Fascinating texts written on small gold tablets that were deposited in graves provide a unique source of information about what some Greeks and Romans believed regarding the fate that awaited them after death, and how they could influence it. These texts, dating from the late fifth century BCE to the second century CE, have been part of the scholarly debate on ancient afterlife beliefs since the end of the nineteenth century. Recent finds and analysis of the texts have reshaped our understanding of their purpose and of the perceived afterlife.

Graf, Fritz; Johnston, Sarah; Graf, Fritz; Johnston, Sarah Iles

List of illustrations, Preface to the first edition, Preface to the second edition, 1 The tablets: An edition and translation, Concordance, 2 A history of scholarship on the tablets, 3 The myth of Dionysus, 4 The eschatology behind the tablets, 5 Dionysiac mystery cults and the Gold Tablets, 6 Orpheus, his poetry, and sacred texts, Appendix 1: Orphism in the twenty-first century, Appendix 2: The tablets from Pherae, Appendix 3: The tablets from Roman Palestine, Appendix 4: Additional Bacchic texts, 1 The Olbia bone tablets, 2 Bacchic inscriptions from Olbia, 3 The Gurôb Papyrus, 4 The Edict of Ptolemy IV Philopator, Notes, Bibliography, Subject index, Index of ancient texts