Musaeus

Musaeus is the man the Orphic Hymns are addressed to. The proem has Orpheus speaking to him — learn these rites, sacrifice like this — which frames the whole collection as instruction passed from master to pupil. Poems circulated under his name as they did under Orpheus's, and the tradition cannot decide whether he was Orpheus's disciple or his son. His name means 'of the Muses', which is a job description, and that is part of why he stays out of focus: he is the figure the tradition needs in order to have someone to hand itself to.

Variant accounts

• Musaeus is called the pupil of Orpheus and also his son.The tradition makes him now the disciple who receives the rites, now the son who inherits them; his name simply means 'of the Muses', which is a description of what he does rather than a personal name. The record authors the pupil relation, which the proem supports directly, and notes the filiation without asserting it.Reference treatment of the varying accounts of Musaeus's relation to Orpheus. (secondary)

Domains

• poetry
• mystery initiation

Relations

• student of: OrpheusPupil of Orpheus in the Orphic tradition, and the addressee of the proem that opens the Hymns; elsewhere he is called his son.Orphic Hymns, the proem, in which Orpheus addresses Musaeus and hands on the rites. (primary)

Sources

• Musaeus is the legendary poet and pupil of Orpheus to whom the proem of the Orphic Hymns is addressed, and under whose name Orphic poems circulated.: Orphic Hymns, the proem 'To Musaeus'. (primary); Reference treatment of Musaeus among the legendary poets of the Orphic tradition. (secondary)