upon later religions—Orphism leads to
spread of syncretism, magic, and external conformity—Summary of Orphism
and its influence upon Gnosticism . . . 121-148