The Second Coming: The Characters of Orpheus and Christ as Seen by Clement of Alexandria

Abstract

My interest in this topic did not begin until late the quarter before I began writing. Through the classes of Professor Corrigan's Classical Mythology and guest professor Mr. Tjopkis' Roman Civilization, I began to wonder why Christianity reached the predominance it did given the situation in which it grew up. What appealed to the Greeks about the suffering Christ (there were older, more established suffering saviors around), and why and how did Christianity overcome the many obstacles presented to it in the early centuries of this era? As I pondered these questions in relationship to the classes I was attending, the idea of a SIP and of exploring this more in depth occurred. The two original questions would have been too large a scope for anyone historical study, let alone an undergraduate thesis. And now, after much narrowing and revising of the topic, I have written a paper exploring just one figure, Orpheus, in relationship to Christ in just one author, Clement of Alexandria. Although the original intentions of my idea have long since been lost and/or changed, I now am able to satisfy some of my curiosity about those religious questions in this paper and hopefully present some new insight, if not ideas, on this subject.