OBOSirs 



OKKKKV 



OroslllS, r.vri.rs. n Spanish presbyter nntl 

 hi-lormn. wits liurii iti Tarragona, uinl IcWritlieil 

 in the .">tli century. He visited Augustine in 4 1.~>. 

 itinl pie-entcd to liini his work writ ifii against tlit> 

 lu-iesies of Priscillian nn>l Origen. He went linn,.' 

 to 1'alestinc to study under Jerome at Hethlehem. 

 His chief work, tin' ffittoriariUH ntlrrrxim J'liifHiKix 

 Libri rii., In-gins with tin 1 creation nml gBSidown 

 to 417 A.D. It ih apologetic in design, intended 

 a a complement to the great work of August iae 

 written to prove from historical i'\ idence that the 

 prevailing evils of the linn- were not due to Chris- 

 tianity. It is based on the elironii-le of Kusebius- 

 .lerome, ami on Livy, Kiitrooiu-s .lustin, Tacitus, 

 ami Suetonius; hut tlie work is a trivial, inaccu- 

 rate, uncritical miscellany of facts, although the 

 style i.s elegant if KVI/.TI/, in liacon's phrase. It 

 wa- n favourite text l>ook of universal history 

 liming the middle ages, ami lia>l the honour of 

 Iwing translated into Anglo-Saxon liy Alfreil (eti. 

 by Hosworth in ISTil, and liy II. Sweet from Lord 

 Tollemache'.s Oili-century MS. 1883 tt seq.). Some 

 MSS. liear the puzzling title of Ilunntstu or 

 Ormiita, conjectured by some to lie a corruption 

 of Or. m. isltt i.e. Orosii ininufi i.iluria, or perhaps 

 Orosii mittrinrum (niumli) istvria. 



The editio princt-p.s appeared at Vienna in 1471 ; the 

 best edition u that by ('. /iangemeister in Corpus Scri/it. 

 Eerlt*. Latin. ( Vienna, 1882). The edition of Havercanip 

 (IT.'W) was reprinted in voL ix. of Galland's liili. J'nt. 

 (177:t) and vol. xxxi. of Mignc's Patrol (1840); the 

 ry alone by Dr Itrohin (Thorn, 1HT7). An earlier 

 English translation (1773) was reprinted in Buhn'g 

 ' Antiquarian Library* (1HM). 



Orotava. a town on the north coast of Tencriffe, 

 one of the Canary Islands, is situated below the 

 Peak, in one of the pleasantcst districts in the 

 world. I'op. S'-XJ3. 



Orpheus, n Orcek hero, a son of Apollo and 

 the Muse Calliope, or of Uiagrus and Clio or 

 Polyhymnia. His native country is Thracia, where 

 many different localities were pointed out as his 

 birthplace. Apollo liestows upon him the lyre, 

 which Hermes invented, mid by its aid Orpheus 

 moves men and l>easts, the birds in the air, the fishes 

 in the deep, the trees, and the rocks. He Accom- 

 panies the Argonauts in their expedition, and the 

 power of his music wards off all mishaps and 

 disasters, rocking mon-ters to sleep and stopping 

 dill's in their downward rush. His wife, Km \ dice, 

 ia bitten by a serpent and die.s. Orpheus follows 

 her into the infernal regions ; and so powerful are 

 hi- ' golden tones' that even stern Pluto and 

 Proserpine are moved to pitv, while Tantalus 

 forgets his thirst, I \ ion's wheel ceases to revolve, 

 and the Danaids stop in their wearisome task. 

 He is allowed to take her back into the ' light of 

 heaven,' but he must not look around while they 

 it-rend. Love or doubt, however, draws his eyes 

 towards her, and she is lost to him for ever, ill- 

 death U sudden and violent. According to some 

 accounts, it is tin- thunderbolt of /ens that cute 

 him oir, because lie reveals the divine mysteries; 

 according to others, it is Dionysus, who. angry 

 at his Nhuiaa to win-ship him, causes I lie M.-emid's 

 to tear him to pieces, which pieces are collected 

 and buried by the Muses in tearful piety at 

 Lelbetill*. at the foot of Olympus, where a 

 nightingale sings over his BIWB. Others, again, 

 make the Thracian women divide his limbs lietwecn 

 them, cither from excessive madness of iinreouitcd 

 love or from anger at his drawing their husbands 

 awnv from them. The faint glimmer of historical 

 truth hidden beneath these myths becomes clearer 

 in those records which sjM-ak of Orpheus as n divine 

 Iwnl or priest in the service of Xagreus, the Thracian 

 Dionysus, and founder of the Mysteries (n.v.); 

