Littera Antiqua 6 (2013)

EWA OSEK (The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin)

Hermes Tablet (Nonnus D 41.34344): An Allusion to the Orphic Gold Leaves?

,

1. Hunting for Literary Allusions to the Orphic Gold Leaves

Innumerable gold leaves discovered in the ancient graves of the Mediterranean area, mostly Greece and Italy, had never been mentioned in Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman literature.1 This mysterious silence makes it difficult to interpret the sacred texts engraved on more than forty of them and, subsequently, to associate them with any beliefs of the Hellenistic world. Therefore, modern editors hesitate what label to put on them: Pythagorean,2 Orphic,3 so-called Orphic,4 Bacchic,5 or maybe Bacchic-Orphic.6

1 2

Edmonds 2004: 31; Burkert 2004: 7980. Zuntz 1971. 3 OF 47496 in Bernab 2005; Tortorelli Ghidini 2006; BernabJimnez 2008. 4 Pugliese Carratelli 2001; Edmonds 2011. 5 GrafJohnston 2007. 6 Tzifopoulos 2010.

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The gold leaves, usually interpreted as passports for the netherworld,7 underworld amulets,8 or symbols of initiation into mysteries,9 fall into two categories. The first includes several rectangular tablets with hexametric texts, and the second numerous leaves (some of them, in fact, leaf-shaped) covered with short inscriptions in prose. A more elaborate classification, originated by Gnther Zuntz (1971), improved by Yannis Z. Tzifopoulos (2010) and accepted by Radcliffe G. Edmonds III (2011), divides them into six groups see table 1: Table 1. The classification of the golden plates A five rectangular tablets with the deification formulas (pure from the pure, become a god, fallen in milk) in hexameter B twelve rectangular tablets with the child of Earth and starry Heaven formula in hexameter C one amulet, the so called great tablet from Thurii, with a magical abracadabra. In it was wrapped the folded tablet A4 D four leafshaped plates with the mystic names of Dionysus, Persephone, and Demeter; two of them contain fallen in milk formula E five epistomia10 with the , hail, address to Persephone and Pluton; among them are leafshaped pieces F countless epistomia, including leaf-shaped pieces, with only the deceaseds name or the word , initiate. Only thirteen of them are edited

All groups are dated to the late classical and Hellenistic periods, except for the unique tablet A5 from the Imperial Rome, discovered at Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. This is the last Orphic tablet (ca. AD 250), contemporaneous with the Roman hypogeum of Aurelii located under Viale Manzoni that has Orphic scenes depicted on its walls.11 This small (dim. 2.4 cm x 6.5 cm) golden leaf had been rolled-up cylindrically like an amulet and enclosed in a capsule which has been lost.12 The hexametric text on it was reproduced, after the A-tablet pattern, for the Roman noblewoman named Caecilia Secundina (OF 491 = L 11 = G-J 9 = OGT A5 = GMA 27):

BernabJimnez 2008. Kotansky 1994: 10712. 9 GrafJohnston 2007: 13755. 10 Epistomia is an archaeological term for objects placed on or inside mouths of the dead, instead of a burial coin. 11 Chicoteau 1997. 12 Kotansky 1991: 115, 131 note 53; Kotansky 1994: 10712.
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SHE COMES PURE FROM THE PURE, QUEEN OF THE CHTHONIAN ONES. EUCLES AND EUBOULEUS, CHILD OF ZEUS. BUT ACCEPT THIS GIFT OF MEMORY, SUNG OF AMONG MORTALS. CAECILIA SECUNDINA, COME, BY LAW GROWN TO BE DIVINE. (Johnston translation)

