Orpheus of the Harmony

In memory of my father,
the great agronomist and person - Dimitar Nikolov

Everyone knows the ancient image of the man, holding a lyre in hand. This is the Thracian Orpheus, the Singer, as he was called by the ancients.

“And over his head/ birds without number are flying. Fishes leap around/ out of the deep blue waters won by the tuneful sound”, Orpheus, by Simonides of Ceos.

He is also a reformer, priest, prophet and enlightener of souls. Demosthenes defines him as "founder of our most sacred rites." Orpheus teaches people that the soul has a divine origin and that it is feasible for every person to attain divinity through self-perfection. According to him, one can achieve self-perfection by reaching harmony in one’s soul and the surrounding world. Orpheus is the first great philosopher and artist-humanist in Europe. A thousand years later, Socrates is the first among ancient Greeks to propound the same concept, that the primary goal of every person should be self-perfection. Socrates identifies it with obtaining knowledge, thanks to which one can recognize good from evil. He believes that the greatest virtue is knowledge, while ignorance is evil.

Orpheus himself climbed the mountain every morning to face the sunrise. The sun, as a symbol of light, was the most celebrated cult of the ancient Thracians. The sunrise symbolizes the overwhelming good or the sun triumphant over the evil, i.e. the darkness. Harmony is light and the enlightenment in Orpheus’s teachings leads to harmony. His followers and he perform other rites, as well, aimed at achieving harmony of the soul. In his work The Laws Plato describes the Orphic bloodless sacrifices. "..their offerings to the gods consisted, not of animals, but of cakes of meal and grain steeped in honey, and other such bloodless sacrifices, and from flesh they abstained as though it were unholy to eat it or to stain with blood the altars of the gods;…" Orpheus renounces sacrifices of animals and humans and in many cases he succeeds to change these rituals. Thus he imposes his concept that violence contradicts harmony.

Orpheus popularizes his teaching mainly through the art. We see him depicted on many amphorae and legends are told about him, how he fascinates the souls of humans, animals and gods by his music. He reaches the minds of his followers through his words, but his songs and lyre overwhelm with harmony the souls of all beings at once. The world can be conquered by sword. However, such a status quo cannot survive for long, as there is no harmony between everyone in it. Orpheus rules all nature by harmony.

There is unique truth in Orpheus’s concept for ruling over nature through harmony. It shows what the attitude of people towards environment should be, so that they live well in it even millennia ahead. It is scientifically proven that the destruction of one harmful for the crops species, leads to the appearance of another one, more resistant to the used chemical products. Moreover, their unreasonable application harms the environment and the human health. In organic farming fertilizers and pesticides are also used, but they contribute to the balanced usage of natural resources, so that resources could be restored. They strengthen the plant immunity; do not destruct pests, but significantly reduce their effects in a way, which has no negative effect on the environment and humans.

Katerina Dimitrova
Conceptual creator of the organic wines branded Thracian legends