Totenpass (plural Totenpässe) is a German term sometimes used for inscribed tablets or metal leaves found in burials primarily of those presumed to be initiates into Orphic, Dionysiac, and some ancient Egyptian and Semitic religions. The term may be understood in English as a "passport for the dead".[1] The so-called Orphic gold tablets are perhaps the best-known example.
A Totenpass in the form of an inscribed metal leaf was sometimes rolled up and inserted into a necklace capsule, as shown in this 2nd-century funerary portrait from Egypt.
4th century BC gold orphic tablet from the Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Totenpässe are placed on or near the body as a phylactery, or rolled and inserted into a capsule often worn around the neck as an amulet. The inscription instructs the initiate on how to navigate the afterlife, including directions for avoiding hazards in the landscape of the dead and formulaic responses to the underworld judges.
The Getty Museum owns an outstanding example of a 4th-century BC Orphic prayer sheet from Thessaly, a gold-leaf rectangle measuring about 26 by 38 mm (1.0 by 1.5 in).[2] The burial site of a woman also in Thessaly and dating to the late 4thcentury BC yielded a pair of Totenpässe in the form of lamellae (Latin, "thin metal sheets", singular lamella). Although the term "leaf" to describe metal foil is a modern metaphorical usage,[3] these lamellae were in this case cut in the shape of cordate leaves probably meant to represent ivy; most Totenpässe of this type are rectangular. The Greek lettering is not inscribed in regular lines as it is on the rectangular tablets, but rambles to fit the shape. The leaves are paper-thin and small, one measuring 40 by 31 mm (1.6 by 1.2 in) and the other 35 by 30 mm (1.4 by 1.2 in). They had been arranged symmetrically on the woman's chest, with her lips sealed by a gold danake, or "Charon's obol", the coin that pays the ferryman of the dead for passage; this particular coin depicted the head of a Gorgon. Also placed in the tomb was a terracotta figurine of a maenad, one of the ecstatic women in the retinue of Dionysus.[4]
Although the meandering and fragile text poses difficulties, the inscriptions appear to speak of the unity of life and death and of rebirth, possibly in divine form. The deceased is supposed to stand before Persephone, Queen of the Dead, and assert "I have been released by Bacchios himself."[5]
Günther Zuntz made the most complete survey of gold tablets discovered up to 1971 (at Thurii, Crete, and elsewhere), categorizing them into three groups that have become the typological standard. Zuntz presented transcribed text coupled with a reconstruction, and interpreted their religious foundation as Pythagorean rather than Orphic.[6]PhilologistRichard Janko proposed that GroupB from Zuntz's collection derived from a single archetype, for which he offered a hypothetical Greek text and the following English translation while attempting, he emphasized, not to rely on preconceptions about underlying theology:[7]
You will find on the right in Hades' halls a spring, and by it stands a ghostly cypress-tree, where the dead souls descending wash away their lives. Do not even draw nigh this spring. Further on you will find chill water flowing from the pool of Memory: over this stand guardians. They will ask you with keen mind what is your quest in the gloom of deadly Hades. They will ask you for what reason you have come. Tell them the whole truth straight out. Say: 'I am the son of Earth and starry Heaven, but of Heaven is my birth: this you know yourselves. I am parched with thirst and perishing: give me quickly chill water flowing from the pool of Memory.' Assuredly the kings of the underworld take pity on you, and will themselves give you water from the spring divine; then you, when you have drunk, traverse the holy path which other initiates and bacchants tread in glory. After that you will rule amongst the other heroes.[8]
The most widely available source that discusses the Orphic gold tablets is the classic (if superseded in some aspects) Orpheus and Greek Religion by W. K. C. Guthrie.[9] Since the 1990s, the usefulness of the term "Orphic" has been questioned by scholars, as has the unity of religious belief underlying the gold tablets.[10] More recently the association of the tablets with Orphism has been defended.[11]
Totenpässe have also been found in tombs from Palestine dating from the 2ndcentury BC and later. These tiny gold sheets employ a formulaic consolation that appears regularly on funerary steles in the area: θάρσει, (here the name of the deceased is inserted), οὐδεὶς ἀθάνατος ("Take courage, [name], no one is immortal"). In one instance, the inscribed tablet was shaped like a funerary headband, with holes to bind it around the forehead.[12]
References
^Roy Kotansky, "Incantations and Prayers for Salvation on Inscribed Greek Amulets", in Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, edited by Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink (Oxford University Press, 1991), p.116.
