Abstract
Five seminar sessions will be devoted entirely to an exceptional unpublished Greek text spanning 255 verses and preserved in the first six columns of the recto of a large roll of Greek magic papyrus (IIIrd-IVth century AD), unearthed in July 2022 in Luxor West (Egypt). Presented in the title as "purification ritecomposed by Orpheus", it is the first known example of complete ritual instructions for purification purposes (katharmos), a type of text traditionally attributed to the legendary Orpheus. Its structure, ritual lexicon, magical and theological content, and its relationship to the often obscure fragments of the Orphic tradition pose unprecedented problems.
