The 'Orphic' gold tablets and Greek religion : further along the path

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 This collection brings together a number of previously published and unpublished studies from scholars around the world, making accessible to a wider audience some of the new methodologies being applied to the study of these tablets.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.

• List of contributors p. vii
• Acknowledgements p. viii
• Note on abberivations p. x
• Part I The Tablet Texts p. 1
• 1 Who are you? A brief history of the scholarship p. 3 Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
• 2 The ôOrphicö gold tablets: Texts and translations, with critical apparatus and tables p. 15 Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
• Part II Texts and Contexts p. 51
• 3 Text and ritual: The Corpus Eschatologicum of the Orphics p. 53 Fritz Graf
• 4 Are the ôOrphicö gold leaves Orphic? p. 68 Alberto Bernabé and Ana I. Jiménez San Cristóbal
• 5 ôA child of Earth am I and of starry Heavenö: Concerning the anthropology of the Orphic gold tablets p. 102 Hans Dieter Betz and Maria Sturm
• 6 Common motifs in the ôOrphicö B tablets and Egyptian funerary texts: Continuity or convergence? p. 120 Thomas M. Dousa
• 7 Center, periphery, or peripheral center: A Cretan connection for the gold lamellae of Crete p. 165 Yannis Z. Tzifopoulos
• Part III Semiotic and Narrative Analyses p. 201
• 8 Funerary gold lamellae and Orphic papyrus commentaries: Same use, different purpose p. 203 Claude Calame and Sarah Melker
• 9 Initiation - death - underworld: Narrative and ritual in the gold leaves p. 219 Christoph Riedweg
• 10 Sacred scripture or oracles for the dead? The semiotic situation of the ôOrphicö gold tablets p. 257 Radcliffe G. Edmonds III
• 11 Dialogues of immortality from the Iliad to the gold leaves p. 271 Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui
• 12 Poetry and performance in the Orphic gold leaves p. 291 Dirk Obbink
• 13 Rushing into milk: New perspectives on the gold tablets p. 310 Christopher A. Faraone
• Compiled Bibliography p. 331
• Index p. 372
• Index locorum p. 375