Gold Tablets

Courtney J. P. Friesen explores shifting boundaries of ancient religions by way of the reception of a popular tragedy, Euripides’ Bacchae . As a play staging political crises provoked by the arrival of the “foreign” god Dionysus and his ecstatic cult, audiences and readers found resonances with their own cultural moments. This dramatic deity became emblematic of exuberant and liberating spirituality and, at the same time, a symbol of imperial conquest. Thus, readings of the Bacchae frequently foreground conflicts between religious autonomy and political authority, and between ethnic diversity and social cohesion. This cross-disciplinary study traces appropriations and evocations of this drama ranging from the fifth century BCE through Byzantium not only among “pagans” but also Jews and Christians. Writers variously articulated their religious visions over against Dionysus, often while paradoxically adopting the god’s language and symbols. Consequently, imitation and emulation are at times indistinguishable from polemics and subversion.

In Southern Italy/ Magna Graecia and many find spots across the ancient Greek and Roman world, a peculiar type of grave goods has been retrieved: small inscribed gold tablets, dating from between c. 400 BC to 300 AD. These leaflets were meant to accompany the dead on their journey to the Netherworld as a passport and guide, as the ancient Greek inscriptions state.

The owners of such "passports" presumably had Orphic-bacchic background, the content provides information about the ritual context and belief system of their communities.

This evidence constitutes a curious material and literary source. Unlike other text sources, the inscribed gold tablets were retrieved and acknowledged relatively late from documented excavations; substantial evidence has been found since the 1970s and still comes to light, so research is still ongoing and comparatively 'young'. Diverse textual categories and levels of significance can be distinguished and analysed.

My thesis gives a basic introduction and establishes a critical edition for some selected gold tablets, complete with a German translation. I have compared the tablets with related material and literary sources, e.g. from the Black Sea area (orphic bone tablets) and from Egypt (books of the dead). In a separate chapter, I summarise the current scholarship and on-going research debate. I conclude with an outlook to the future investigation, "further along the path".

My supervisor was Univ.-Prof. Dr. Stefan Büttner, M.A. (University of Vienna).

This text is written in German language. I have submitted this thesis as Bachelor Thesis I at the University of Vienna, Department of Classical Philology, in June 2012.

This article offers an interpretation of the enigmatic “kid-in-milk” formula which appears in four of the “Orphic” gold tablets from Thurii and Pelinna. These tiny tablets accompanied the dead in their graves and contained texts of various lengths which were believed to help the deceased on his or her journey to the otherworld. Many see the tablets as Orphic texts, but this question has been highly debated during the last century. The four tablets in question, from two sites in southern Italy and Greece, tell how the deceased has suffered in life, but that he or she has attained immortality through initiation. The immortalization was referred to and summed up in the “kid-in-milk” formula, where, it is argued, milk was a direct reference to immortality. Thus milk in this eschatological context is a symbol of immortality which served as a focal point for both the text and the initates.

Zusammenfassung: Dieser Beitrag soll aufzeigen, dass eine chthonische und eschatologische Dimension der dionysischen Göttlichkeit in verschiedenen Riten und Kulten des Gottes nachgewiesen werden kann und dabei keinesfalls mysterienexklusiv ist. Dazu soll der archäologische Befund, der Dionysos mit dem Jenseits und eschatologischen Hoffnungen in Verbindung bringt, vorgestellt und untersucht werden. Darauf aufbauend soll belegt werden, dass diese jenseitige Dimension sich sowohl in Riten mit privatem Kern, hier am Beispiel der Oreibasia, als auch in Kultfeiern des öffentlichen Festkanons, wie den Anthesterien, zeigt. Abschließend soll dann Dionysos' Funktion in den eleusinischen Mysterien untersucht werden.

Abstract: This paper aims to show that a chthonic and eschatological dimension of dionysiac divinity can be found in various rites and cults of the god and that this is not exclusive for the mysteries. Recent archaeological evidence connecting Dionysos with the afterlife and eschatological expectations will be introduced and analyzed. This dimension manifests itself in rites with a private intent (e.g. the Oreibasia) as well as public celebrations of the festival calendar (e.g. the Anthesteria). An analysis of Dionysos' function in the eleusinian mysteries concludes the overview.

This book offers a concise whole-encompassing definition of Orphism through bringing together all of its main components in a single study, highlighting both parallels and divergences between the Gold Tablets, the Derveni Papyrus and the Orphic Rhapsodies, and a large variety of non-Orphic sources referring to Orphic ideas, practices, or texts. It also includes a reconstruction of the Orphic Rhapsodies along with a translation and commentary.

The journal Trends in Classics and the accompanying Supplementary Volumes publish innovative, interdisciplinary work which brings to the study of Greek and Latin texts the insights and methods of related disciplines, such as narratology, intertextuality, reader-response criticism, and oral poetics. Both publications seek to publish research across the full range of classical antiquity.

Section of: Giovanna Rocca and Domenico Giuseppe Muscianisi. La lamina aurea Schøyen MS 5236.
Abstract: a linguistic and poetic commentary of two imperial-age “twin” inscriptions in Pisidia (rupestral) and on a gold tablet. The text reveals influences from the Greek tragedy and some hints of Orphism, concerning the travel of the soul in the afterlife.

Resumen: Según Hom. Od. 10.492-495, el alma de Tiresias obtuvo de Perséfone el privilegio de conservar su νόος y sus φρένες en el Hades. Como en dos laminillas de oro se atribuye a los guardianes del agua de Memoria la posesión de φρένες, es posible que la idea tenga su base en el pasaje de la Odisea, entre otros. De hecho, varios elementos del episodio (asociación entre memoria, verdad y bebida; prohibición de acercarse al líquido, sangre o agua; posición destacada entre los muertos) parecen haber sido empleados para el texto de dichas laminillas, aunque reorganizados con otro sentido diferente. Palabras clave: Nekyia, Hades, dicción formular, laminillas de oro, cultos mistéricos.
Abstract:
According to Hom. Od. 10.492-495, the soul of Tiresias gained the privilege of keeping his νόος and his φρένες in Hades from Persephone. Since in two gold tablets the guardians of the water of Memory are attributed the possession of φρένες, it is possible that the idea is based on the Odyssean passage, among others. In fact, several elements in the episode (association between memory, truth and drinking; prohibition of approaching to the liquid, blood or water; prominent position among the dead) seem to have been employed for the text of those tablets, but rearranged with a different sense.