But in front of it you will find the cold water flowing forth
from the lake of Memory; and guardians pass above.
But they will surely ask you, with their crowded thoughts,
for what reason you seek out the darkness of dank Hades.
Say: ‘‘I am the child of Earth and Starry Sky,
and I am parched with thirst and I am perishing.
But give me quickly cold water to drink from the lake of Memory.’’
And above all, they will announce you to the king under the earth.
And above all, they will give you to drink from the lake of Memory.
And what is more, when you have drunk, you will travel a road, a sacred
road, which other famousmustaiandbakkhoialso tread.
(from Riedweg 1998:395–6)
More than forty related Greek texts inscribed on gold tablets are known. Two
identical tablets recently found at Pelinna, cut in the shape of ivy leaves, speak of
Dionysus Lusios, ‘‘Dionysus the Releaser’’:
Now you died and now you were born, thrice blessed one, on this day,
Tell Phersephona that the Bacchic one himself has released you.
A bull, you leapt into the milk;
Suddenly, you leapt into the milk;
A ram, you fell into the milk.
You shall have wine as your blessed honor.
And ritual celebrations await you under the earth, and all the other blessed ones too.
(from Riedweg 1998:392)
The tablets from Hipponion and Pelinna now confirm that the whole corpus should
be considered together under a single Dionysiac umbrella. Dionysus is concerned
with the soul’s last journey to the world of the dead because, as a god of transitions,
he bridges life and death. For the soul after death Plato describes a journey with two
possible routes (Gorgias523a–524a;Republic614b–621d). The route to the left
leads down beneath the earth to suffering, the route to the right leads to up to light
and a vision of beauty (Republic614c–616a). In Plato’s accounts the soul must face
judgment. The gold tablets prepare the soul for a decision by providing a script. The
titlesmustaiandbakkhoiin the Hipponion tablet assume prior preparation through
ritual. Plato’s description of ritual madness,telestike ̄mania, suggests the components
of that ritual:
Madness, springing up and making prophecies to those for whom it was necessary,
secured release from the greatest diseases and sufferings at one time arising from ancient
causes of wrath in some of the families, having recourse to prayers and worship of the
gods, whence, encountering purifications andteletai, it made healthy the one who had it
for the present and for the future, finding release from the present evils for the one who
rightly rages and is possessed. (Phaedrus244d)
Plato associatestelestike ̄maniawith Dionysus (Phaedrus 265b), the god who also
provides release. Induced bykatharmoi, ‘‘purifications,’’ andteletai, ‘‘solemn and
Finding Dionysus 339