Atanas Stoychev Orachev PhD in History, chairman, the Academic Council of the Black Sea Strandja Association, curator, museum exhibition History of the Anchor in Ahtopol (Neptune Street, No. 2, apt. 5, Ahtopol, Bulgaria, 8280)
aso_1953@abv.bg
Orachev A. S. Was there an «Orphica magica» in the monuments from Thrace?, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], Saint-Petersburg, 2022, vol. 11, pp. 126–149.
doi: 10.24412/2308-0698-2022-11-126-149
Language: Russian
The author examines the inflexible nature of the «Orphic» interpretations of Thracian images and scenes on treasure objects. Any attempts to associate them with the «Thracian mystery practices» which were part of the «royal mystery ideology» of «immortality» — the so-called «Thracian Orphism» arise particular doubt. The author also considers the version of «Orphica magica» by Al. Fol and analyzes Scholl. Apoll. Rhod. I, 197. However, the Mnaseans’ Ἀξίερος, Ἀξιόκερσα, Ἀξιόκερσος and Κάσμιλος were also found in a late epigraphic monument from Antioch, the text of which is certainly magical. The magical language was and remains untranslatable because, according to the idea embedded in it, it was supposed to be unintelligible during prayers, healing names («incantations») and curses. Only here and there it was possible to mention names «familiar» to the listener, and according to an unwritten rule, only the beginning and the end of the text of some spells-curses are translatable. The magical language would also have been inherent in the «Thracian priests» mentioned by Plato, who treated «first the soul» precisely when «incanting» (Plato, Chram. 156D). In principle, the «Thracian inscriptions» from Kölmen and Ezerovo, as well as the so-called «Samothracian inscriptions», are also untranslatable, since they were also written in a magical language. The analyzes of the Bulgarian bailki that have reached our days are particularly promising for the responsible study of magic in the Thracian lands, because they are the fruit of a thousand-year-old tradition.
Key words: Thracian «Orphism», Thracian inscriptions, magical language, spells, Bulgarian rites
URL: //rcs-almanac.ru/en/en-orachev-2022/