Plaques labelled B contain longer texts composed in quite correct hexameters and a more complicated narrative (the dead soul makes her last journey to the great beyond) including ghostly scenery (an underworld cypress tree and two springs) and a dialogue section (the soul asks the guardians to let her pass to the pool of Memory). A number of hexameters preserved in the B tablets allow Richard Janko to reconstruct a hypothetical archetype poem consisting of 22 verses.13 One of the B plates, dating to the 4th century BC, had been re-used, after half a millenium, in the times of Caecilia Secundina. This one is a little (dim. 2.7 cm x 4.5 cm) gold sheet from Petelia (Calabria) that was discovered rolled-up, folded, and sealed in an amulet case from the AD 2nd or 3rd century,14 see fig. 1. The inscription originally had 14 lines; unfortunately, the two last verses are badly damaged (OF 476 = L 3 = J-G 2 = OGT B1):
YOU WILL FIND TO THE LEFT OF THE HOUSE OF HADES A SPRING AND STANDING BY IT A WHITE CYPRESS. DO NOT EVEN APPROACH THIS SPRING! YOU WILL FIND ANOTHER, FROM THE LAKE OF MEMORY, 5 COLD WATER POURING FORTH; THERE ARE GUARDS BEFORE IT. SAY, I AM A CHILD OF EARTH AND STARRY SKY, BUT MY RACE IS HEAVENLY. YOU YOURSELVES KNOW THIS. I AM PARCHED WITH THIRST AND AM DYING; BUT QUICKLY GRANT ME COLD WATER FLOWING FROM THE LAKE OF MEMORY. 10 AND THEY THEMSELVES WILL GRANT YOU TO DRINK FROM THE SACRED SPRING AND THEREAFTER YOU WILL RULE AMONG THE OTHER HEROES. THIS IS THE WORK OF MEMORY. WHEN YOU ARE ABOUT TO DIE, [LET THE REMEMBERING HERO WRITE IT DOWN ON THIS TABLET OF GOLD. tr. E.O.] ENWRAPPED . . . DARKNESS. (Johnston translation)

13 14

Janko 1984: 99. Faraone 2011: 199200.

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Fig. 1. The Petelia tablet (OF 476) with its tubular necklace. British Museum, inv. no. 3155. Source: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object

The only representative of the C group is the so called great tablet (dim. 2.3 cm x 8.1. cm) from the Timpone Grande of Thurii (OF 492 = L 12 = G-J 4 = OGT C) that served as a wrapper for a smaller one, of the A type (OF 487 = OGT A4). Both tablets are dated to the 4th century BC. The ten-line text, carelessly engraved, contains some unorthographic theonyms interwoven with voces magicae.15

15

Kotansky 1991: 11415.

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The readable words: PROTOGONOS, EARTH-MOTHER, CYBELE, CHTHONIC KORE, DEMETER, ZEUS, AIR, SUN, FIRE, TYCHA, PHANES, MOIRAI, FAMOUS DAIMON, FATHER, MOTHER, NESTIS, NIGHT, DAY, HERO, LIGHT, and MIND are interpreted by BernabJimnez as cosmic deities worshipped in Orphic circles.16 In spite of the ignorement of the Orphic tablets by literature, there are some allusions to them in Greek and Latin poetry. The Bernab edition, under the numbers OF 812 and OF 919, has a citation from Euripides Alcestis 66769, where the chorus sings that there is no cure for death and nothing can protect the human being from it, not even Thracian tablets written down by the Orphic voice ( , , tr. E.O.). These verses may look like a direct reference to Orphic gold leaves, but a late ancient scholiast explains them differently. The poet, he says, had in mind the oracular tablets written down by the seer Orpheus and deposited in a temple-oracle of Dionysus in Thracian mountains, Pangaion or Haemus.17 To confirm this opinion, he quotes two Hellenistic authorities: Philochorus (FGrHist 328 F 77) and a certain Heracleides.18 The most interesting reference has been found by Matthew W. Dickie (1995). It is a Hellenistic elegy, discovered in Egypt, preserved on two wax tablets of the AD 1 st century (SH 705 text; Page GLP 114 translation). The author introduces himself as Posidippus of Pella, an old man who prepares to follow the mystic path to Radamanthys (line 22) and asks Macedonian Muses to inscribe the golden columns on the tablets (line 6: ). The supplication of dying poet sounds much like the end of the Petelia tablet (L 3.1213, quoted above). Dickie points out that Posidippus of Pella is attested
BernabJimnez 2008: 13750. OF 813iii = Scholia in Euripidem, vol. 2, p. 239.39 and vol. 1, p. 89.1215 Schwartz. 18 Jane E. Harrison (1903: 46471) proposed the following exegesis of these fragments: on the Haemus Mount in Thrace there was a hero-shrine and an oracle where the severed head of Orpheus prophetized. The people who came to consult the oracular head used to write down every voice () they heard from it on the tablets.
17 16

