Anaximenes (anak-SI-muneez) was reportedly a pupil of Anaximander's and the third in the trio of great Milesian philosophers.  He rejected most of Anaximander's theories about the world and the surrounding universe.  He felt that it was self-evident that the world was a flat object, not a cylinder, and he rejected the idea of the earth just hanging in a void of space.  Like Thales, Anaximenes looked to a less mysterious source of all things, to a primary material substance foundational to all things, one more readily present in our observable world.

Anaximenes concluded that the primal substance of life was air or mist (pneuma) – an invisible substance that filled all the universe.  It could be both the source of all things, and yet one of the created things itself – because of its power to change form.  Here too, it was probably natural for Anaximenes to accord air the honor of being the primal substance or underlying material of all things.  Greeks commonly understood air to be the ‘breath’ or ‘spirit’ (also pneuma) of life, the source of the soul, and so it was logical to think that air might be the primal substance of all things, the soul or spirit of all life.

In any case, he argued that through a process of becoming more or less dense, air could change form.  Thus fire was air in its most rarified form.  The natural progress from there as air thickened was:  wind, clouds, water, earth, and stone.  Also, the soul quality of air (as the Greeks understood it) could explain movement, events, life itself.

Side by side with the Olympian pantheon existed a number of religious ideas and practices of the Greeks.  Some of it came in with the Doric invaders of the 1100s BC and some of it either predated all Aryan Greek invasions – or else came in later from the East.  These tended not to be so orderly but instead seemed to anticipate the disorder of life caused by gods who needed to be appeased directly (through sacrifices) and often.

Among the Greeks one of the most persistent and widely popular of such non-Olympian religions was Dionysianism.  This was a rather wild fertility cult that perhaps predated the Greeks – a cult which managed to get a quite a hold on the Greeks at some point in their history.

The Thracian story of Dionysus/Bacchus seems to have developed many versions over the centuries--especially as the story was assimilated into Greek theology.  It may have originally included blood sacrifice – perhaps even human as well as animal.  Indeed part of the original Dionysian myth brings the hero Dionysus to a bizarre death at the hands of female devotees, who literally tore him limb from limb in a religious frenzy.

One of the major versions tells us that Dionysus/Bacchus (called also Zagreus) was the "illegitimate" son of the god Zeus and the goddess Persephone. He was torn to pieces and eaten as a boy by the Titans--set up in their fury by a jealous Hera, the wife of Zeus. The Titans then themselves took on divinity from such a grisly meal. But in turn, the Titans were struck by lightning--and turned to ashes.

But from the ashes of the Titans grew the human race: which is thus part divine (Zagreus) and part evil (the Titans)!

But also: Bacchus' heart was not eaten but given to Zeus, who used it to bring Bacchus back to life. Some versions of the story tell that this happened as Zeus swallowed the heart himself.  Other versions tell that this happened when the heart was given to Semele--who swallowed it and gave birth to Dionysus.

Another version of the story tells us that Dionysus was reputedly the son of Zeus and Semele (Phrygian goddess of the "earth" or "Earth Mother").  By mysterious circumstances, Semele was destroyed by Zeus' power of lightning--along with the boy.  But Zeus rescued the boy from the ashes, taking him up and encasing him in his thigh--from which he was reborn later in his maturity.

According to most accounts, Dionysus traveled the world to teach the cultivation of grapes (and to spread his worship among men).

According to several different accounts, Dionysus was killed by either a group of crazed women--or by his own his own mother--in a frenzy of the very worship which he introduced to the people.

Thus the tearing and eating of raw flesh of a sacrificial animal (symbol of Bacchus) was understood to impart divinity to the devotee--as it did the Titans.

Being a fertility cult, it was a rite closely associated with the growing season – especially of the grape, the source of the Greek's precious wine.  Drunkenness was thus a natural accompaniment to the festivities.

It seems however that gradually this worship form was toned down by the Greeks – until it became a respectable worship form involving even the Greek aristocracy (who were always the bastions of original Olympian worship).   Indeed, it was the refinement of Dionysianism that produced Greek drama – for it was at the Dionysian festivals that the famous Greek playwrights (Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, etc.) offered their new theatrical pieces to their Greek audiences.

Orphism seems to have been part of that effort to tame Dionysianism.  But even this later development within Dionysianism is so clouded with mythology that it is hard to tell how or where it all started.  The figure of Orpheus stands at the heart of this Dionysian "movement."  There may have actually been a religious reformer who gave rise to the Orphic myth.  But by and large, the Orpheus that has come down to us in story or myth seems to belong to the world of the gods rather than men.

As an adventurer, he took part in the Argonaut expedition of Jason--where he played a key role with his music making.

Later stories have him as a wandering philosopher in search of knowledge.

He married Eurydice, who was bitten by a serpent and died.  Being inconsolable over this loss, Orpheus went down to Hades to get her back.  He wooed her from the gods with his beautiful music--who let her go.  But they did so on the promise that she would not look back on her way out of Hades.  But she failed in this important stipulation--and was returned to Hades as a ghost.

As a result, Orpheus vowed to have nothing more to do with women. But the Thracian women (or frenzied Maenads?), during a Dionysian orgy, tore him apart--the same fate that met Dionysus. (Beware of Thracian women!)

Ultimately Orphism developed into a theological refinement of the Bacchic religion.  At first it was strongly persecuted by Bacchic priests.  But eventually it became established within the Bacchic system.

Orphic teachings that began to come forth over time had much in common with Hinduism and Buddhism (perhaps from mutual Aryan roots).  Orphism held a sense of dualism about human existence: 1) the earthly or physical existence (derived from the Titans) and 2) the heavenly or spiritual existence (derived from Zagreus or Bacchus or Dionysius).

Within Orphism, earthly life was seen only as a merciless round of pain and trouble (product of evil).  Though we humans belong to the heavens, to the stars (as semi-gods), we are also bound to life by a cycle of death and rebirth.  The goal of life: escape from earthly existence and release to eternal life.

But the fate for most folks was really not escape--but rather a period of death (and torment) and then rebirth--according to the merit of one's earthly deeds.

Thus Orphism held much concern about the after-life.  It included instructions on how to enter the after-world.  Likewise, it sought to reform Bacchic or Dionysian worship in order to increase one's spiritual nature--and diminish the portion of one's physical being so as to become one with Bacchus (or Dionysus). 

Orphism shared many features in common with another worship form found further to the East:  Hinduism.  Orphism developed a theology of reincarnation and transmigration of the souls through endless cycles of birth, growth, decay and death – in which escape from the grip of this eternal dance was the desired goal of the Orphic devotee (as with Hinduism's offshoot, Buddhism)

Orphism, as a worship or religious form also had various kinds of purity rituals designed to help the devotee avoid certain types of contaminating influences.  Thus the most rigorous practitioner avoided animal food (as with the Hindus) except for sacrificial rituals.  Further, despite its connection with wild Dionysianism, the Orphic devotee took wine only as a sacramental act--as a symbol indicative of the mystical enthusiasm of one who sought union with the god Bacchus--or Eros!

Orphism shared many features in common with another worship form found further to the East:  Hinduism.  Orphism developed a theology of reincarnation and transmigration of the souls through endless cycles of birth, growth, decay and death – in which escape from the grip of this eternal dance was the desired goal of the Orphic devotee (as with Hinduism's offshoot, Buddhism)