The 'Orphic' Gold Tablets and Greek Religion
Further along the Path

Examines new methodologies used in the study of these tablets. Includes an updated edition and translation of the tablet texts.

Radcliffe G. Edmonds (Edited by)

9780521518314, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 January 2011

396 pages
23.6 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.77 kg

The 'Orphic' gold tablets, tiny scraps of gold foil found in graves throughout the ancient Greek world, are some of the most fascinating and baffling pieces of evidence for ancient Greek religion. This collection brings together a number of previously published and unpublished studies from scholars around the world, making accessible to a wider audience some of the new methodologies being applied to the study of these tablets. The volume also contains an updated edition of the tablet texts, reflecting the most recent discoveries and accompanied by English translations and critical apparatus. This survey of trends in the scholarship, with an up-to-date bibliography, not only provides an introduction to the serious study of the tablets, but also illuminates their place within scholarship on ancient Greek religion.

Acknowledgements
List of contributors
Part I. The Tablet Texts: 1. Who are you? A brief history of the scholarship Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
2. The 'Orphic' gold tablets - texts and translations, with critical apparatus and tables Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
Part II. Texts and Contexts: 3. Text and ritual: the corpus eschatologicum of the Orphics Fritz Graf
4. Are the Orphic gold leaves Orphic? Alberto Bernabé and Ana Jiménez San Cristobal
5. 'A Child Of Earth Am I And Of Starry Heaven' concerning the anthropology of man in the Orphic gold tablets Hans Dieter Betz (translated by Maria Sturm)
6. Common motifs in the 'Orphic' B tablets and Egyptian funerary texts: continuity or convergence? Thomas M. Dousa
7. Centre, periphery, or peripheral centre: a Cretan connection for the gold lamellae of Crete Yannis Tzifopoulos
Part III. Semiotic and Narrative Analyses: 8. 'Orphic' invocations and commentaries: funerary transpositions of religious discourse Claude Calame (translated by Sarah Melker)
9. Initiation - death - underworld: narrative and ritual in the gold leaves Christoph Riedweg
10. Sacred scripture or oracles for the dead: the semiotic situation of the 'Orphic' gold tablets Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
11. Dialogues of immortality from the Iliad to the golden leaves Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui
12. Poetry and performance in the Orphic gold leaves Dirk Obbink
13. Rushing into milk: new perspectives on the gold tablets Christopher Faraone
Index
Index locorum
Bibliography of scholarship on the tablets.

Subject Areas: Religion & beliefs [HR], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1]