Book contents
- The Bacchic Gold Tablets and Poetic Tradition
- The Bacchic Gold Tablets and Poetic Tradition
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction Bacchic Verses
- Chapter 1 Mapping Memory
- Chapter 2 The Tomb of Memory
- Chapter 3 Material Genres
- Chapter 4 Gold in the Grave
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- General Index
Chapter 1 - Mapping Memory
Bacchic Cults and Poetic Models
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 May 2023
- The Bacchic Gold Tablets and Poetic Tradition
- The Bacchic Gold Tablets and Poetic Tradition
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction Bacchic Verses
- Chapter 1 Mapping Memory
- Chapter 2 The Tomb of Memory
- Chapter 3 Material Genres
- Chapter 4 Gold in the Grave
- Epilogue
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- General Index
Summary
Several of the gold leaves relate the initiate’s underworld journey to obtain a drink from the waters of memory (mnemosyne). Against the influential interpretation of Jean-Pierre Vernant, who argued that memory in the tablets was a departure from early Greek poetry, I contend that mnemosyne in these texts reflects concerns and ideas from early Greek poetry. Focusing especially on texts from Hipponion and Entella, which were unknown to Vernant, I argue that the ambiguous theme of memory was variously adapted by different ritual performers. Two texts reveal developments of communicative memory from poetic diction (with parallels in Hesiod). At other times, memory designates the mystic community as the group that assures postmortem salvation: in this respect, mnemosyne has a significance like that in lyric poetry (Theognis, Sappho). Pindar, whose afterlife imagery parallels the tablets, shows that positive eschatology can be incorporated with other strategies of memory. The treatment of the name and gender show finally that the tablets can be understood as a practice of memory, in which the identity of the deceased was reshaped and remembered according to the priorities of the group.
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- The Bacchic Gold Tablets and Poetic TraditionMemory and Performance, pp. 35 - 76Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023