In this episode, I interview Daniel Malamis of Rhodes University on his book The Orphic Hymns Poetry and Genre, with a Critical Text and Translation. Daniel explores the Orphic Hymns, focusing on their poetic style, structure, and role in ancient religious rituals. Along with his extensive study, a critical Greek text is provided, and a new English translation.
Daniel Malamis was born in the UK and educated there and in Zimbabwe. He completed his undergraduate degree at Rhodes and, after several years in the UK, Greece and South Korea, returned to Rhodes as a lecturer in 2008. His research interests include Homeric epic, Greek lyric poets, Greek religion and religious poetry and ancient magic, with a current focus on the poetry of ancient mystery cults and the Orphic Hymns in particular.
From the book description
The Orphic Hymns, a collection of invocations to the complete Greek pantheon, have reached us without explicit information about the contexts of their composition and performance. Combining a new critical edition and translation of the hymns with an in-depth study of the poetic strategies they employ and the forms of Greek poetry they draw upon, this book explores what the hymns can tell us about themselves. Through the use of allusion and figures that look to the earliest Greek poetry, the hymns present themselves as a text to be heard and meditated upon in performance, and as Orpheus' summative revelation on the nature and unity of the divine realm.
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