even have claimed ceremonies that guaranteed protection after death, but we cannot
vouch for such a claim because gold tablets and Bacchic groups attested epigraphically
do not occur together.
The people who took gold tablets to the grave were discreet. They did not need to
advertise their ritual status on their tombstones. Reference to Bacchicteletaiin
epitaphs, therefore, is rare and ambiguous (Cole 1993b). The person whose ashes
were buried in the gold-covered krater at Derveni claimed no special Bacchic status.
The scene on the krater depicting Lykourgos raving with the wrong kind of Bacchic
maniadid not have to be made public because the eyes for which the scene was
intended were not mortal. The subject was chosen by one who understood that those
who had experienced thetelestike ̄maniaof Dionysus could expect to tread the road
with the otherbakkhoiandmustai. Having ‘‘rightly raved’’ in special ritual service to
Dionysus, they ‘‘had been made healthy for the present and for the future.’’
GUIDE TO FURTHER READINGCarpenter and Faraone 1993 introduce modern scholarship on Dionysus. For the problems of
understanding Dionysiac ritual, Henrichs 1978 and 1982 are fundamental. Otto 1965 (ori-
ginal edition 1933) is still the most engaging single-volume study. Seaford 1996 publishes
Diggle’s text (with modifications) of Euripides’Bacchaetogether with English translation and
commentary designed for students. Dodds 1960^2 should not be ignored, and readers of
Seaford will find much to ponder in Rainer 2000. Versnel 1990 includes a long chapter on
Dionysus.
Le Guen 2001 and Aneziri 2003 collect and comment on the inscriptions concerning the
Dionysiac Technitai, and Jaccottet 2003 has collected inscriptions of local Bacchic associations
and their members. The essays inL’Association dionysiaques1986 cover Dionysiac issues in the
hellenistic and Roman periods.
Dionysiac iconography has been well served by Carpenter 1986 and 1997a, Frontisi-
Ducroux 1991 and 1995, Hedreen 1992, Isler-Kere ́nyi 2004, and Lissarague 1990b. Henrichs
1987 presents a well-balanced critical discussion of the problems of interpreting Dionysiac
imagery.
For focused studies Casadio 1994 on the Argolid and Casadio 1999 on Corinth, Sicyon, and
Troizen define local issues. R. Hamilton 1992 concentrates on the Anthesteria and collects the
relevant the Greek texts.
Riedwig 1998 provides up-to-date, edited texts of ten of the gold tablets. For an introduc-
tion to the tablets, see Cole 2003 and Graf 1993a, and for the relation between Orphic
mysteries and Dionysiac ritual, N. Robertson 2003. Lada-Richards 1999 argues that initiation
ritual shaped Aristophanes’Frogs, and Edmonds 2004 discusses the gold tablets as records of
personal belief and Bacchic ritual as a means of achieving a new identity. Burkert 1987a is
crucial for analysis of Dionysiac mysteries. Merkelbach 1988 covers these mysteries in the
Imperial period, providing a collection of relevant reliefs and mosaics.
Finding Dionysus 341