Orphic

comparative more Orphic · superlative most Orphic

1. Greekhuman sciencesOf or pertaining to Orphism and its doctrines and rituals.

   Orphic ideology mainly concerned the mysteries of Dionysos, which many Greeks took very seriously.

   2004, Stephanie L. Budin, The Ancient Greeks: New Perspectives, ABC-CLIO, page 307

2. Having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding; mystic.

   […] he intended to be a divine artist, a man of visionary states and enchantments, Platonic possession. He got a Rationalistic, Naturalistic education at CCNY. This was not easily reconciled with the Orphic. But all his desires were contradictory.

   1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 115

3. Hypnotic; entrancing.

plural Orphics

1. Greekhuman sciencesA follower of Orphism.

   1 more example

   In particular, Plato often refers to the “Orphics” and mentions the “Orphic life” (Orphikoi tines legomenoi bioi, Laws 782c). Plato clearly distinguished the Orphics and the Pythagoreans. To speak very generally, the Orphics believed that the soul had a divine beginning but fell from the gods due to an original crime.

   2021, Andrea Nightingale, Philosophy and Religion in Plato's Dialogues, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 137