The "Orphic" Gold Tablets and Greek Religion: Further Along the Path.

[LyricFox]

Title: The "Orphic" Gold Tablets and Greek Religion: Further Along the Path.
Author(s): Radcliffe G. Edmonds III (ed.)
Publisher: Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press
Publication Date: 2010
ISBN: 0521518318
ISBN-13: 978-0521518314
Current Price and More Info from Amazon

From the Bryn Mawr Classic Review:
Edmonds has produced a coherent volume of six previously published and five new papers about what were once called “Orphic” gold tablets, authored by both prominent and less established scholars (Alberto Bernabé, Hans Dieter Betz, Claude Calame, Thomas M. Dousa, Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, Chistopher A. Faraone, Fritz Graf, Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui, Ana I. Jiménez Cristóbal, Dirk Obbink, Christoph Riedweg, Yannis Z. Tzifopoulos). These inscribed tablets, which have been discovered since 1879 in graves throughout South Italy, Crete, and Thessaly, have no parallel in the manuscript tradition, and they are now essential sources for the knowledge of Greek religion, especially concerning personal eschatology and mystery cults. Edmonds has added in this volume a new critical edition and original translations of the Greek texts of every known gold leaf (part I), along with a synoptic description of the graves in which each tablet has been discovered. What follows is a useful history of scholarship, a list of the principal editions and a concordance with other reference editions. The whole book is endowed with an index nominum (English words), an index locorum and an exhaustive bibliography (800 references). Papers previously published in other languages are translated into English, and all papers have been updated in order to make cross-references possible as well as to correlate with the reference system of Edmonds’ new edition.

Read the full review at the Bryn Mawr Classic Review web site.

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 This collection brings together a number of previously published and unpublished studies from scholars around the world, making accessible to a wider audience some of the new methodologies being applied to the study of these tablets.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



Special Notes:


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Discussion and reviews of this book are welcome in this thread. If you've read the book, please tell us what you think of it and why.

[Nomad of Nowhere]

Title: The "Orphic" Gold Tablets and Greek Religion: Further Along the Path.
Author(s): Radcliffe G. Edmonds III (ed.)
Publisher: Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press
Publication Date: 2010
ISBN: 0521518318
ISBN-13: 978-0521518314
Current Price and More Info from Amazon

From the Bryn Mawr Classic Review:
Edmonds has produced a coherent volume of six previously published and five new papers about what were once called “Orphic” gold tablets, authored by both prominent and less established scholars (Alberto Bernabé, Hans Dieter Betz, Claude Calame, Thomas M. Dousa, Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, Chistopher A. Faraone, Fritz Graf, Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui, Ana I. Jiménez Cristóbal, Dirk Obbink, Christoph Riedweg, Yannis Z. Tzifopoulos). These inscribed tablets, which have been discovered since 1879 in graves throughout South Italy, Crete, and Thessaly, have no parallel in the manuscript tradition, and they are now essential sources for the knowledge of Greek religion, especially concerning personal eschatology and mystery cults. Edmonds has added in this volume a new critical edition and original translations of the Greek texts of every known gold leaf (part I), along with a synoptic description of the graves in which each tablet has been discovered. What follows is a useful history of scholarship, a list of the principal editions and a concordance with other reference editions. The whole book is endowed with an index nominum (English words), an index locorum and an exhaustive bibliography (800 references). Papers previously published in other languages are translated into English, and all papers have been updated in order to make cross-references possible as well as to correlate with the reference system of Edmonds’ new edition.

Read the full review at the Bryn Mawr Classic Review web site.

Additional Description:
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.

Special Notes:


Legal Notes: Some description text and item pictures in this post may come from Amazon.com and are used by permission. The Cauldron is an Amazon Affiliate and purchases made through the Amazon links in this message help support The Cauldron.

Discussion and reviews of this book are welcome in this thread. If you've read the book, please tell us what you think of it and why.

I've read articles on the Orphic cult by the same author before. For instance, "Tearing Apart the Zagreus Myth" which is available on PDF. He has a lot of good information, but he has an inexplicable reluctance to call something "Orphic", even when it clearly expresses the theological ideas that were associated with Orphism- which the golden tablets clearly do. One even famously reads: "Life. Death. Life. Truth. Za(greus?). Dio(nysus). Orphics”.

He also seems to needlessly disregard anything written by Greek philosophers about the Orphics, saying that they were all simply attributing their own Platonic ideas to the Orphic cult. I tend to find it a lot easier to follow the arguments of those who disagree, like Alberto Bernabe.