Tablet of the Orphics - St. Blaise and Orpheus Part 1

From page 28 of "History of Western Philosophy"

link:  

http://books.google.com/books?id=Ey94E3sOMA0C&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=Pythagorean+cult+dionysus&source=web&ots=Eh4dyA1eJN&sig=S-C_GlSRZx9RWDk2Gcqe4udD0K0&hl=en&ei=SameSb7lMJmktQPb7aDDCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA30,M1

Orphic tablets found in tombs as instructions to the sould of the dead person as to how to find his way in the next world and what to say in order to prove himself worth of salvation

the Petelia Tablet:

Thou shalf find on the left of the House of Hades a Well-spring

and by the side therof standing a white cypress

to this well-spring approach not near

but thou shalt find another by the Lake of Memory

Cold water flowing forth and there are Gaurdians before it

Say, "I am a child of Earth and of Starry Heaven;

But my race is of heaven (alone) This ye know yourselves

And Io, I am parched with thirst and I perish Give me quickly

The cold water flowing forth from the Lake of Memory"

And of themselves they will give thee to drink from the holy well-spring

And thereafter among the other heros thou shalt have lordship...

Another tablet says, "happy and blessed one, thou shalt be God instead of mortal"

The well spring of which the soul is not to drink is Lethe, which brings forgetfulness; the other well spring is Mnemosyne, rememberance.  The soul in the next world if it is to achieve salvation is not to forget but on the contrary to acquire a memory surpassing what is natural.

The Orphics were a ascetic sect; wine to them was a sacrament.  The intoxication was a union with the god.  They believed themsleves, in this way to acquire mystic knowledge not obtainable by ordinary means.  This mystical element entered into Greek philosophy with Pythagoras, who was a reformer of Orpism as Orpheus was a reformer of the religion of Dionysus.  

Saint Blaise was the son of wealthy people in Sebaste, a town of Armenia near Turkey, in the days when it was fashionable to be a heathen. He was not like the other boys, his playmates, for he was a Christian, full of sympathy for everything that lived. More than all things he longed to learn how to help the creatures that he loved,—men and women, the children, the dumb beasts, and everything that suffered and was sick.

The timid creatures were brave in his presence, and the fierce ones grew tame and gentle at the sound of his voice. The little birds brought him food, and the four-footed beasts ran errands and were his messengers.

(Christians were being prosecuted and men were sent out, and found St. Blaise.:::)

The men were so astonished at the sight that they stole away without capturing an animal or saying a word to Saint Blaise, for they thought he must be Orpheus or some heathen god who charmed wild beasts

The legends say that they used to visit him in his forest home, which was a cave on Mount Argus near the city of Sebaste.The good Bishop was put in prison. And after that they tortured him, trying to make him promise not to be a Christian any longer. But Saint Blaise refused to become a heathen and to sacrifice to the gods. And so they determined that he must die. They would have put him in the arena with the wild beasts, but they knew that these faithful creatures would not harm their friend. The beasts could not save him from the cruel men, but at least they would not do anything to hurt him. Those which were still left in the forest howled and moaned about his deserted cave, and went sniffing and searching for him everywhere, like stray dogs who have lost their master. It was a sad day for the wood-creatures when Saint Blaise was taken from them forever.

The soldiers were told to drown Saint Blaise in the neighboring lake. But he made the sign of the Cross as they cast him from [94] the boat, and the water bore him up, so that he walked upon it as if it were a floor, just as Christ did once upon the sea of Galilee. When the soldiers tried to do the same, however, thinking to follow and recapture him, they sank and were drowned. At last of his own free will Saint Blaise walked back to the shore, clothed in light and very beautiful to look upon; for he was ready and eager to die. He let the heathen seize him, and soon after this was beheaded.