^As of September 17, 2008, The Getty Villa Malibu had this Orphic lamella on exhibition; information about the piece online.
^Daniel Ogden, Greek and Roman Necromancy (Princeton University Press, 2001), p. 188.
^K. Tasntsanoglou and George M. Parássoglou, "Two Gold Lamellae from Thessaly", Hellenica 38 (1987), pp.3–5.
^K. Tasntsanoglou and George M. Parássoglou, "Two Gold Lamellae from Thessaly", Hellenica 38 (1987) 3–16, with photographic plates and line drawings.
^Günther Zuntz, "The Gold Leaves", in Persephone: Three Essays on Religion and Thought in Magna Graecia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971); review by Joseph Fontenrose, Classical Philology 69 (1974) 60–63.
^On the problematic relation between grave goods and eschatology, see Ian Morris, Death-ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp. 17–18.
^Richard Janko, "Forgetfulness in the Golden Tablets of Memory," Classical Quarterly 34 (1984) 89–100, especially p. 99.
^W.K.C. Guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion: A Study of the Orphic Movement (New York: Norton, 1966, revised edition), pp. 171–182.
^Radcliffe G. Edmonds, III, Myths of the Underworld Journey: Plato, Aristophanes, and the 'Orphic' Gold Tablets (Cambridge University Press, 2004), limited preview here.
^Bernabé, Alberto, and Ana Isabel Jiménez San Cristóbal. Instructions for the Netherworld: The Orphic Gold Tablets. Boston: Brill, 2008: pp.204—205.
^Roy Kotansky, "Incantations and Prayers for Salvation on Inscribed Greek Amulets: The Magic Lamellae," in Magika Hiera (Oxford University Press, 1991), p.116; David R. Jordan, review of Greek Magical Amulets by Kotansky (Opladen, 1994), Journal of Hellenic Studies 116 (1996), pp.233–234.
Further reading
Bernabé, Alberto, and Ana Isabel Jiménez San Cristóbal. Instructions for the Netherworld: The Orphic Gold Tablets. Boston: Brill, 2008.
Bernabé, Alberto. "Some Thoughts about the 'New' Gold Tablet from Pherai." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 166 (2008): 53–58.
Comparetti, Domenico, and Cecil Smith. "The Petelia Gold Tablet." The Journal of Hellenic Studies 3 (1882): 111–18.
Dickie, M.W. "The Dionysiac mysteries in Pella." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 109 (1995) 81–86.
Edmonds, Radcliffe. Myths of the Underworld Journey: Plato, Aristophanes, and the 'Orphic' Gold Tablets. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Ferrari, Franco, and Lucia Prauscello. "Demeter Chthonia and the Mountain Mother in a New Gold Tablet from Magoula Mati." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 162 (2007): 193–202. Print.
Freh, J. "Una nuova laminella 'orfica'." Eirene 30 (1994) 183–184.
Graf, Fritz, and Sarah Iles Johnston. Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets. New York: Routledge, 2007.
Marcovich, M. "The Gold Leaf from Hipponion." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 23 (1976) 221–224.
Merkelbach, Reinhold. "Ein neues 'orphisches' Goldblaiittchen." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 25 (1977) 276.
Merkelbach, Reinhold. "Zwei neue orphisch-dionysische Totenpässe." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 76 (1989) 15–16.
Merkelbach, Reinhold. "Die goldenen Totenpässe: ägyptisch, orphisch, bakchisch." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 128 (1999) 1–13. (A collection of examples providing the Greek texts with German translation, also line drawings of Egyptian examples.)
Zuntz, Günther. Persephone: Three Essays on Religion and Thought in Magna Graecia. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971.
