Sources Cited for Various Tik Tok Videos

In the comments on a short, goofy video about mythology, a comment read “I wish creators like this would cite their sources.”

Well.

If you think I’m going to take that kind of thing sitting down, you’ve got another thing coming.

No these aren’t formally formatted. Suffer.

On Melinoe, the Orphic Cult, Greek epithets, and Chthonic Zeus

Video 1

Video 2 (incoming)

Direct Citations

• The Orphic Hymns by Apostolos N. Athanassakis (Translator), Benjamin M. Wolkow (Translator): 2nd edition (2013)
  • the first edition was published in 1977
  • access to the translations without footnotes is available at academia.edu
  • Make note of Hymns 18 and 63
• The Orphic Hymns: A New Translation for the Occult Practitioner by Patrick Dunn
  • sample available at issuu.com
• Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources by Timothy Gantz
  • free pdf available on archive.org
•  Images of Eternal Beauty in Funerary Verse Inscriptions of the Hellenistic Period by Andrzej Wypustek
  • the specific reference is in the “Marriages with the Gods” section
• Engraved Gems, Signets, Talismans and Ornamental Intaglios, Ancient and Modern by Duffield Osbourne
  • mention of water-themed “Zeus” epithets. One of which, Enalios, has very tenuously been attached to Poseidon (pg 200)
  • Make special note of the following (pg 200): “Zeus Chthonios” here is attributed as a local cult epithet of Zeus, not Hades

Additional Online Reading that’s Not Wikipedia

• General source for ancient texts: The Perseus Digital Library from Tufts
• Thomas Tayler translation of the Orphic Hymns, 1792
• “Mystery Cults in the Greek and Roman World” by Kiki Karaglou: Dept. of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• “What Is Orphism? — The Ancient Greek Mystery Religion” by Dani Rhys
  • Notes on this source
    • “this religion has been around since at least the 6^th century BC”
      • A 5th BC or a 6th BC origin is still a matter of discussion and the dates remain unfixed
    • “Namely, this religion struck a chord with Pythagoras,…”
      • This is technically accurate but also fails to acknowledge that this is way more complicated than this. Tradition holds that Pythagoras, himself, was an early Orphic initiate, but there is equal evidence to suggest a common origin or general conflation between the two.
    • So I don’t love some of the language, but it’s a good, readable overview of the highlights of Orphism, Zeus eating people and everything. Please note, however, that there are three different theogonies with slight variation.
• A reconstruction of the Orphic Fragments as collected by Otto Kern.
  • This source concerns itself with the “Rhapsodic Theogony.” What we know of this document is from references to it by neo-Platonist writers. Here’s a deeper dive from Lech Trzcionkowski
• “The Gods in Later Orphism” by Alberto Bernabe. Part of The Gods of Ancient Greece: Identities and Transformations. Edinburgh Leventis Studies 5
  • This is a conference proceeding in the format of a monographic publication. More information from the Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
• A passable reference for Greek epithets containing more details. Another specifically about Hades cult epithets.