Editing Titans (section)

==Orphic literature==

===The ''sparagmos''===
[[File:Gaziantep Zeugma Museum Dionysos Triumf mosaic 1921.jpg|thumb|Dionysus in a mosaic from the House of Poseidon, [[Zeugma Mosaic Museum]]]]
In Orphic literature, the Titans play an important role in what is often considered to be the central myth of [[Orphism (religion)|Orphism]], the ''[[sparagmos]]'', that is the dismemberment of [[Dionysus]], who in this context is often given the title [[Zagreus]].<ref>Nilsson, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1508326?seq=1 p. 202] calls it "the cardinal myth of Orphism"; Guthrie, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-C6wNyrxUO8C&pg=PA107 p. 107], describes the myth as "the central point of Orphic story", Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=333 p. 307] says it is "commonly regarded as essentially and peculiarly Orphic and the very core of the Orphic religion", and Parker 2002, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dsOEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA495 p. 495], writes that "it has been seen as the Orphic 'arch-myth'.</ref> As pieced together from various ancient sources, the reconstructed story, usually given by modern scholars, goes as follows.<ref>West 1983, pp. 73–74, provides a detailed reconstruction with numerous cites to ancient sources, with a summary on p. 140. For other summaries see Morford, p. 311; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA35 p. 35]; March, [https://archive.org/stream/March.Jenny_Cassells.Dictionary.of.Classical.Mythology#page/n787/mode/2up s.v. Zagreus, p. 788]; Grimal, s.v. Zagreus, p. 456; Burkert 1985, pp. 297–298; Guthrie, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-C6wNyrxUO8C&pg=PA82 p. 82]; also see Ogden, [https://books.google.com/books?id=FQ2pAK9luwkC&pg=PA80 p. 80]. For a detailed examination of many of the ancient sources pertaining to this myth see Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=333 pp. 307–364]. The most extensive account in ancient sources is found in [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/206/mode/2up 5.562–70], [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/224/mode/2up 6.155 ff.], other principle sources include [[Diodorus Siculus]], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html 3.62.6–8] (= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/316/mode/2up fr. 301 Kern]), [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/3E*.html#64 3.64.1–2], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/4A*.html#4 4.4.1–2], [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5D*.html#75 5.75.4] (= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/316/mode/2up fr. 303 Kern]); [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng1:6.87-6.145 6.110–114]; [[Athenagoras of Athens]], ''Legatio'' 20 [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_II/A_Plea_for_the_Christians#cite_ref-66 Pratten] (= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/138/mode/2up fr. 58 Kern]); [[Clement of Alexandria]], '' [[Protrepticus (Clement)|Protrepticus]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/clementofalexand00clem#page/36/mode/2up 2.15 pp. 36–39 Butterworth] (= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/110/mode/2up frs. 34, 35 Kern]); [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' 155, 167; ''[[Suda]]'' s.v. [http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl?db=REAL&search_method=QUERY&login=guest&enlogin=guest&user_list=LIST&page_num=1&searchstr=zeta,4&field=adlerhw_gr&num_per_page=1 Ζαγρεύς]. See also [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:7.18.4 7.18.4], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.perseus-eng1:8.37.5 8.37.5].</ref> Zeus had intercourse with Persephone in the form of a serpent, producing Dionysus. He is taken to [[Mount Ida]] where (like the infant Zeus) he is guarded by the dancing [[Korybantes|Curetes]]. Zeus intended Dionysus to be his successor as ruler of the cosmos, but a jealous Hera incited the Titans&mdash;who apparently unlike in Hesiod and Homer, were not imprisoned in Tartarus&mdash;to kill the child. The Titans whiten their faces with gypsum, and distracting the infant Dionysus with various toys, including a mirror, they seized Dionysus and tore (or cut)<ref>West 1983, p. 160 remarks that while "many sources speak of Dionysus' being 'rent apart' ... those who use more precise language say that he was cut up with a knife".</ref> him to pieces. The pieces were then boiled, roasted and partially eaten, by the Titans. But Athena managed to save Dionysus' heart, by which Zeus was able to contrive his rebirth from Semele.

