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The main purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in the scholarship on the Orphic Musaeus, by focusing on the value of his poetry and the problems of his genealogy. This figure was invented in the late VI century BC in Athens within the context of the Orphic tradition and served as an embodiment of a specific type of literature. The chresmologist Onomacritus published a collection of Musaeus’s oracles, which were considered by Herodotus as less reliable than Bakis’s: Pausanias’s negative judgement on the poetry of Musaeus was probably derived from Herodotus’s remarks. During the Classical period, Musaeus was both provided with a genealogy and linked to Eumolpus, with the aim of connecting the Orphic and the Eleusinian traditions. The structure of this genealogy resulted in a debate between Athens and the Eumolpidae, who did not accept Museaus’s primacy. As a consequence of this debate, Musaeus’ genealogy was further complicated starting from the IV century BC.