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by an Aetolian inscription of 263 BC (IG 9.1.17.24:

[]

), and by the Pella leaf-shaped tablet found in 1989 inside the cist tomb from the 3rd century BC. The short text inscribed on the gold laurel-leaf reads: (OF 396b = G-J 31, To Persephone, Posidippus, a pious initiate, Johnston translation). If the same Posidippus or someone else of his family composed the elegy on old age (SH 705) and wrote the name of Posidippus on the burial leaf (OF 396b), the would be a direct reference to the F tablets. Boris Kayachev (2012) convincingly argues that the leaf-shaped tablets belonging to the DF groups were the prototype of the Vergilian Golden Bough, ramus aurea, said to be a votive gift offered to Proserpina by Aenaeas when he had descended to the underworld at Cumae, South Italy (Aeneid 6.137, 144, 409, 436).19 But other subtexts the scholar finds out in Greek and Latin poetry (AP 4.1.4748; AP 16.230; Theocritus Dioscuri; Apollonius Argonautica 3.177227 and 4.13811501; Callimachus Hymn to Athena 57136; Propertius, Elegy 3.3 and 4.9; Philitas Demeter) have little or nothing to do with the gold tablets. The golden branch, two fountains, cold water, and dark path below are common literary topics. A few passages from Pausanias Description of Greece discussed by Albert Henrichs in his article (2003) are extremely interesting. The Greek traveller of the Antonine or Severan age read about the votive heart made of gold-like orichalcum,20 containing an inscription in Doric (Paus. 2.37.5). This heart can be linked to the two golden tablets cut in the form of hearts or ivy leaves, dated to ca. 275 BC, which were discovered in Pelinna in 1987 (OF 485 486; G-J 26ab). Next, Henrichs adduces two other testimonies by Pausanias. First, there is a small tablet with descriptions of the mysteries (Paus. 8.37.2: , ), being a part of the relief panel in the Despoina temple in Lycosura (Arcadia). Second comes the long story (Paus. 4.26.74.27.5) about a discovery in Andania (Messenia) in the 369 BC. The discovered object was a brazen hydria-urn containing some tin foil, very thin, rolled like a papyrus-scroll; on it were inscribed the mysteries of the Great Goddesses (Paus. 4.26.8: : . ). The hydria in question Pausanias saw with his own eyes (Paus. 4.33.5). These two relations, as Henrichs notes, can be

19 20

See also Bremmer 2009. Orichalcum was a gold-like alloy of metals: brass or yellow copper, see LSJ 1247 s.v. .

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connected but hardly identified with large stone inscriptions containing the mystery law from Lycosoura (IG 5.2.514) and Andania (IG 5.1.1390). Full identification is impossible because the tablets mentioned by Pausanias were tiny and not huge objects, made of metal and not stone, private and not public-oriented. Andania rolls can rather be compared with the Pharsalos tablet, folded twice, which was found inside a brazen hydria-urn (OF 477 = L 4 = OGT B2), similar to the one Pausanias saw. And now let me consider another candidate: the hexameter verses from the last and the longest epic poem in Greek.

