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Their reconstruction is extremely controversial, since even the order of fragments is disputed. They include a quotation of the philosopher Heraclitus.

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The first surviving columns of the text are less well preserved, but talk about occult ritual practices, including sacrifices to the Erinyes (Furies), how to remove daimones that become a problem, and the beliefs of the magi.

As he also makes clear in the well recognized verse: for, having ordered them to 'put doors to their ears,' he says that he is not legislating for the many who are pure in hearing … and in the following verse … In fact he is speaking mystically, and from the very first word all the way to the last. This poem is strange and riddling to people, though did not intend to tell contentious riddles but rather great things in riddles. The interpreter of the poem argues that Orpheus did not intend any of these stories in a literal sense, but they are allegorical in nature. However, this part of the story must have continued in a second roll which is now lost. Zeus would then have raped Demeter, who would have given birth to Persephone, who marries Dionysus. Zeus gains his power by hearing oracles from the sanctuary of Nyx, who tells him 'all the oracles which afterwards he was to put into effect.' At the end of the text, Zeus rapes his mother Rhea, which, in the Orphic theogony, will lead to the birth of Demeter. Cronus follows and takes the kingship from Uranus, but he is likewise succeeded by Zeus, whose power over the whole universe is celebrated. The theogony described in the poem has Nyx (Night) give birth to Uranus (Sky), who becomes the first king. The interpreter claims that this shows that Orpheus wrote his poem as an allegory. The poem begins with the words 'Close the doors, you uninitiated', a famous admonition to secrecy, also quoted by Plato. Fragments of the poem are quoted, followed by interpretations by the main author of the text, who tries to show that the poem does not mean what it literally says. The main part of the text is a commentary on a hexameter poem ascribed to Orpheus, which was used in the mystery cult of Dionysus by the 'Orphic initiators'. The papyrus is kept in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. Many smaller fragments are still not placed. However, this has made it extremely difficult to read, since the ink is black and the background is black too in addition, it survives in the form of 266 fragments, which are conserved under glass in descending order of size, and has had to be painstakingly reconstructed. It survived in the humid Greek soil, which is unfavorable to the conservation of papyri, because it was carbonized (hence dried) in the nobleman's funeral pyre. The scroll was carefully unrolled and the fragments joined together, thus forming 26 columns of text. The archaeologists Petros Themelis and Maria Siganidou recovered the top parts of the charred papyrus scroll and fragments from ashes atop the slabs of the tomb the bottom parts had burned away in the funeral pyre. It might in fact be the oldest surviving papyrus written in Greek regardless of provenance. It is the oldest surviving manuscript in the Western tradition and the only known ancient papyrus found in Greece proper. The site is a nobleman's grave in a necropolis that was part of a rich cemetery belonging to the ancient city of Lete. The roll was found on 15 January 1962 at a site in Derveni, Macedonia, northern Greece, on the road from Thessaloniki to Kavala.

The Derveni papyrus – Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki The poem itself was composed near the end of the 5th century BC, and 'in the fields of Greek religion, the sophistic movement, early philosophy, and the origins of literary criticism it is unquestionably the most important textual discovery of the 20th century.' While interim editions and translations were published over the subsequent years, the manuscript as a whole was finally published in 2006. The roll dates to around 340 BC, during the reign of Philip II of Macedon, making it Europe's oldest surviving manuscript. It is a philosophical treatise that is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem, a theogony concerning the birth of the gods, produced in the circle of the philosopher Anaxagoras.

The Derveni papyrus is an ancient Macedonian papyrus roll that was found in 1962. 340 BC, from an end 5th century BC originalĬommentary on a hexameter poem ascribed to Orpheus

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