Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets

ISBN-13: 9780415508025 / Angielski / Twarda / 2013 / 284 str.

Fritz Graf; Sarah Iles Johnston

Opis

Fascinating texts written on small gold tablets and deposited in graves provide a unique source of information about what the Greeks and Romans believed regarding the afterlife, and how they could influence it. These texts, which stretch from the fifth century BCE to the second century CE, have provoked debate for almost a century and a half. The tablets belonged to those who had been initiated into the mysteries of Dionysus; the words the tablets carried drew upon poems ascribed to the extraordinary singer and sage Orpheus.

In this new edition of "Ritual Texts for the Afterlife," Graf and Johnston present" "additional finds and engage with recent interpretations. After providing the Greek text and a translation of all the known tablets, the authors analyze their role in the mysteries of Dionysus, and present an outline of the myths concerning the origins of humanity and of the sacred texts that the Greeks ascribed to Orpheus. In addition to their earlier appendix of related ancient texts in translation, the authors offer appendices on similar gold tablets from Roman Palestine, the tablets from Pherae and their mythic context, and a fresh look at the contested category of "Orphism." Providing the first book-length coverage of these enigmatic texts in English, "Ritual Texts for the Afterlife "will remain" "essential to the study of ancient Greek religion.

Spis treści

List of illustrations, Preface to the first edition, Preface to the second edition, 1 The tablets: An edition and translation, Concordance, 2 A history of scholarship on the tablets, 3 The myth of Dionysus, 4 The eschatology behind the tablets, 5 Dionysiac mystery cults and the Gold Tablets, 6 Orpheus, his poetry, and sacred texts, Appendix 1: Orphism in the twenty-first century, Appendix 2: The tablets from Pherae, Appendix 3: The tablets from Roman Palestine, Appendix 4: Additional Bacchic texts, 1 The Olbia bone tablets, 2 Bacchic inscriptions from Olbia, 3 The Gurôb Papyrus, 4 The Edict of Ptolemy IV Philopator, Notes, Bibliography, Subject index, Index of ancient texts

O autorze

Graf, Fritz; Johnston, Sarah; Graf, Fritz; Johnston, Sarah Iles