ORPHEUS SEXUAL ATTRIBUTES

Christ was depicted in much early Christian art as Orpheus, founder of the orgiastic mysteries Greek: (transliterated Orpheus): also (Orphic, Orphica, Orphism, Orphean, etc.) The Orphic Mysteries, his connection with Dionysus / Bacchus, etc.:
The New World of English Words: Or, a General Dictionary, Edward Phillips, Cambridge / Oxford, 1658, (no page numbers), Orgies:

Translated from Elizabethan English: Orgies, (lat.) certain feasts and revels, instituted by Orpheus to the honor of Bacchus.
An English Dictionary, Elisha Coles, 1676, no page numbers, Orgeis[sic]:

Translated from Elizabethan English: Orgeis, Revels instituted by Orpheus, to the honor of Bacchus (every third year)
Encyclopdia Britannica, 1771, Vol. 3, p. 443, ORGIA (ORGIES):

Translated from Elizabethan English: ORGIA, in antiquity, feasts and sacrifices performed in honor of Bacchus, instituted by Orpheus, and chiefly celebrated on the mountains by wild distracted women, called Bacchae. See BACCHANALIA, and DIONYSIA.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0836918.html, Encyclopedia: Orpheus: he became a devoted follower of Dionysus and introduced that god's cult in many places, http://www.infoplease.com/ipd/A0569452.html, Dictionary: Orphic: 1. of or pertaining to Orpheus. 2. resembling the music attributed to Orpheus; entrancing. 3. pertaining to a religious or philosophical school maintaining a form of the cult of Dionysus, or Bacchus, ascribed to Orpheus as founder: Orphic mysteries. The New Century Dictionary of the English Language, 1933, Vol. 1, p. 1202, Orphic:

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0205.htm (Catholic Encyclopedia), A Plea for the Christians: By Athenagoras the Athenian: Philosopher and Christian (c. 133-190 AD), Chapter 32. Elevated Morality of the Christians: It is, however, nothing wonderful that they should get up tales about us such as they tell of their own gods, of the incidents of whose lives they make mysteries. But it behoved them, if they meant to condemnshameless and promiscuous intercourse, to hate either Zeus, who begat children of his mother Rhea and his daughter Kor, and took his own sister to wife, or Orpheus, the inventor of these tales, which made Zeus more unholy and detestable than Thyestes himself; for the latter defiled his daughter in pursuance of an oracle, and when he wanted to obtain the kingdom and avenge himself. But we are so far frompractising promiscuous intercourse, that it is not lawful among us to indulge even a lustful look.

(Christians became somewhat divided in early years. This is an extant writing.)

http://www.theologywebsite.com/etext/clement/heathen.shtml, Exhortation to the Heathen, by Clement, Chapter I.-Exhortation to Abandon the Impious Mysteries of Idolatry for the Adoration of the Divine Word and God the Father: To me, therefore, that Thracian Orpheus, that Theban, and that Methymnaean,-men, and yet unworthy of the name,-seem to have been deceivers, who, under the pretence of poetry corrupting human life, possessed by a spirit of artful sorcery for purposes of destruction, celebrating crimes in their orgies, and making human woes the materials of religious worship, were the first to entice men to idols; nay, to build up the stupidity of the nations with blocks of wood and stone,-that is, statues and images,-subjecting to the yoke of extremest bondage the truly noble freedom of those who lived as free citizens under heaven by their songs and incantations. Chapter II.-The Absurdity and Impiety of the Heathen Mysteries and Fables About the Birth and Death of Their Gods: These are the secret mysteries of the Athenians; these Orpheus records. I shall produce the very words of Orpheus, that you may have the great authority on the mysteries himself, as evidence for this piece of turpitude:"Having thus spoken, she drew aside her garments, And showed all that shape of the body which it is improper to name, And with her own hand Baubo stripped herself under the breasts. Blandly then the goddess laughed and laughed in her mind, And received the glancing cup in which was the draught." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 1992, p. 1276, orgy:

http://www.erosha.net/push2004.html, Erosha: a literary journal of the erotic, Greek Fling 3:

I'm Helen,thigh to thigh With Paris before Menelaus Sent the horse to spoil my wine dark orgy Orpheus, lost Eruydice

But I've returned For your sexy lyre music

http://www.antinopolis.org/carpocrates.html, Saint Carpocrates And The Libertine Companions of ANTINOUS, Carpocrates and Antinous:

The Followers of Dionysus, like the Carpocratians, and the Companions of Antinous, were in the habit of turning their liberation towards sexual expression. The entourage of Dionysus included demi-gods whose very nature was sexual and orgiastic, such as Pan, the Satyrs, Priapus, the Maenads, Ariadne, and the wise, drunkard, Silenus. Homosexuality was a vibrant part of the Dionysian cult, and was initiated by Orpheus as a sacred state, a priest of Dionysus, who turned away from women when he failed to bring his wife Euridice back from the dead.
http://www.omhros.gr/Kat/History/Greek/Tc/Pythagoras.htm, Pythagoras, Pythagoras as a Man of Science:

We have seen that the aim of the Orphic and other Orgia was to obtain release from the "wheel of birth" by means of "purifications" of a primitive type. The new thing in the society founded by Pythagoras seems to have been that, while it admitted all these old practices, it at the same time suggested a deeper idea of what "purification" really is. Aristoxenus said that the Pythagoreans employed music to purge the soul as they used medicine to purge the body. Such methods of purifying the soul were familiar in the Orgia of the Korybantes, and will serve to explain the Pythagorean interest in Harmonics.
(Apparently forgot to cite):

They were gods of the ritual Korybantic dance, an orgiastic dance of clashing spear and shield, accompanied by beating tambourines and drums and the wild cries of the initiates. Korybantes were closely connected with Orpheus, another son of Apollon and a Mousa who founder of the closely related Orphic Mysteries.
http://www.maravot.com/Divine_Mirror.html, Divine_Mirror: Story of Helen of Troy with Etruscan Characters:

After the kidnapping Dionysus went to Phrygia where he was cured of his madness and adopted the oriental costume and rites similar to those of Cybele. His rites included orgies, etc., and those who served him he rewarded with many blessings, particularly the knowledge of the cultivation of the grape and the pleasures of wine. Where he encountered opposition he brought terrible destruction to those who defied him, often using his infallible weapon, madness. He caused Lycurgus to go mad, for instance, who hacked to death his son, Dryas, or his wife and son. Orpheus was one of his priests and Dionysus is connected with fertility, and his widely orgiastic rites were celebrations of the earth's fertility.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/hippolytus5.html, Early Christian Writings: Hippolytus of Rome: The Refutation of all Heresies: Book V, CHAP. XV.--THE SETHIANS SUPPORT THEIR

DOCTRINES BY AN ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE; THEIR SYSTEM REALLY DERIVED FROM NATURAL PHILOSOPHERS AND FROM THE ORPHIC RITES; ADOPT THE HOMERIC COSMOGONY

For their doctrine concerning the womb is also the tenet of Orpheus; and the (idea of the) navel, which is harmony, is (to be found) with the same symbolism attached to it in the Bacchanalian orgies of Orpheus. But prior to the observance of the mystic rite of Celeus, and Triptolemus, and Ceres, and Proserpine, and Bacchus in Eleusis, these orgies have been celebrated and handed down to men in Phlium of Attica. For antecedent to the Eleusinian mysteries, there are (enacted) in Phlium the orgies of her denominated the "Great (Mother)."
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9613/9613.preface.html, Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, and Greek Rebirth :

