Editing Metempsychosis (section)

== Orphism ==
A belief in metempsychosis has been associated with [[Orphism]], the name given to a religious movement said in antiquity to have been founded by the legendary poet [[Orpheus]]. Orphism is said to hold that soul and body are united by a contract unequally binding on either. The soul is divine but immortal and aspires to freedom, while the body holds it in fetters as a prisoner. Death dissolves that contract but only to reimprison the liberated soul after a short time, for the wheel of birth revolves inexorably. Thus, the soul continues its journey and alternates between a separate unrestrained existence and a fresh reincarnation around the wide circle of necessity, as the companion of many bodies of men and animals. To those unfortunate prisoners, Orpheus proclaims the message of liberation, that they stand in need of the grace of redeeming gods, [[Dionysus]] in particular, and calls them to turn to the gods by ascetic piety and self-purification: the purer their lives, the higher their next reincarnation will be, until the soul has completed the spiral ascent of destiny to live forever as a God from whom it comes.<ref>Linforth, Ivan M. (1941) ''The Arts of Orpheus'' Arno Press, New York, {{OCLC|514515}}</ref><ref>Long, Herbert S. (1948) ''A Study of the doctrine of metempsychosis in Greece, from Pythagoras to Plato'' (Long's 1942 PhD dissertation) Princeton, New Jersey, {{OCLC|1472399}}</ref><ref>Long, Herbert S. (16 February 1948) "Plato's Doctrine of Metempsychosis and Its Source" ''The Classical Weekly'' 41(10): pp. 149–155</ref>