===The anthropogony===
Commonly presented as a part of the myth of the dismembered Dionysus Zagreus, is an Orphic anthropogony, that is an Orphic account of the origin of human beings. According to this widely held view, as punishment for their crime, Zeus struck the Titans with his [[thunderbolt]], and from the remains of the destroyed Titans humankind was born, which resulted in a human inheritance of ancestral guilt, for this original sin of the Titans, and by some accounts "formed the basis for an Orphic doctrine of the divinity of man."<ref>Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=333  pp. 307&ndash;308]; Spineto, [https://books.google.com/books?id=jpIJ64a5alUC&pg=PA34 p. 34]. For presentations of the myth which include the anthropogony, see Dodds, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Lz7LNak21AQC&pg=PA155 pp. 155–156]; West 1983, pp. 74–75, 140, 164–166; Guthrie, [https://books.google.com/books?id=-C6wNyrxUO8C&pg=PA83 p. 83]; Burkert 1985, pp. 297–298; March, [https://archive.org/stream/March.Jenny_Cassells.Dictionary.of.Classical.Mythology#page/n787/mode/2up s.v. Zagreus, p. 788]; Parker 2002, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dsOEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA495 pp. 495–496]; Morford, p. 313.</ref> However, when and to what extent there existed any Orphic tradition which included these elements is the subject of open debate.<ref>See Spineto [https://books.google.com/books?id=jpIJ64a5alUC&pg=PA37 pp. 37–39]; Edmonds [http://www.brynmawr.edu/classics/redmonds/zagreus.pdf 1999] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110414032311/http://www.brynmawr.edu/classics/redmonds/zagreus.pdf |date=2011-04-14 }}, 2008, 2013 chapter 9; Bernabé 2002, 2003; Parker [http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2014/2014-07-13.html 2014].</ref>

The 2nd century AD biographer and essayist [[Plutarch]] makes a connection between the ''sparagmos'' and the punishment of the Titans, but makes no mention of the anthropogony, or Orpheus, or Orphism. In his essay ''On the Eating of Flesh'', Plutarch writes of "stories told about the sufferings and dismemberment of Dionysus and the outrageous assaults of the Titans upon him, and their punishment and blasting by thunderbolt after they had tasted his blood".<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''On the Eating of Flesh'' [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/plutarch-eating_flesh/1957/pb_LCL406.559.xml?result=108&rskey=XXmYuB 1.996 C]; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=360 pp. 334 ff.] Edmonds 1999, [http://www.brynmawr.edu/classics/redmonds/zagreus.pdf pp. 44–47] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110414032311/http://www.brynmawr.edu/classics/redmonds/zagreus.pdf |date=2011-04-14 }}.</ref> While, according to the early 4th century AD [[Christian apologist]] [[Arnobius]], and the 5th century AD Greek epic poet [[Nonnus]], it is as punishment for their murder of Dionysus that the Titans end up imprisoned by Zeus in Tartarus.<ref>[[Arnobius]], ''Adversus Gentes'' [https://archive.org/stream/thesevenbooksofa00arnouoft#page/n269/mode/2up 5.19 (p. 242)] (= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/110/mode/2up fr. 34 Kern]); [[Nonnus]], ''[[Dionysiaca]]'' [https://archive.org/stream/dionysiaca01nonnuoft#page/228/mode/2up 6.206&ndash;210].</ref>

The only ancient source to explicitly connect the ''sparagmos'' and the anthropogony is the 6th century AD [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonist]] [[Olympiodorus the Younger|Olympiodorus]], who writes that, according to Orpheus, after the Titans had dismembered and eaten Dionysus, "Zeus, angered by the deed, blasts them with his thunderbolts, and from the sublimate of the vapors that rise from them comes the matter from which men are created." Olympiodorus goes on to conclude that, because the Titans had eaten his flesh, we their descendants, are a part of Dionysus.<ref>Edmonds 1999, [http://www.brynmawr.edu/classics/redmonds/zagreus.pdf p. 40] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110414032311/http://www.brynmawr.edu/classics/redmonds/zagreus.pdf |date=2011-04-14 }}; Olympiodorus, ''In Plato Phaedon'' 1.3 (= Orphic [https://archive.org/stream/orphicorumfragme00orphuoft#page/238/mode/2up fr. 220 Kern]); Spineto [https://books.google.com/books?id=jpIJ64a5alUC&pg=PA34 p. 34]; Burkert 1985, p. 463 n. 15; West 1983, pp. 164–165; Linforth, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008294699;view=1up;seq=352 pp. 326 ff.].</ref>

===Modern interpretations===
Some 19th- and 20th-century scholars, including [[Jane Ellen Harrison]], have argued that an initiatory or [[Shamanism|shamanic]] ritual underlies the myth of the dismemberment and cannibalism of [[Dionysus]] by the Titans.<ref>Harrison, [https://archive.org/details/prolegomenatostu00harr/page/490/mode/2up?view=theater p. 490].</ref> [[Martin Litchfield West]] also asserts this in relation to shamanistic initiatory rites of early Greek religious practices.<ref>West 1983.</ref>