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 This collection brings together a number of previously published and unpublished studies from scholars around the world, making accessible to a wider audience some of the new methodologies being applied to the study of these tablets.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

Tablets (Paleography) --- Tablettes (Paléographie) --- Greece --- Grèce --- Religion. --- Religion --- Tablettes (Paléographie) --- Grèce --- Waxen tablets --- Writing tablets --- Diptychs --- Inscriptions --- Paleography --- Writing materials and instruments --- Arts and Humanities --- History --- Lamellae aureae Orphicae. --- Orphicae lamellae --- Lamine d'oro orfiche --- Orphic gold leaves --- Orphic gold tablets --- Paléographie grecque --- Orphisme --- Manuscrits grecs --- Paléographie grecque

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This book was first published in 2004. Plato, Aristophanes and the creators of the 'Orphic' gold tablets employ the traditional tale of a journey to the realm of the dead to redefine, within the mythic narrative, the boundaries of their societies. Rather than being the relics of a faded ritual tradition or the products of Orphic influence, these myths can only reveal their meanings through a close analysis of the specific ways in which each author makes use of the tradition. For these authors, myth is an agonistic discourse, neither a kind of sacred dogma nor a mere literary diversion, but rather a flexible tool that serves the wide variety of uses to which it is put. The traditional tale of the journey to the Underworld in Greek mythology is neither simple nor single, but each telling reveals a perspective on the cosmos, a reflection of the order of this world through the image of the other.

Dionysia --- Mythology, Greek --- Mythology, Greek, in literature --- Voyages to the otherworld --- Voyages to the otherworld in literature --- Subterranean voyages --- Underworld, Voyages to the --- Voyages to the underworld --- Voyages, Imaginary --- Greek mythology --- Orphic mysteries --- Orphism --- Cults --- Aristophanes. --- Plato. --- Mythology, Greek. --- Voyages to the otherworld. --- Dionysia. --- Mythology, Greek, in literature. --- Voyages to the otherworld in literature. --- Lamellae aureae Orphicae. --- Orphicae lamellae --- Lamine d'oro orfiche --- Orphic gold leaves --- Orphic gold tablets --- Arts and Humanities --- History --- Thematology --- Comparative literature --- Aristophanes [Comicus] --- Plato