 M the first musician, the first inaugurator of the 



rite- of expiation and of the Mantic art, the- in- 

 ventor of letters and the heioic metie: of e\. 

 thing, in fact, that was siipp<i.-eil to have contrib- 

 uted to the civilisation and initiation into a more 

 humane worship of the deity among the primitive 

 inhabitants of 1'hracia and all (ireece. A kind of 

 monastic order sprang up in later times, calling 

 itself after him, which combined with a sort of 

 enthusiastic creed alxmt the migration of souls and 

 other mystic doctrines a semi a-cetii- life. Ab- 

 stinence from meat (not from wine), freijm-nt purifi- 

 cations and other expiatory riles, iiii-antations, the 

 wearing of white garments and similar things were 

 among their fundamental rules and ceiemonies. 

 Hut after a brief duration the brotherhood, having 

 first, during the last days uf the Unman empiie. 

 passeil through the stage of conscious and \<-ry 

 protitable jugglery, sank into oblivion, together 

 with their 'orpheotelistic' formulas and sacrifices. 



Orpheus has also gi\en the name to a special 

 literature called the Orphic, and wo-s called the first 

 poet of the heroic age, anterior to Imth Homer and 

 lle-iod. The fragments current under his name 

 were first collected at the time of the 1'isistratidas 

 chiefly by Onomacritus, and these fragments grew 

 under the hands of the Orphic brotherhood, aided 

 by the Pythagoreans, to a vast literature of sacred 

 mythological songs sung at the public games, 

 chanted by the' priests at their service, worked out 

 for dramatic and pantomimic purposes by the 

 dramatists, commented upon, philosophised upon, 

 and 'improved' by grammarians, philosophers, and 

 theologians. Although authorities like Herodotus 

 and Aristotle had already combated the sup|xscd 

 antiquity of the M> called Orphic myths and n 

 of their day, yet the entire enormous Orphic liteia- 

 lure which had grown out of them retained its 

 ' ancient" authority, not only with both the Hellen- 

 ists and the church fathers of the 3d and 4th cen- 

 turies A.I)., but down almost to the last generation, 

 when it was irrefutably proved to be in its main 

 bulk, as far as it has survived, the production of 

 those very 3d and 4th centuries A.D., raised ii]M>n a 

 few scanty, primitive snatches. The most remark- 

 able part of the Orphic literature is its Tbeogonr, 

 which is based mainly on that of llcsiod. Tin- 

 story of Orpheus also occurs in English and other 

 niedia-val literatim-. 



Besides the fragment*! of the Theogony which 

 have survived, imbedded cbielly in the writings of 

 the Neoplalonists. are to l>e mentioned the Arr/o- 

 tifiiilii-ii, a poem of the li\ x.-inl ine period, consisting 

 of I.'!N4 hexameters; further, a collection of N? 

 or 88 liturgical hymns ; a \\ork on the virtues of 

 stones, called LytMta, \f. Other poems belonging 

 to the Orphic Cycle, of which, however, only 

 names have survived in most instance-, are Stirred 

 l.<iii->iiit, ascribed to (Vn-ops : a Poem on Nature, 

 called J'/iifM'". probably by I'rontinus ; linci-hnn. 

 supposed to be written W Avignota, the daughter 

 of Pythagoras ; Mini/us, or Orpheus' descent into 



Hades ; and other poetical productions by Xop\ ins. 

 imocles. Niria-. IVrsinns, Prodicnx, &c. The 



hymns have repeatedly been translated. 



See the editions of the Ot-jihim by Hermann (1805) 

 and Abel (1885); Lolieck's AplaoplMtm** (182<J); and 

 Gerhard, Orpheut und die Orphiker (18G1). 



OrpiiiK'iit. See ARSENIC. 



Orpine, a kind of Sedum (q.v.). 



Orpington, n village of Kent, Knglnnd, 12 

 miles by rail BE. of London, where IJuskin's books 

 be.'an to be )uiblished in 1ST." (Me K. T. Cook, 

 .SV././/.-.V in li,<xkin, 1890). Pop. 31MK). 



Orrery, a machine constructed for the pnrpo-e 

 of exhibiting the motions of the planets round the 

 sun. and of the satellites round their primaries, 

 which was in high repute during the 18th and 



