Poésie orphique et rituel initiatique.

Abstract

Orphic Poetry and Initiation Ritual. Elements of a « Sacred Discourse » ("Hieros Logos") in the Gold Leaves Many of the fascinating little gold leaves which have come to light so far are characterized by a peculiar mixture of verse and rhythmical prose. The lines in rhythmical prose have a distinctly performative ring and may be divided into two groups : one serving as a kind of secret password and commemorating an initiation ritual ; the other issuing from an adaption of the poetical narration in order to be used as a libretto for a performance in the course of the initiation. In the second case, it seems justified to include them in an attempt at reconstructing not the words, to be sure, but at least the rough outline of the « story » which was narrated, in the original « Sacred discourse ».

Milk as a symbol of immortality in the “Orphic” gold tablets from Thurii and Pelinna

“…14 The search for the original text behind some (or even all) of the tablets also has a long history. Two examples will suffice: an attempt to reconstruct a hypothetical archetypal text, Riedweg 2002;and Herrero de Jáuregui 2010, 272: "I think it probable that the different leaves take their hexameters from one poem or from several poems similar to each other, which described the descent of the soul to the Underworld, and from which each leaf selects those verses which are considered essential to its function as guide in the Afterlife. The next two texts were excavated in 1985 within a single grave in Pelinna, Greece, and published two years later.…”

Pythagoreische Jenseitsvorstellungen – eine Spurensuche

“…Dazu jetzt auch Trzcionkowski (2017) 257-261. 4 Riedweg (2002) 480 f. Zu den dort aufgeführten Nachträgen sind seither hinzugekommen:…”

“…Selbst Edmonds spricht den Blättchen -allerdings in einem eher vagen Sinn -die Bezeichnung orphisch zu (Edmonds [2013] 86 f., vgl. auch Robert Parkers Rezension in BMCR 2014.07.13); allgemein zu dieser Frage Riedweg (2002) 478; Bremmer (2002) ermöglichen, 6 finden sich bestenfalls knappe Andeutungen zum Thema in der disparaten pythagoreischen Überlieferung verstreut. Gleichwohl dürfte es sich nicht zuletzt wegen der schon in der Antike empfundenen Nähe von Orphik und Altem Pythagoreismus heute lohnen, die spärlichen Nachrichten erneut zu sammeln und sie sowohl aus sich selbst heraus wie auch auf dem Hintergrund dessen, was wir inzwischen über die orphischen Jenseitsvorstellungen zu wissen glauben, einer sorgfältigen Analyse zu unterziehen.…”