process: his singing represented the use of oral transmission in archaic religion, his behaviour included aspects of gender transformation, he descended into and returned from the underworld, and his body was dismembered and the pieces thrown into a river, with his bones being more important than his flesh. The role of Orpheus/ as the initiator of the mysteries of and is attested in the myth of the Getae recorded by Herodotus, according to which they were enlightened by their priest-king-diviner, (Orpheus): according to the myth of , before he became king, he acquired a body of secret knowledge from, according to Greek writings, studying under Pythagoras or travelling to Egypt; this theme of a future king travelling to foreign lands where he becomes a disciple of wisdom and learns secret knowledge also exists among Indo-Iranian peoples, where it is a trait of noble figures in Indo-Aryan legends. After acquiring this secret knowledge, returned to his homeland, bringing enlightenment with him and earning the respect of notables and the people because he could interpret the omens. The king of the Getae, who himself ruled in oppositional terms, that is in terms of both familiar and alien, and of both nature and culture (a theme which again finds a parallel in Indo-Iranian customs, where the Indo-Aryan king was described in terms of agriculture, in opposition to the jungle), well-received , who conversed with him in the desert of the mountain, similarly to how ancient Indo-Aryan kings went into the jungle to obtain spiritual knowledge from a Brahmin or from the god Prajapati. When the king saw his authority over his subjects increasing because he was issuing orders in accordance to the gods' counsel thanks to the advice of , he befriended him and made high priest or his co-ruler (in the Getica, Jordanes records that was believed to have insight into a "most wonderful philosophy" and to have reigned supreme in Dacia, Thrace and Moesia); thus, the role of the priest-king was represented either both within himself or by the figure of the king and of , and a similar double institution existed among the ancient Indo-Aryans, where the political power of the Kshatriya warrior-king cooperated with the spiritual authority of the Brahmin hereditary priest. then was proclaimed a god once he had become a demigod due to him being born out of 's sacred marriage, and he went to reside in