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. The recent discovery of some tablets has forced a noteworthy modification of some points of view and a review ofthe different hypothesis proposed about them. The book presents a complete edition of the texts, their translation and some fundamental keys for their interpretation, in an attempt at updating our current knowledge on Orphic ideas about the soul and the Afterlife stated in those texts. The work is improved with an appendix of iconographic annotations in which some plastic representations in drawings are reproduced related to the universe of tablets, selected and commented on by Ricardo Olmos.

Table of Contents:
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 I. 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 1.14. Gender hesitations II. A RITUAL FOR THE DEAD: THE TABLETS FROM PELINNA (L 7AB) TRANSLATION OF TABLETS 7AB FROM PELINNA COMMENTARIES 2.1. Structure of the text 2.2. A death that is life 2.3. The soul liberated by Dionysus 2.4. The formulas of the animal fallen in the milk 2.5. Wine 2.6. The rites completed III. BEST WISHES FOR ACCOMPANYING THE SOUL TO THE OTHER WORLD: A TABLET FROM THURII (L. 8) TRANSLATION OF TABLET 8 FROM THURII COMMENTARIES 3.1. The difficult reading of verse 2 3.2. The formula of salutation 3.3. The great experience IV. BEFORE PERSEPHONE: MORE TABLETS FROM THURII (L 9-10AB) TRANSLATION OF TABLETS 9 AND 10AB FROM THURII COMMENTARIES 4.1. The introductory formula 4.2. The reference to punishment 4.3. Fate and the lightning of Zeus 4.4. Two variants at the end: a) the supplication to Persephone 4.5. b) The second variant: the cycle, the crown, and the lap of the goddess V. A TABLET IN IMPERIAL ROME (L 11) TRANSLATION OF TABLET 11 FROM ROME COMMENTARIES 5.1. Change of person in the sacred formula 5.2. The deceased woman called by name VI. A «WORD SEARCH PUZZLE» FOR DECEIVING NON-INITIATES: THE «GREAT» TABLET FROM THURII (L 12) TRANSLATION OF TABLET 12 FROM THURII COMMENTARIES 6.1. A disconcerting discovery 6.2. A new reading proposal 6.3. Sacred formulas among meaningless letters. Some parallels 6.4. Reconstruction of the religious background VII. PASSWORDS TO ACCEDE TO THE MEADOW OF THE BLESSED AND A PRAYER TO PERSEPHONE: THE TABLETS FROM PHERAI (L 13 AND 13A) TRANSLATION OF THE TABLETS FROM PHERAI (L 13 AND 13A) COMMENTARIES 7.1. The passwords 7.2. The names used as passwords 7.3. The effects of the passwords VIII. OTHER TABLETS (L 14-16) TRANSLATION OF TABLETS L 14-16 COMMENTARIES 8.1. Greetings to Plato and Persephone: tablets from Milopotamus (L 15), Rethymno (L 14), and Heraclea (L 15a) 8.2. Identifications of the mystai; tablets from Pella and other places 8.3. The tablet from Manisa and other documents that cannot be attributed to the Orphics IX. THE SOUL'S FINAL DESTINY. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS 9.1. Recapitulation. Mentions of the soul's destiny 9.2. Previous conditions 9.3. The scenario of the happy life 9.4. Characteristics of the afterlife X. THE CENTRAL QUESTION: ARE THE GOLD LEAVES ORPHIC? 10.1. Discussions of the religious atmosphere of the tablets 10.2. Argument from authorship 10.3. The Geography of the tablets 10.4. Belonging to a mysteric ambiance 10.5. Purity and justice 10.6. The gods in the tablets and in other Orphic texts 10.7. Iconography 10.8. Colophon XI. PARALLELS TO THE TABLETS IN OTHER CULTURES 11.1. Introduction 11.2. The Egyptian «Book of the Dead» 11.3. A Hittite parallel: the «Great voyage of the soul». 11.4. Indian parallels 11.5. Parallels in the Iranian world 11.6. «Tablets» in the Italian environment 11.7. A tablet in Gallia 11.8. The 'Punic' tablets 11.9. Echoes in modern time XII. LITERARY QUESTIONS: CHARACTERISTICS, MODELS AND ARCHETYPES 12.1. Problems of a literary nature 12.2. Functional texts 12.3. The possible model of the tablets 12.4. The tablets' relation to ritual 12. 5 Various uses of the tablets 12.6. The relation of use and forms of appearance or with thematic motifs APPENDIX I. EDITION OF THE TABLETS APPENDIX II. ICONOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON THE ORPHIC TABLETS Selection of illustrations and commentaries by Ricardo Olmos, CSIC; Drawings by Sara Olmos Index locorum