An "Orphic-Dionysiac" Gold Epistomion from Sfakaki near Rethymno

Abstract

Editio pnnceps of the inscription on a gold epistomion that was found in a Roman cemetery in Sfakaki-Rethymnon. The new text is studied in relation to the eleven gold lamellae inscribed with a few words, which represent a group within the Orphic-Dionysiac lamellae, and whose brief narrative form may have been conditioned by rules of secrecy. In the series of the Orphic-Dionysiac lamellae, it is only the second text — the other one is also from Crete — in which both Pluton and Persephone are addressed. Pluton's presence is not a conflation of 'Orphic' beliefs with some local cult in Eleutherna, but with a general tradition, as the narrative scenes on the Apulian krater, now in Toledo, suggest, and it may indicate a next stage in the initiate's Underworld journey. The provenance of the epistomion indicates that during the late Hellenistic and Roman periods an "Orphic- Dionysiac" cult existed in the wider area of Eleutherna, to the north of Mt. Ida, in which the other seven Cretan lamellae were also found.