2. The Planetary Tablets of Ophion (Nonnus D 41.34099)

According to their author (D 1.13), the Dionysiaca had been composed in the city of Alexandria. The date is uncertain; perhaps it was during the last pagan revival under the emperor Theodosius II (AD 42550) or a couple of years later (AD 45070).21 The 48 books on the death and the revival of the wine god, namely Zagreus-Bacchus-Iacchus, contain many Orphic motifs and tenets. The learned Nonnus had read the Orphic Rhapsodies in 24 books (OF 90359), commented contemporaneously (AD 43370) in the Neoplatonic school at Athens.22 He was also acquainted with the old Orphic cosmogony (OF 6468) and probably with other Orphic traditions completely unknown to us. The strange Orphic deities, like Zagreus, Phanes, Harmony, Ophion, Chaos, Telete, and so on, emerge from every page of his antiquarian book.23 Orphic themes are condensed in the so called cosmic preludes, situated at the turning points of the poem. Francis Vian (2005) distinguished four cosmic episodes: Episode 1: D 6.4108. Demeter consults the astrologer Astraios, the father of Winds (D 6.30) and the ex-king of sky (D 2.572), asking him to set up a marriage horoscope for her young daughter. The scene is followed by the rape of Persephone by Zeus and the birth-deathbirth of Zagreus, the first Dionysus (OF 308 = D 6.16974). Episode 2: D 7.7135. After the cosmic flood, the snake-god Aion begs Zeus to save the human race from despair by giving them alcohol. When Zeus agrees, Eros descends to Chaos, in order to bring out twelve love-arrows from there. The fifth arrow is said to conduce to the nativity of Bacchus-Wine, the second Dionysus.

21 22

For datation of the Dionysiaca see: Migulez Cavero 2008: 1518. Marinus VP 2627. 23 Garca Gasco 2008.

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Episode 3: D 12.1117. To know Dionysus fortunes, Horai or Four Seasons visit (D 12.32), six diptychs of Harmony, marked with twelve zodiac signs, which were written down by Phanes and kept in Helios palace. This is not the same Harmony as the well-known Cadmos wife. Episode 4: D 41.155427. Aphrodite, the mother of Bero-Amymone, consults her daughters destiny with Harmony. To give her an answer, Harmony shows her seven planetary tablets, , engraved by Ophion (not the Giant) and kept in her own house. So the Dionysiaca have two sets of cosmic tablets: twelve zodiacal of Harmony and Phanes (episode 3), and seven planetary of Ophion (episode 4). The twelve tablets of Harmony (D 12.30113), kept in Helios palace, in some place above the world, constitute a set of horoscopes for the Great Year.24 The term was usually applied to pyramid-shaped objects on which the sacred laws concerning sacrifices, festivals, and theological matters,25 were inscribed. Only four of the six diptychs have been revealed: the first (D 12.4354) depicted Ophion with his sceptre (D 12.44), the second (D 12.5563) the rise of humanity and the destruction of the earth in a cosmic flood, the third and fourth the growth of Ampelos-Vine and the victory of Bacchus-Wine, the savior of human race (D 12.3740, 64113). All prophecies had been composed in hexameter and illuminated with purple ochre by Phanes the First Mind (D 12.34, 67), the same god to whom the Orphic Rhapsodies attributed the possession of a six-folded sceptre (OF 166) and the authorship of top secret prophecies (OF 138). The second set, Ophions tablets, is found in book 41 (D 41.34099). As a consequence of the splendid victories all over the world, Dionysus visited the Syrian coast, where he fell in love with the local nymph Bero-Amymone. After this nymph a child of Aphrodite and Adonis, the oldest city, Bero-Berytus, was named (D 41.143ff., 364ff.). The Foam-Born seeks to know which one of the human abodes is the most lawful of all, and why it should be her daughters city. She runs, then, to Harmonys house, an image of the universe (D 41.27887), and finds the mistress weaving the robe with the representation of the whole world (D 41.294302).

24 25

Stegemann 1930; Shorrock 2001: 1032. Apollodorus FGrHist 244 F 107; Suda, Kappa 274445, s.v. ; LSJ 1012, s.v. .