These attitudes are but part of a larger theme that recurs in the classicists' version of Greek history and thought: a rarefied and reified distinction between a rational Milesian tradition, which represents the Greek civilization at its best, and a tradition of Western Greeks, who were influenced by a variety of "oriental" beliefs and also orgiastic rites associated with Orphic and Dionysian mysteries.
http://www.egodeath.com/BollandPhilosophyOfReligion.htm, G.J.P.J. Bolland: Philosophy of Religion, XIV. Blossom and Root: Christianity in History -- 1:

The mystery yearning for Hellenised diaspora Jews is at the historical root of Christianity. The most important mystery sources treated here are the Orphic and the Mithraic. The common meal is essentially Mithraic. Justin Martyr accused Satan to have invented the Mithraic eucharist as a cheap imitation of the Christian eucharist of water and bread. The wine is a later Roman addendum. But the Orphic cult provided Christianity with something essential and wanting in Mithraic mysteries, i.e. passion, death, and revival of the central cult deity, Bacchus. The latter was seen as the spirit of nature, who, despite being originally a unity, is torn apart and distributed throughout nature. This is told in the story of Bacchus being butchered by the Titans. Later Bacchus rises from destruction. Orphics celebrate orgies in which a bull is torn into pieces and fed to the believers. [But there are also reports about sober and vegetarian Orphics; this may be like in the case of left- and right-handed Tantra in the Indian religion -ks] . These orgies illustrate the Bacchus myth.
Lemprieres Classical Dictionary, 1853, p. 266, Orphica:

Lemprieres Classical Dictionary, 1898, p. 419, Orphca:

Websters Universal Dictionary of the English Language (unabridged), 1909, p. 1150, Orphic:

An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mysticism and the Mystery Religions, Ferguson, 1977, p. 49, Dionysus:

P. 136, Orphic mysteries:

http://www.brazilart.org/Orpheus%20Essay.htm, Orpheus Article: Orfeu Negro or Orfeu: Aesthetics Verses Brazilian Nationalism:

The story of Orpheus and Eurydice had a special place among the plays that were annually performed on the prosceniums of the hillside theaters during the ancient Greek festivals of Dionysus, since the cult of Dionysus had first emerged from the Orphic religion. Below the surface of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice is the basis of the Orphic view of the creation of the world through the emergence of the cosmic egg. The union of Orpheus and Eurydice was seen as symbolic of the forming of the cosmic egg from which all life emerged, an aspect that was actively played out by festival participants engaging in sexual orgies during the celebration.
http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/grail_3.htm, The Grail Quest and The Destiny of Man: Part III: Time: Thus, the bacchant, through his orgiastic rites, imitates the drama of the suffering Dionysos and the Orphic, through his initiation ceremony repeats the original acts of Orpheus. A Dictionary of Religion and Ethics, 1921, p. 300, Mystery Religions:

-Ologies & -Isms: A Thematic Dictionary, Zettler, 1978, p. 179, Orphism:

The New Century Cyclopedia of Names, Barnhart, 1954, Vol. 1, p. 1287, Dionysus:

http://www.archaeonia.com/religion/cults/orphic.htm, Orphism - Reincarnation & Purification: Yet it's true: body-denying Orphism is a variation of the same Dionysus religion which we associate with ecstatic orgies and the most physical and indulgent types of worship. http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Orpheus.html, Greek Mythology Link, Orpheus:

Orpheus, whom Apollo taught to play the lyre, travelled to Egypt where he increased his knowledge about the gods and their initiatory rites, bringing from that country most of his mystic ceremonies, orgiastic rites, and his extraordinary account of his descent to the Underworld.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910, Vol. ?, p. 328, Orpheus:

Classics Illustrated Dictionary, Fuchs, 1974, p. 134, Orphism:

Readers Digest Family Word Finder, 1975, p. 557, orgy:

Sexualia: From Prehistory to Cyberspace, Bishop / Osthelder, 2001, p. 215, The Classical World | Festivals and Mysteries:

A phallus is a sculpture of a penis.

http://web.archive.org/web/20101227053039/http://goldenrule.name/Orpheus-SEXUAL_ATTRIBUTES/