February 22, 2023
totenpass, plural, totenpässe, german, term, sometimes, used, inscribed, tablets, metal, leaves, found, burials, primarily, those, presumed, initiates, into, orphic, dionysiac, some, ancient, egyptian, semitic, religions, term, understood, english, passport, d. Totenpass plural Totenpasse is a German term sometimes used for inscribed tablets or metal leaves found in burials primarily of those presumed to be initiates into Orphic Dionysiac and some ancient Egyptian and Semitic religions The term may be understood in English as a passport for the dead 1 The so called Orphic gold tablets are perhaps the best known example A Totenpass in the form of an inscribed metal leaf was sometimes rolled up and inserted into a necklace capsule as shown in this 2nd century funerary portrait from Egypt Gold lamella from Hipponion unrolled 4th century BC gold orphic tablet from the Getty Museum Los Angeles Totenpasse are placed on or near the body as a phylactery or rolled and inserted into a capsule often worn around the neck as an amulet The inscription instructs the initiate on how to navigate the afterlife including directions for avoiding hazards in the landscape of the dead and formulaic responses to the underworld judges Contents 1 Examples 2 Interpretation 3 References 4 Further readingExamples EditThe Getty Museum owns an outstanding example of a 4th century BC Orphic prayer sheet from Thessaly a gold leaf rectangle measuring about 26 by 38 mm 1 0 by 1 5 in 2 The burial site of a woman also in Thessaly and dating to the late 4th century BC yielded a pair of Totenpasse in the form of lamellae Latin thin metal sheets singular lamella Although the term leaf to describe metal foil is a modern metaphorical usage 3 these lamellae were in this case cut in the shape of cordate leaves probably meant to represent ivy most Totenpasse of this type are rectangular The Greek lettering is not inscribed in regular lines as it is on the rectangular tablets but rambles to fit the shape The leaves are paper thin and small one measuring 40 by 31 mm 1 6 by 1 2 in and the other 35 by 30 mm 1 4 by 1 2 in They had been arranged symmetrically on the woman s chest with her lips sealed by a gold danake or Charon s obol the coin that pays the ferryman of the dead for passage this particular coin depicted the head of a Gorgon Also placed in the tomb was a terracotta figurine of a maenad one of the ecstatic women in the retinue of Dionysus 4 Although the meandering and fragile text poses difficulties the inscriptions appear to speak of the unity of life and death and of rebirth possibly in divine form The deceased is supposed to stand before Persephone Queen of the Dead and assert I have been released by Bacchios himself 5 Interpretation Edit Mnemosyne 1881 a pre Raphaelite interpretation of the goddess of memory by Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gunther Zuntz made the most complete survey of gold tablets discovered up to 1971 at Thurii Crete and elsewhere categorizing them into three groups that have become the typological standard Zuntz presented transcribed text coupled with a reconstruction and interpreted their religious foundation as Pythagorean rather than Orphic 6 Philologist Richard Janko proposed that Group B from Zuntz s collection derived from a single archetype for which he offered a hypothetical Greek text and the following English translation while attempting he emphasized not to rely on preconceptions about underlying theology 7 You will find on the right in Hades halls a spring and by it stands a ghostly cypress tree where the dead souls descending wash away their lives Do not even draw nigh this spring Further on you will find chill water flowing from the pool of Memory over this stand guardians They will ask you with keen mind what is your quest in the gloom of deadly Hades They will ask you for what reason you have come Tell them the whole truth straight out Say I am the son of Earth and starry Heaven but of Heaven is my birth this you know yourselves I am parched with thirst and perishing give me quickly chill water flowing from the pool of Memory Assuredly the kings of the underworld take pity on you and will themselves give you water from the spring divine then you when you have drunk traverse the holy path which other initiates and bacchants tread in glory After that you will rule amongst the other heroes 8 The most widely available source that discusses the Orphic