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The Nonnian Harmony, or Binding Together, is a unique character. The poet presents her as a nymph (D 41.277), the Muse who engraved Hermes tablet (D 41.385), and a great cosmic deity invoked with such epithets as All-Mother (D 41.277: ), Nurse of the World (D 41.314: ), and Coeval with the Universe (D 41.319: ... ). This characteristic sends us back to the old Orphic sources of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Empedocles (fl. 444 BC), influenced by the Orphic doctrines, gave his Philie, or cosmogonic Love, the name of Harmonie (D-K 31 B 26.16, B 96.4, B 122.2). The Presocratic commentary preserved in the Derveni Papyrus (ca. 350 BC), considered Harmony, together with Moira, Peitho, and Aphrodite Ourania, an aspect of the creative wisdom of Zeus (P.Derv. 21.7, 11). And finally, a late Orphic source (perhaps Rhapsodies) echoed in Lucians On Dance 7 (vol. 3, p. 30 Macleod = OF 599ii), described the same Harmony in the company of the first-born Eros and the primordial Dance.26 On the inner walls of Harmonys house (D 41.360, 370), seven oracular tablets composed in hexameter by Harmony (D 41.38588) and gilded with red ochre by Ophion (D 41.352, 36263) were placed. It is made clear that they have been named after the seven planets (D 41.34050): For I have oracles of history on seven tablets, And the tablets bear the names of the seven planets. The first has the name of revolving Selene; The second is a gold tablet of Hermes, called Stilbon, Upon which are wrought all the mystery laws; The third has your name, a rosy tablet, For it has the mark of your star in the East; The fourth is of Helios, central navel of the seven travelling planets; The fifth, red, is called Ares and Pyroeis; The sixth is called Phaethon, the planet of Cronides; The seventh, Phainon, shows the name of high-moving Cronos. (Rouse translation, adapted) Only three of these were revealed to Aphrodite: the tablets of Cronos (D 41.35367), of Hermes (D 41.36884), and of Helios (D 41.38598). Aphrodite was interested in the fourth and the seventh tablet because some of the prophecies they contained concerned the history of her daughters city. The second tablet, that of Hermes, placed on the neighboring wall (D 41.370), included the diversity of laws (musical, astronomical, grammatical, penal, civil, mystery, family) and a long catalogue of the law-givers (D 41.36884), including Orpheus

26

For more detailed informations about this Harmony see Vian 2005: 484 86, 49092.

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the streams of mystic song with divine voice (D 41.375: , Rouse translation). This verse refers to D 41.34344, quoted above: the second is a gold tablet of Hermes, called Stilbon, upon which are wrought all the mystery laws ( , ). Let us try to reconstruct the layout and the contents of the planetary tablets of Ophion. The tablets are listed herein in accordance with the Chaldaean order of planets, i.e. Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (D 41.34050, 36970). The content of Selenes tablet remains unexplained; the second tablet, the one of Hermes, concerned the laws, and the third, that of Aphrodite, the family law as one can suppose on the basis of D 41.337. What about the four tablets on which Aphrodite found Greek verses about the fates of Bero? A certain cue may be found in Claudianus poem entitled On Stilichos Consulship (AD 40004). The Alexandrian poet describes herein the god Time as an old scribe who writes down immutable laws in his hidden cavern, the spelunca Aevi (2.42450 [pp. 3235 Platnauer]). There were, he says, four metal ages: iron, brazen, silver, and golden. 27 By analogy, we can explain four Nonnian tablets, that of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Sun, as a representation of four metal ages. Cronos and Helios tablets, read by Aphrodite, reflected, accordingly, silver and golden age. The former depicted the rise of Bero, painted with red ochre; the latter represented the period when Roman Berytus flourished, i.e. from the Battle of Actium in 31 BC to the year AD 44850 when the city was given the status of metropolis and the lawyers of the local law-school received the title of teachers of whole world.28 To sum up, three tablets, that of Moon, Mercury, and Venus, concerned customs, laws, and traditions of the mankind, whereas the next four, that of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Sun, were the representations of the four ages of human history (see fig. 3 below).

De consulatu Stilichonis 2.44350: The adamantine door swung open of its own accord and revealed the vast interior, displaying the house and the secrets of Time. Here in their appointed places dwell the ages, their aspect marked by varying metals: there are piled those of brass; here those of iron stand still; there the silver ones gleam bright. In a fairer part of the cave, shy of contact with the earth, stood the group of golden years; of these Phoebus chooses the one of richest substance to be marked with the name of Stilicho ( Platnauer translation). 28 For the history of Berytus (nowadays Beirut) see Hall 2004, esp. pp. 10506, 192.

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3. Gods, Planets, Metals, Colors, etc.

