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Le Professeur Radcliffe Edmonds(Bryn Mawr College, Etats-Unis)donnera une conférencele vendredi 9 mars 2012 (10h-12h)à l’Ecole pratique des hautes étudesImmeuble Le France190, avenue de France (Paris 13e)1er étage, salle 123An Absence of Orphics : Redefining Ancient OrphismConférence en anglaisle texte sera distribuéla discussion aura lieu en anglais et en françaisRépondante : Mme Fabienne Jourdan, CNRS(UMR 8167 – Orient et Méditerranée)An Absence of Orphics: Redefining Ancient OrphismRadcliffe G. Edmonds IIIAbstract:This paper examines the people associated with the name of Orpheus, both the ritual experts who perform the kind ofrites that have been called Orphic and their clientele. The majority of the evidence for such people tends to come eitherfrom comic caricature or philosophic polemic, two different types of labeling someone else with the name of Orpheus fornegative purposes. People who call themselves Orphic in a positive sense and live lives of exceptional purity, observingthe practices of Orpheus and engaging in his rituals, exist only in the imaginary &#8208; mostly of modern scholars, although afew ancient positive imaginings appear as well. However, the label of Orpheus’ name was also attached to various ritualpractitioners, not so much to indicate that they performed only rituals attributed to Orpheus as to associate them eitherwith the kind of special mysteries credited to Orpheus or simply with the level of excess in ritual practices that iscorrelated with Orpheus and his rituals. The label of Orpheus’ name marks the extra&#8208;ordinary, the absurdly superstitiousor the extremely pious, the bizarre barbarian practice or the most ancient and holy of rites. Such practices, and the peoplewho engage in them, are what receive the label of ‘Orphic’ in the ancient evidence, and this evidence – properly considered– fills in the gap left by the absence of Orphics in our ongoing attempts to understand the nature and practices of ancientGreek religion.