‘I will sing to those who know’ (OF 1) about C., who is a welcome voice in the ongoing discussions on the nature and definition of Orphism, and a necessary counterpoint to R.G. Edmonds's Redefining Ancient Orphism (2013). Scholars of Orphism are well aware of how our understanding of Orphism has shifted over the last two centuries, with opinions ranging from the speculative theories that prevailed a century ago to the extreme scepticism that we see in Edmonds. He proposes a definition of Orphism as a loose term denoting a variety of disconnected phenomena, but C. offers a definition that brings all the evidence together into one unifying concept. Her definition is bound to be controversial simply because Orphism has always been controversial, and not everyone will agree with all the details, but C. presents a well-reasoned definition that is based on a discussion of ‘all the main components of Orphism’ (p. 5) and is worthy of consideration. She takes the reader through a survey of non-Orphic sources that refer to Orphism, followed by the gold tablets, the Derveni Papyrus and the Rhapsodies, and she concludes by defining Orphism as ‘a practical theology which spread throughout Greece and through time, influencing public rites, forming esoteric mysteries and becoming material for bricolage by religious practitioners’ (p. 351).

In this definition C. distinguishes three strands – public rites, esoteric mysteries and itinerant priests –, and this distinction is one of the greatest strengths of her attempt to define Orphism. C. builds her definition around a common thread of Orphic ideas, while recognising diversity in people's expression of these ideas; or, as she puts it, ‘Initiations and Orphic mysteries had a common eschatology but a fluid practical manifestation in different areas’ (p. 352). Simply put (aside from public rites, which were merely influenced by Orphism), there were two kinds of Orphics: itinerant priests who used Orphic texts and people who practised mysteries based on Orphic texts. This distinction is drawn in Chapter 2, where C. surveys non-Orphic sources that refer to Orphic texts and practices. For example, there is an extensive discussion of Plato's reference to a ‘babble of books’ in Republic (pp. 21–6). These bibloi were used by the more ‘“marginal” strand of Orphic practices’, and they were not the same as the hieroi logoi that ‘were linked to those Orphic practices which were revered and considered highly sacred’ (p. 39). C. finishes the second chapter by discussing sources that refer to Orphic rituals, arranging them geographically with specific locations in mind (pp. 43–70). This is another strength of her attempt to define Orphism, since it is clear that Orphic practices did not manifest in the same way in every time and place, and any working definition must recognise this.

C. also strikes a delicate balance in Chapter 3, where she discusses the Orphic myth of Dionysos Zagreus, who in the Rhapsodies is dismembered by the Titans. After a useful discussion of the sources used to reconstruct this myth, she rejects Edmonds's sceptical view that the myth was a late invention and argues that instead this myth ‘was clearly associated to Orphics’ at the beginning of the Hellenistic period (p. 112), which is also not the same as saying that it was the central soteriological myth of a centralised Orphic cult. Rather, C. suggests that this story ‘was attributed to Orpheus and interpreted in a specific way’ (p. 94): through the lens of astrological eschatology, as she explains in the next three chapters.

In Chapter 4 C. argues that the gold tablets are artefacts of Orphic rites in which initiates were taught that, when they died, their souls went to the stars, and specifically to the Milky Way. The deceased are given instructions about what to do when they get to the underworld, which C. discusses in detail before placing a ‘particular emphasis on the enigmatic phrase of “falling into milk”’ (p. 151) and arguing that this is a reference to the Milky Way. This aspect of C.'s argument is controversial, as she admits that A. Bernabé and others disagree (p. 171); still, her discussion of the underworld instructions that are contained on the gold tablets supports the idea that ‘it was an astral immortality which was expected by the gold tablets’ initiates’ (p. 197). The cosmological basis for this astrological eschatology is further explained in the next two chapters.

In Chapter 5 C. identifies the Derveni Papyrus as part of one strand of Orphism (mystery initiations) and the Gurôb Papyrus as part of the other (itinerant priests), and she suggests that ‘texts such as the Derveni Papyrus were probably owned and used by the Orphic initiates and the Orphic theogony was a key text that had to be understood and interpreted’ (p. 264). The way in which the Orphics interpreted the text was, in her opinion, exactly as the Derveni author describes it. C. argues that the Derveni author was an initiate into Orphic rites who explained an Orphic theogony in terms that are similar to Presocratic philosophy. In the theogony itself, Zeus represents air, which is the primal substance of the universe that ‘always existed and transforms the particles into beings through fire (heat) and aer (cold)’ (p. 248). According to C., this understanding of Orphic texts ‘in scientifical and cosmogonical terms’ was an ordinary part of Orphic thinking. Thus, the Derveni author is ‘not external to Orphism’ (p. 224), but someone whose practice was typical of Orphism, which was to ‘explain the meaning of the Orphic texts and rites as part of the initiation procedure’ (p. 273).

C.'s greatest contribution is in Chapter 6, where she attempts a reconstruction of the text of the Orphic Rhapsodies based on the surviving fragments (pp. 286–98). This reconstruction is extremely useful since, as she argues, it is a ‘much clearer way’ to study the content than ‘having to go through innumerable fragments’ (p. 283). She splits the Rhapsodies into twelve episodes and discusses each one, arguing that the theogonic and cosmogonic elements of the Rhapsodies were understood allegorically, so ‘aether is the primal substance which encompasses everything and its purest essence is the stars which constitute the Isles of the Blessed’ (p. 349).

Based on her discussion of the gold tablets, the Derveni Papyrus and the Rhapsodies, C. concludes that the earliest Orphic texts emerged out of ‘the rhapsodic oral tradition’ (p. 353), possibly influencing the Presocratics and even Homer, whose ekphrasis of Achilles’ shield seems similar to ‘the cosmology of the Rhapsodies’ when Zeus recreates the world after swallowing Phanes (p. 328). Not everyone will agree that Homer was influenced by Orpheus, but ancient sources commonly attest to the antiquity of Orpheus, leading C. to claim that these indications ‘all point to the archaicness of Orphism’ (p. 357). In other words, the earliest Orphic texts were rhapsodic compositions by the same oral bards who performed Homeric poetry in the Archaic period.

Orphism changed and evolved through space and time, but the common thread that C. finds in all the sources is that ‘the Orphic cosmological model was consistent throughout all of them’ (p. 354). In other words, Orphism consisted of texts and ritual practices that all centred around a particular cosmogonic theory. This theory was based on an allegorical understanding of theogonic narratives that made aether the primal substance of the universe, as reflected in the narrative of Zeus swallowing Phanes and recreating the universe. Connected to this was an astrological eschatology in which initiates wished upon death that their souls would return to the aether and join with the stars, as reflected in the narrative of the Titans dismembering Dionysus.

This book is bound to be controversial, but it is one of the best attempts by a modern scholar to provide a coherent definition of the entirety of Orphism that holds onto a common thread while taking into account the diversity of Orphism in different places and times.