Now, another question arises: what were these tablets made of? We are told that the Hermes tablet was golden (D 41.343: ) and that of Ares was red (D 41.348: ). The color of the third tablet is described as rosy (D 41.345: ) because its patron Aphrodite was also the goddess of roses (D 12.111). How to explain these colors and fill in the lacking ones? Fortunately, there are some texts that can help us. Let us start with the document known as the Mithraic Ladder (TMMM 2: 31) preserved in Origens critique of The True Discourse by Celsus (ca. AD 150), probably from Alexandria. The text reads as follows (Origen CC 6.22 [vol. 3, p. 233 Borret]): These truths are obscurely represented by the teaching of the Persians and by the mystery of Mithras, which is of Persian origin. For in the latter there is a symbol of the two orbits in heaven, the one being that of the fixed stars and the other that assigned to the planets, and of the souls passage through these. The symbol is this. There is a ladder with seven gates and at its top an eighth gate. The first of the gates is of lead, the second of tin, the third of bronze, the fourth of iron, the fifth of an alloy, the sixth of silver, and the seventh of gold. They associate the first with Cronos (Saturn), taking lead to refer to the slowness of the star; the second with Aphrodite (Venus), comparing her with the brightness and softness of tin; the third with Zeus (Jupiter), as the gate that has bronze base and which is firm; the fourth with Hermes (Mercury), for both iron and Hermes are reliable for all works and make money and are hardworking; the fifth with Ares (Mars), the gate which as a result of the mixture is uneven and varied in quality; the sixth with the Moon as the silver gate; and the seventh with the Sun as the golden gate, these metals resembling their colors. (Chadwick translation) Ioan P. Couliano (1990) notes that the planetary gates of the Mithraic Ladder are given in the reversed order of the weekdays, which does not correspond to any known order of the planets (including the Egyptian and the Chaldaean) and does not match another Mithraic doctrine: that of the planetary patronages over the initiation grades.29 It is unlikely, he concludes, that anyone will ever solve this riddle. At this point we should note that the planetary interpretative key cannot open the Mithraic Ladder, because it is based on another system, namely, the pyramid of metals arranged from the least to the most precious ones.30 See fig. 2:

This passage needs an explanation. The weekly order of planets is: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn; the Egyptian order of planets: Moon, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn; the Chaldaean order of planets (the same as in Nonnus): Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The planetary patronages over the seven initiation grades are: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Moon, Sun, Saturn; the initiation grades (from lowest to highest) governed by the planets are: Corax (Raven), Nymphus (Bridegroom), Miles (Soldier), Leo (Lion), Perses (Persian), Heliodromus (Sun-runner), Pater (Father). 30 Karpenko 2003.

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8 .
7. SUN golden gate

6. MOON silver gate

5. MARS gate of alloy

4. MERCURY iron gate

3. JUPITER brazen gate

2. VENUS tin gate

1. SATURN leaden gate

Fig. 2. , the Seven Gate Ladder (Origen CC 6.22). To approach the Mithraic Ladder, we need magic. The usage of various metals in sorcery is well-known from Roman literature (Gager CT 148, 167). Leaden amulets were notorious for their alleged restraining and binding properties (PGM 7.396400). Curse tablets made of lead explain the use of this metal: And just as this lead is worthless and cold, so let that man and his property be worthless (Gager CT 40) and may their tongues and souls become lead and may they be unable to speak or act (Gager CT 66). To go further, physical properties of lead, namely, heaviness and coldness, were associated with the slowness of Saturn (according to Celsus, quoted above). Because Saturn was reputed to be a malevolent planet (PGM 4.84749; Artemidorus 2.39 [p. 176.47 Pack]), the curses were usually inscribed on lead (see the collection of leaden tablets, amulets, voodoo-dolls, figurines put into little coffins, in Gager CT and Suppl. Mag. 5355, 57). Both lead and Saturn were related to the god Cronos who was said to be bound with unbreakable and unremovable chains (PGM 4.2338, 284344, 309394).

