|
''Totenpass'' (plural ''Totenpässe'') is a German term sometimes used for inscribed tablets or metal leaves found in burials primarily of those presumed to be initiates into Orphic, Dionysiac, and some ancient Egyptian and Semitic religions. The term may be understood in English as a “passport for the dead.”〔Roy Kotansky, “Incantations and Prayers for Salvation on Inscribed Greek Amulets,” in ''Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion,'' edited by Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink (Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 116.〕 The so-called Orphic gold tablets are perhaps the best-known example. ''Totenpässe'' are placed on or near the body as a phylactery, or rolled and inserted into a capsule often worn around the neck as an amulet. The inscription instructs the initiate on how to navigate the afterlife, including directions for avoiding hazards in the landscape of the dead and formulaic responses to the underworld judges. ==Examples== The Getty Museum owns an outstanding example of a 4th-century B.C. Orphic prayer sheet from Thessaly, a gold-leaf rectangle measuring about 1 by 1½ inches (2.54 by 3.81 cm).〔As of September 17, 2008, The Getty Villa Malibu had this Orphic ''lamella'' on exhibition; information about the piece (online. )〕 The burial site of a woman also in Thessaly and dating to the late 4th century B.C. yielded a pair of ''Totenpässe'' in the form of ''lamellae'' (Latin, “thin metal sheets,” singular ''lamella''). Although the term “leaf” to describe metal foil is a modern metaphorical usage,〔Daniel Ogden, ''Greek and Roman Necromancy'' (Princeton University Press, 2001), p. 188.〕 these ''lamellae'' were in this case cut in the shape of cordate leaves probably meant to represent ivy; most ''Totenpässe'' of this type are rectangular. The Greek lettering is not inscribed in regular lines as it is on the rectangular tablets, but rambles to fit the shape. The leaves are paper-thin and small, one measuring 40 by 31 mm (about 1½ by 1¼ inches) and the other 35 by 30 mm. They had been arranged symmetrically on the woman's chest, with her lips sealed by a gold ''danake'', or "Charon's obol," the coin that pays the ferryman of the dead for passage; this particular coin depicted the head of a Gorgon. Also placed in the tomb was a terracotta figurine of a maenad, one of the ecstatic women in the retinue of Dionysus.〔K. Tasntsanoglou and George M. Parássoglou, “Two Gold Lamellae from Thessaly,” ''Hellenica'' 38 (1987), pp. 3–5.〕 Although the meandering and fragile text poses difficulties, the inscriptions appear to speak of the unity of life and death and of rebirth, possibly in divine form. The deceased is supposed to stand before Persephone, Queen of the Dead, and assert that “I have been released by Bacchios himself.”〔K. Tasntsanoglou and George M. Parássoglou, “Two Gold Lamellae from Thessaly,” ''Hellenica'' 38 (1987) 3–16, with photographic plates and line drawings.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「totenpass」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|