Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 6.-7. 1965-1966 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1966)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Makkay János: Some ancient sources to the Shamanism. VI–VII, 1965–66. p. 27–42. t. XV.

shamans are mediators between god and man, just as Hermes is. Some qualities of Orpheus reveal an especially close parallellism to the mythical shamanancestors: he is the first poet and medicineman, soothsayer, theologer and the founder of mysteries at the same time, undertaking a journey to the Nether Regions besides.

106 Musaios was credited with the ability to fly, the gift of prophecy and that of curing diseases by charm. The feature that he wears a white band on his forehead in the Underworld is especially interesting. An excellent parallel of this may be adduced from the orbit of shamanistic beliefs.

107 A recently published paper explains that the word used for „sorcery" in the early Greek period is attached to Shamanism by several links.

108 Similarly E. Kagarov compared a series of general religious phenomena, irrespective of persons, to shamanistic analogies.

109 Some writers connected the belief that the song has been planted into the soul of the bard by a god,

110 the Greek view on the existence of a distinct language of the gods,

111 and the concentration of prophetic gifts with poetical ability and musical prowess it the same person

112 with the respective phenomena of Shamanism. We are bound to remark, however, that all these opinions have remained without significant approval up to this day, this being a token of scientific scepticism as regards the solidity of proofs. Notwithstanding we are bound to refer to a group of phenomena, linked to Shamanism in the same degree as those mentioned above. This is the Greek legendary circle of the dismemberment of certain persons and their revival by the process of fitting the parts together. Such is the dismemberment of the child Dionysos by the Titans in the first place. Several varieties of his reviviscence are known. One 306. RE XVni/1 (1942) pp. 1206 seqq.; M. HAAVIO: op. cit. pp. 140—173; F. M. CORNFORD: op. cit. p. »9. The figure of Orpheus is connected to Shamanism in another interesting feature too: it is known that his severed head went on singing even after his death. Shamanistic analogies may be adduced to this: A. HULTKRANZ: The North American Indian Orpheus Tradition. (Stockholm 19517) passim. For the problem of the head of Orpheus: W. DEONNA: REG 38 (19E5) pp. 44 seqq. 107. The parallel is documented by K. R a s m u s s e n in an excellent picture, Rasmiussens Thulefahrt. (Frankfurt a. M. 1926) p. 3ul; according to Pausanias (X. v. 6) Musaios also wrote an epic with the title „Eumolpia". The same author refuses to accept the suggestion that the ability to fly has been given by Boreas (I. 22. 7). Cf. also F. M. CORNFORD: op. cit. p. 89; К. MEULl: Hermes 70 (1935) pp. 171—0J72; R. MERKELBACH: op. cit. p. 1153; Platon, Polit. П. 3681. С—D. 108. G. BURKART: RhM 106 (1962) pp. 36 seqq. 109. The Survivals of Shamanism in the Greek and Roman Religion. Bull, de Г Acad, des Sciences de l'Union des Républiques Soviétiques Socialistes Vile Série, Classe des Sciences Sociales 1934. No. 5, pp. 387—401; cf. also M. MUSTER: Schamanismus bei den Etruskern. Frühgeschichte und Sprache (Graz 1948). 110. As we learn from Od. ХХП. 344—353 and Vni. 498. Uli. K. MEULI: Hermes 70 (1935) p. 173; E. KAGAROV: op. cit. 112. F. M. CORNFORD: op. cit. pp. HB, 100, etc. of them holds that the limbs were put into a tripod cauldron. According to the variants Athene, Rhea, Hermes, nay also Apollon are helping to revive him.

118 The fate of Orpheus is connected to this act. His dismemberment was originally motivated by his refusal to serve the cult of Dionysos. Later the reason of the act was interpreted differently.

114 Tantalos carves his own son, Pelops up. He is brougt back to life by Rhea or the nymph Clotho through the process of boiling him in a cauldron, whence he rises intactly.

115 Medeia dissects her younger brother Apsyrtos for the known purpose.

116 At the counsel of Medeia Pelias is dismembered by his daughters, they boil the parts of the body in a cauldron. Pelias is only barred from resurrection to a new, young existence because Medeia does not fulfil her former promise to hand over a magic device.

117 According to an other source Medeia actually rejuvenated Aeson by the process of spraying the corpse with the age-worn blood, while she supplied the blood by a decoction of magic power.

118 Atreus killed the sons of Thy estes: Aglaus, Callileon and Orchomenos. He treated the father to the pieces, then he shew the heads and the limbs.

119 The Arcadian Lykaon, wanting to probe the divinity and the omniscience of Zeus visiting him, treated the god to the flesh of a sacrified child or the pieces of his own son Nyktimos. The indignant Zeus threw the table over, changed Lykaon to a wolf, then he revived the child by joining his limbs again.

120 Tereus, king of Thracia was feasted by his wife, Prokne to the dismembered and cooked remains of their own child.

121 The event happened at the occasion of a festival of Dionysos. The two women who committed the crime fled to the circle of the bacchants.

122 Similarly Astyages let the son of Harpagos to be chopped up 113. O. KERN: Orphioorum Fragmenta 210, 35; A. BRELICH: A ,,Meghaló istenek" problémájához. (To the Problem of „Dying Gods".) A MTA Nyelv- és Irodalomtudományi Osztályának Közleményei (Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Bulletin of the Class for Language and Literature) XVIII, s. a. pp. 240 seqq. 114. RE XVm/1 (1942) pp. 1206 seqq., 1291, 1283^11287; Ovid Metam. XI. 8. 115. RE TV/a (11932) p. 2227; Pindaros Ol. I. 36 seqq.; Apollód. Bibi. I. 121. 116. Apollód. Bibi. I. ix. 23. A review of other ancient sources: J. G. FRAZER: Apcilodorus, Bibliotheca. Loeb Classical Library (London 19156) I. p. 113. 117. Apollód. Bibi. I. ix. 27; RE XIX (1988) pp. 317—320; the other sources in J. G. FRAZER: op. cit. I, p. 1211, note 4. 1118. J. G. FRAZER: loc. cit.; Ovid, Metam. VH. 2151—294. 119. Apollód. Epit. II. 13—14; Paus. II. 18. l; Hyg. Fab. 88; other sources in J. G. FRAZER: op. cit. П, p. 167; RE П (1896) s. v. Atreus. 120. RE XDi (1S27) p. 2250; Apollód. Bibl. Щ. vii. i; Alex Clem. Protrept. H. 36; Nonnos, Dion. XVHI. 2C. seqq.; J. G. FRAZER: op. cit. p. 391, note 1; according to a version he dismembered his grandson, Areas: J. G. FRAZER: loc. cit. 1211. С. ROBERT: Tereus mythosa Dunapentelén. (The Myth of Tereus at Dunapentele.) Arch. Ért. 26 (1966) pp. 274— 276; RE V/a (1934) s. v. Tereus. 122. Ibid., cf. Aischylos, 'Ixétides. 60—67. 39