Inner Purity and Pollution in the Beyond
Inner Purity and Pollution in the Beyond
The Evidence of the Gold Leaves (OF 488–491 (= Graf/Johnston nos. 5–7, 9))
Chapter 12 focuses on the ‘Orphic’ gold tablets OF 488, 489, and 490, found in Thurii and dated to the beginning of the fourth century BC, and OF 491, found in Rome and dated to AD 260. In the first line of these texts the soul of the deceased is presented as ‘pure, coming from the pure’. The chapter analyses ritual purity in the tablets from the perspective of ‘Orphic beliefs’. The pure psyche in the tablets is a consequence of the ‘Orphic’ cathartic ritual which renders the soul of the initiate pure and fit to address the divinities in the underworld. With the ‘Orphics’ we encounter ritual purification and the resulting purity of the psyche as an investment in salvation; the focus of purity is the human soul, and the aim of the purification is soteriological.
Keywords: gold leaves, Orphism, pure soul, psyche, eschatology, Persephone, Orphic telete, Dionysus, soteriology, orpheotelestes
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