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On the other hand, gold and silver were reserved for protective amulets against diseases, demons, bad emotions, and so on (GMA 24, 2728, 38, 53, 58, 6668; Kotansky 1991; PGM 10.2425). Authors of magical papyri are still aware of the relation of gold with Sun-Helios and that of silver with Moon-Selene (PGM 110.112). Iron could also serve protective purpose, if it was engraved with Homeric verses (PGM 4.214575). When other metals are concerned, bronze was employed in the production of amulets against the hailstorm (GMA 11). The cause was either the firmness of Jupiter (according to the above-quoted Celsus) or maybe the roaring sound, like thunder, emitted by magical brazen plates rotating on a rope (Ref. 4.32.1 [p. 119 Marcovich]). The scholars know the classification of amulets by the material out of which they were made, but do not seem to recognize the correspondence metalplanetgod.31 The puzzling Mithraic Ladder shows that the concept of the correspondence between planets and metals was popular in late ancient Alexandria where Celsus lived. Robert Halleux has juxtaposed different correspondences given by various authors from the late Hellenistic to the early Byzantine period (1974: 154155). Maybe the closest to the version dominant in the Alexandrian circle in which Nonnos participated is the alchemical table of planets (CAAG 1.8, vol. 1, pp. 2425).32 The document in question differs from the Mithraic Ladder: gold, silver, and lead did not change their planetary patrons, but other metals did: electrum (an alloy of gold and silver) is associated with Mercury, copper with Venus, and iron with Mars (instead of Mercury). Moreover, to planetary metals are added precious stones (see table 2). The alchemical table originally contained colors as well. Olympiodorus the alchemist writes that lead was traditionally considered to be black (De arte sacra 41 = CAAG 2.4, vol. 1, p. 94). We know from Herodotus (1.98.56) that Babylonian astronomers invented the ziggurat of astral colors.33 According to the Babylonian theory, black was the color of Saturn, which stands in agreement with Olympiodorus version. Besides, the planetary metals corresponded to weekdays34 and to seven Greek vowels .35

Gager CT, pp. 34 and p. 31 note 11; Kotansky 1994: xiv and note 5. The influence of alchemy on the Dionysiaca is seen everywhere. In the discussed passage, Ophion gilds the letters with red ochre (D 41.363: ). The , or the rouge from Sinope, was a technical term in alchemy: it meant a tincture applied for producing the imitation of gold (P.Leid. X 96, recipe 16, and P.Leid. X 477, recipe 86). 33 JamesSluijs 2008; Partington 1937. 34 Almirantis 2005.
32

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Table 2. The alchemical table reconstructed

#
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Planets SeleneMoon StilbonMercury PhosphorosVenus HeliosSun PyroeisMars PhaethonJupiter PhainonSaturn

Metals silver electrum copper gold iron tin lead

Stones crystal emerald pearl corundum magnet coral jet

Colors silvery orange blue golden purple white black

Weekdays Monday Wednesday Friday Sunday Tuesday Thuersday Saturday

Vowels

Although the alchemical table enumerated metals in accordance with the order of planets, it had not an astrological but an alchemical aim: the transmutation of base metals into precious ones. So the actual order of metals (lead, tin, iron, copper, electrum, silver, gold) is in fact very similar to that in the Mithraic Ladder (lead, tin, bronze, iron, alloy, silver, gold). The Nonnian tablets are presumably based on both documents. The planetary colors given by Nonnus: Mercurygolden (D 41.343), Venusrosy (D 41.345), and Marsred (D 41.348), coincide with the natural colors of the metals (electrumgolden, copperrosy) or with the Babylonian ziggurat (Marsred). Four undefined colors may be reconstructed on the basis of the alchemical table of planets: Moonsilver, Sungolden, Jupiterwhite, Saturn black. See fig. 3:
1. MOON
SILVER TABLET LORE

5. SATURN
LEADEN TABLET SILVER AGE

2. MERCURY
ELECTRUM TABLET LAW

4. SUN
GOLDEN TABLET GOLDEN AGE

6. JUPITER
TIN TABLET BRAZEN AGE

3. VENUS
COPPER TABLET LOVE

7. MARS
IRON TABLET IRON AGE

Fig. 3. The Ophion tablets in Nonnus (D 41.34098): a reconstruction

Godwin 1991: 1925. The correspondence between seven planets and seven Greek vowels is clearly shown in magical inscriptions of the Christian era (GMA 9 and 37; IGC 221 and 341). See also PGM 4.1027; Porphyry the Grammarian, Commentaria in Dionysium Thracem (Scholia Vaticana 155 Hilgard).

