Bulgaria Recreates Orpheus’s Lyre

[Liffrea]

The lyre of Orpheus, the string instrument which the Thracian and ancient Greek mythological musician played with mastery, was recreated and will be displayed in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv as part of a project of the Municipal Institute Ancient Plovdiv, its representatives recently announced.

The instrument, which is 40 centimetres long, was made from cycamore tree and a turtle’s hollow. According to national media, although the original idea was to make the instrument from materials that were as close as possible to the authentic ones, it turned out that no animal species existed from which to get 45-centimetre-long horns.

http://www.balkantravellers.com/en/read/article/1441

[Cato]

Poet, religious mystic, hero to many.

[Tabiti]

I can't understand whole that recent cult of Orpheus I see today. Some worship him, others claim his to be the first gay in history. Anyway, he's just a fairytale for me.

[Liffrea]

A recent cult of Orpheus?

Orpheus has many cognates with other myths, some have likened his head (once detached from the rest of his body by the maenads) to have mystical properties, like Mim’s head was for Odin, a source of enlightened knowledge. He is also shamanic, able to ascend to other planes of reality whilst living, he goes to Hades to rescue his wife Eurydice (may be a relation to the story of Persephone). He has also been seen as Apollo, or a generic solar deity, in human form.

[Tabiti]

I say it is recent here by some "mythical" nationalists.
Personally, I can't understand this worship, sorry.

[Liffrea]

No need to apologise, I don’t “worship” any Gods either. What I like in Orpheus’ story is the symbolism relating to nature itself and to attainment of knowledge.

[Tabiti]

The whole story of Orpheus worship seems a bit imagined, with a modern touch. The things I've read in the traditional Hellenic mythology were quite different. Show me where is Orpheus portrayed as a god?

[Liffrea]

As I wrote it's how some scholars have interpreted Orpheus, mythology is open to interpretation, whether that interpretation is valid....

[Cato]

I know him mainly as the legendary founder of the Orphic Mysteries. I know nothing of a "gay hero" role supplied to Orpheus and, frankly, I find it as disgusting a belief as the belief that Sappho was a lesbian and feminist heroine.