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Orphic gold tables are key documents for the knowledge of rites and beliefs of Orphics, an atypical group that configured a highly original creed and that influenced powerfully over other Greek writers and thinkers.
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Instructions for the Netherworld Religions in the Graeco-Roman World Editors H. S. Versnel D. Frankfurter J. Hahn VOLUME 162 Instructions for the Netherworld The Orphic Gold Tablets By Alberto Bernabé Ana Isabel Jiménez San Cristóbal With an Iconographical Appendix by Ricardo Olmos and Illustrations by Sara Olmos Translated by Michael Chase LEIDEN • BOSTON 2008 The Spanish Ministry of Education and Science has given nancial support for editing this book (Consolider C Project HUM2006-09403/FILO). The translation has bene ted by a Grant for Translation and Publication in Foreign Languages of Scienti c Works by Spanish Authors of the Ministry of Culture of Spain, Directorate General for Books, Archives, and Libraries. This book is printed on acid-free paper. A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISSN 0927-7633 ISBN 978 90 04 16371 3 © A. Bernabé & A.I. Jiménez San Cristóbal English translation © Koninklijke Brill NV 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands christophoro riedweg, rervm orphicarvm qvaesitori acerrimo, sodali, amico μ μ μ CONTENTS Preface to the English Edition ................................................... xi Introduction ................................................................................ 0.1. The gold tablets .............................................................. 0.2. External aspects of the tablets ....................................... 0.3. The texts: a brief approximation of their contents ...... 0.4. Sketch of a typology of the tablets. Our grouping ....... 0.5. Editions ........................................................................... 1 1 2 4 6 8 Chapter One. Arrival in the Subterranean World (The Tablets from Hipponion, Entella, Petelia and Pharsalus and the Reduced Versions, L 1–6) ....................................................... Translation of tablets L 1–6 ............................................. Commentaries ......................................................................... 1.1. A textual problem ..................................................... 1.2. Mnemosyne ............................................................... 1.3. Crossing over to the other world ............................. 1.4. The cypress of the underworld ................................ 1.5. The thirst of the dead and the two fountains ......... 1.6. The soul faced by the guardians .............................. 1.7. Continuing journey .................................................. 1.8. The sacred way ........................................................ 1.9. Mystai and bacchoi ................................................... 1.10. The Orphic model and the Platonic model ............ 1.11. Instructions for use? .................................................. 1.12. Short versions: the Cretan tablets ............................ 1.13. The relation between the long and the shorter tablets ........