gold tablets is the classic if superseded in some aspects Orpheus and Greek Religion by W K C Guthrie 9 Since the 1990s the usefulness of the term Orphic has been questioned by scholars as has the unity of religious belief underlying the gold tablets 10 More recently the association of the tablets with Orphism has been defended 11 Totenpasse have also been found in tombs from Palestine dating from the 2nd century BC and later These tiny gold sheets employ a formulaic consolation that appears regularly on funerary steles in the area 8arsei here the name of the deceased is inserted oὐdeὶs ἀ8anatos Take courage name no one is immortal In one instance the inscribed tablet was shaped like a funerary headband with holes to bind it around the forehead 12 References Edit Roy Kotansky Incantations and Prayers for Salvation on Inscribed Greek Amulets in Magika Hiera Ancient Greek Magic and Religion edited by Christopher A Faraone and Dirk Obbink Oxford University Press 1991 p 116 As of September 17 2008 The Getty Villa Malibu had this Orphic lamella on exhibition information about the piece online Daniel Ogden Greek and Roman Necromancy Princeton University Press 2001 p 188 K Tasntsanoglou and George M Parassoglou Two Gold Lamellae from Thessaly Hellenica 38 1987 pp 3 5 K Tasntsanoglou and George M Parassoglou Two Gold Lamellae from Thessaly Hellenica 38 1987 3 16 with photographic plates and line drawings Gunther Zuntz The Gold Leaves in Persephone Three Essays on Religion and Thought in Magna Graecia Oxford Clarendon Press 1971 review by Joseph Fontenrose Classical Philology 69 1974 60 63 On the problematic relation between grave goods and eschatology see Ian Morris Death ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity Cambridge University Press 1992 pp 17 18 Richard Janko Forgetfulness in the Golden Tablets of Memory Classical Quarterly 34 1984 89 100 especially p 99 W K C Guthrie Orpheus and Greek Religion A Study of the Orphic Movement New York Norton 1966 revised edition pp 171 182 Radcliffe G Edmonds III Myths of the Underworld Journey Plato Aristophanes and the Orphic Gold Tablets Cambridge University Press 2004 limited preview here Bernabe Alberto and Ana Isabel Jimenez San Cristobal Instructions for the Netherworld The Orphic Gold Tablets Boston Brill 2008 pp 204 205 Roy Kotansky Incantations and Prayers for Salvation on Inscribed Greek Amulets The Magic Lamellae in Magika Hiera Oxford University Press 1991 p 116 David R Jordan review of Greek Magical Amulets by Kotansky Opladen 1994 Journal of Hellenic Studies 116 1996 pp 233 234 Further reading EditBernabe Alberto and Ana Isabel Jimenez San Cristobal Instructions for the Netherworld The Orphic Gold Tablets Boston Brill 2008 Bernabe Alberto Some Thoughts about the New Gold Tablet from Pherai Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 166 2008 53 58 Comparetti Domenico and Cecil Smith The Petelia Gold Tablet The Journal of Hellenic Studies 3 1882 111 18 Dickie M W The Dionysiac mysteries in Pella Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 109 1995 81 86 Edmonds Radcliffe Myths of the Underworld Journey Plato Aristophanes and the Orphic Gold Tablets New York Cambridge University Press 2004 Ferrari Franco and Lucia Prauscello Demeter Chthonia and the Mountain Mother in a New Gold Tablet from Magoula Mati Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 162 2007 193 202 Print Freh J Una nuova laminella orfica Eirene 30 1994 183 184 Graf Fritz and Sarah Iles Johnston Ritual Texts for the Afterlife Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets New York Routledge 2007 Marcovich M The Gold Leaf from Hipponion Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 23 1976 221 224 Merkelbach Reinhold Ein neues orphisches Goldblaiittchen Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 25 1977 276 Merkelbach Reinhold Zwei neue orphisch dionysische Totenpasse Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 76 1989 15 16 Merkelbach Reinhold Die goldenen Totenpasse agyptisch orphisch bakchisch Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik 128 1999 1 13 A collection of examples providing the Greek texts with German translation also line drawings of Egyptian examples Zuntz Gunther Persephone Three Essays on Religion and Thought in Magna Graecia Oxford Clarendon 1971 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Totenpass amp oldid 999454514, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
