orphism

1. (religion, Ancient Greece) A religious movement in antiquity, supposed to have been founded by Orpheus.Examples: "1974, The Emerson Society Quarterly, Issues 74-81, Emerson Society, page 125, Thoreau's acquaintance with Orphism dated from at least as early as the summer of 1840, when he read Ralph Cudworth's True Intellectual System of the Universe and took notes on some of Cudworth's references to the Orphic religion."; "1995, Dan Urman, Paul Virgil McCracken Flesher, Ancient Synagogues: Historical Analysis and Archaeological Discovery, Part 2, E. J. Brill, page 355, The oracular poems produced by Orphism and attributed to Orpheus himself, similarly reveal neither messiah nor messianic age."; "The origins of Orphism are obscure, although they seem to date back at least to the sixth century B.C.E. Orphic ideology mainly concerned the mysteries of Dionysos, which many Greeks took very seriously."

2. (art) A minor Cubist art movement focusing on pure abstraction and bright colours.Examples: "“Orphism,” he writes wearily, italicizing the word for effect, “and now we speak of Orphism. Or rather, we do not speak of it. All that we've tried to say has only clouded the question.” The same day Goth's article appeared, two separate caricatures of Orphism also showed up in the popular press—one in Le rire (figure 1.26), the other in Le journal amusant[…]"Synonyms: Orphic cubism