Heraklion Archaeological Museum - CollectiveAccess System : Gold/silver objects : Gold lamella [Χ-Α639]

Gold lamella

Χ-Α639

Metal (Gold)

Intact, good condition. Small tears on the lower part and in the corners. At least two creases show that it was folded

Height: 1.2 cm. Length: 4.47 cm. Thickness: < 0.01 cm. Height of letters: 0.1-0.2 cm.

Eleutherna

Cemetery

Hellenistic period:

2nd-1st c. BC:

Gallery:

XXII

Case:

220

Exhibition thematic unit:

Classical - Hellenistic - Roman period (5th c. BC-4th c. AD). The Cemeteries

Jewellery

Description

Gold lamella (mouth guard for the dead) of thin gold sheet with incised five-line inscription. Carelessly written with some overwriting and contact between the letters. Transcription of original: 1 δίψᾳ δ’ ἠμ’ αὖος καὶ ἀπόλ<λυ>μαι· ἀλ<λ>ὰ πιε͂ν μοι κράνας ΑΙΓΙΔΔΩ ἐπὶ δεξιά τε͂, κυπ<ά>ριζος. τίς δ’ ἐζί; π- ῶ δ’ ἐζί; Γᾶς ἠμι ΓΥΑΤΗΡ καὶ 5 Ὠρανῶ ἀστερόεντος. Free translation: “I am parched with thirst, I am dying! But come, give me to drink from the ever-flowing spring to the right of the cypress tree!” “Who are you and where do you come from?” “I am the daughter of Earth and the starry Sky!” This is one of the typical “Orphic-Dionysiac” lamellae which appear to have been popular in Eleutherna and its environs. The text concisely renders a conversation between the initiate and the gods of the Underworld.

Bibliography:

Inscriptiones Creticae II, xxx, 4. Y. Tzifopoulos, Paradise Earned: The Bacchic-Orphic Gold Lamellae of Crete, Hellenic Studies Series 23. Washington, DC 2010: Center for Hellenic Studies, 15-17, no. 4. A. Chaniotis,, N. Kaltsas, I. Mylonopoulos (eds), A World of Emotions: Ancient Greece, 700 BC-200 AD, New York 2017: Onasis Cultural Center, 239, no. 119.

Author:

K. S.

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