Orphic Fragments

40. Strabo, Geography VII 330, fragment 18
[The author states] that below Mount Olympus is the city of Dium. It has a village nearby called Pimpleia; there they say Orpheus the Ciconian A member of a Thracian tribe mentioned in the Odyssey lived, a man who was a sorcerer original: "γόητα" (goēta), a practitioner of magic or a charlatan by means of music and prophecy combined, as well as the orgiastic rites Secret, ecstatic religious celebrations associated with initiations. At first, he practiced as a wandering priest, but soon he began to think himself worthy of greater things and gathered a crowd and power. Some accepted him willingly, but others, suspecting a plot and violence, formed a conspiracy and killed him. Near this place are also the Libethra A place dedicated to the Muses. Concerning Libethra, see number 41.

41. Tzetzes, Exegesis on the Iliad 80, 2 Hermann edition
Olympus is, in practical reality, a mountain in Macedonia, where they also say the gods reside, because Orpheus—being from there—taught the worship and religious rites of the gods. The same author in Chiliades VI 91, 945 (Regarding Libethra): Libethrion is a mountain, but also a city in the land of the Odrysian Thracians One of the most powerful Thracian tribal unions, to whom Orpheus belonged. For the man [Orpheus] writes thus in his own books: "Now come to me, Libethrian girl, tell me, O Muse." See Heeg’s Dissertation page 54; see in the latter part of this work.

42. Diodorus Siculus V 64, 4 (Diels edition II, 3rd edition, 167 number 15)
Some record, among whom is Ephorus A Greek historian of the 4th century BCE (Fragmentary Greek Historians I 253, fragment 65), that the Idaean Dactyls Mythical master metalworkers and sorcerers associated with Mount Ida were born on Mount Ida in Phrygia, but crossed over with Mygdon A Phrygian king into Europe. Being sorcerers, they practiced charms, initiations, and mysteries; and while staying around Samothrace, they astonished the locals in these matters to no small degree. It was at this time that Orpheus, being naturally gifted in poetry and melody, became their student, and was the first to bring initiations and mysteries to the Greeks.

43. Diodorus Siculus III 67, 2 (Tzetzes, Exegesis on the Iliad 14, 11 Hermann edition)
They say that Linus A legendary master of song, often called the son of Apollo, admired for his poetry and melody, had many students, the three most famous being Heracles, Thamyris A legendary singer who challenged the Muses, and Orpheus. . . . 4 They say that Linus, having composed the deeds of the first Dionysus and other myths in Pelasgian letters A legendary pre-Greek alphabet, left them behind in his memoirs. They say Orpheus and Pronapides Traditionally identified as Homer's teacher, a gifted songwriter, likewise used these Pelasgian letters. Furthermore, Thymoetes, the son of Thymoetes the son of Laomedon, who lived at the same time as Orpheus, wandered through many places of the inhabited world, etc. See also the Suda lexicon, number 223 d.