Orfické zlaté lístky

Abstract

Orphic Gold Tablets.The Orphics (ὀρφικοί) were a religious movement originating sometime in the 7th–6th centuries BC in ancient Greece, but was gradually formed and evolved, adopting various elements from surrounding religious movements and cults. Its emergence was probably a result of various preconditions, but what is safely known is that it pioneered a so-called positive eschatology and offered the hope of afterlife communion with the heroes and gods. To affirm the hope of a positive afterlife, the dead were placed in their graves with golden petals on their chest or on their head, often in the shape of an ivy leaf, containing instruction on navigation in the underworld and how to get past its guardians to the coveted kingdom of Persephone. The texts also contained passwords that were supposed to ensure entry between the heroes and gods and meant a certain degree of deification of the dead. It is believed that sometime in the middle of his life – after the death of Socrates – even Plato himself joined this movement, and in his later works began to speak of the gods with greater respect and to elaborate more deeply on the fate of the soul after death. In his texts, some typical Orphic expressions appear. Orphism as a “revival movement” may also have had some influence on the formation of Christian eschatology. In any case, with its positive eschatology, it may have enabled the Christian mission to penetrate more effectively into the thought and beliefs of people of the time who, expected in their personal lives the positive eschatology that the Apostolic Church proclaimed and gradually completed.