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4. Who Was Ophion?

The partial answer to this essential question is given by Nonnus himself. The poet presents Ophion as the old god of aether (D 2.573) and the first king of gods, the sceptrebearer (D 12.44: ), and the spouse of the goddess Eurynome. He was the one who wrote down the whole human history on seven planetary tablets: Upon these, ancient Ophion has engraved in red letters all the diverse oracles of fate for the universe. (D 41.35152, Rouse translation). Seven tablets of Ophion were kept in Harmonys house; in the same house, which is an image of the world, his wife Eurynome is said to be a servant (D 41.312). The ancient Titan Ophion, completely unknown to classical mythology, belonged to old Orphic theogonies. Apollonius of Rhodes (Arg. 1.50306 = OF 67 = D-K 1 B 16) put in Orpheus mouth such a song: And he [Orpheus] sang how first of all Ophion and Eurynome, Daughter of Ocean, held the sway of snowy Olympus, And how through strength of arm one yielded his prerogative to Cronos And the other to Rhea, and how they fell into the waves of Ocean. (Seaton translation) The same Ophion, the first divine ruler dethroned by his son Cronos, was known to the Hellenistic poet Lycophron (Alexandra 1192 [53 Mascialino]) and to a later scholiast (e.g. Scholia in Lycophronem, Alex. 1191b [p. 343 Scheer]). Another scholiast called him also the first god, (Scholia in Hesiodum, Th. 45b [p. 11 Di Gregorio]). The epithets of the first ruler and the first god link Ophion to the shorter version of Orphic theogony, which started with Ouranos-Sky (instead of Phanes), who was therefore styled as the first king (P.Derv. 16.6 = OF 10) and the first-born one, (P.Derv. 16.3 = OF 12). This Ouranos was succeded by Cronos who castrated him and was in turn mutilated by Zeus.36 Perhaps the same personage is invoked in the opening line of the mysterious great tablet of Thurii (OF 492.1: ) and appears in the formula from the B tablet: I

The shorter succession myth (OuranosCronosZeusDionysus) is attested by late Neoplatonists, Proclus (OF 175) and Olympiodorus (OF 227iv). The longer Orphic version listed six divine generations (PhanesNightOuranosCronosZeusDionysus).

36

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AM A CHILD OF EARTH AND STARRY HEAVEN.37 It follows that Ophion is close to, or identical with, Ouranos-Protogonos. The Ophion myth must have been old enough to influence the early Greek philosopher Pherecydes of Syros (fl. 544 BC). Origen (CC 6.4243) reports Pherecydes account of the great battle between Cronos and Ophioneus armies, or the Orphic version of titanomachy (Pherecydes fr. 78 Schibli = D-K 7 B 4).38 This Ophion, or Ophioneus, was presented, in accordance with the Greek etymology of his name ( snake, snake-like), as a wise serpent similar to the one from Gen. 3 (Pherecydes fr. 79 Schibli = D-K 7 B 4) or to an astral snake encircling the entire world like Agathos Daimon surnamed Cneph, worshipped by the Phoenicians (Pherecydes fr. 80 Schibli = D-K 7 B 4). Philo of Byblos (ca. AD 42117), who quoted Pherecydes in his work On Snakes (fr. 4F AttridgeOden = FGrHist 790 F 4),39 believed that it was the mythology of Phoenicians and not Orphics that influenced Pherecydes story about Ophion and his snake-family, the Ophionides. Unfortunately, the title and contents of the old work from which Pherecydes Heptamychos40 was derived are lost forever. In the syncretistic environment, the topic of the snaky god of sky survived to the Roman times. Lucian or Pseudo-Lucian in his mock play Tragopodagra (99101 [vol. 4, p. 5 Macleod]) glorified Ophion who generated Gout, the cruel queen of mortals, from his serpentine coils. The Roman astronomer Manilius, indebted to Aratus (Ph. 1.75, 83, 488, 521, 577, 665667, 724), mentioned the constellation of Dragon, ascribing to the Dragon the name of Ophiuchus (Manilius Astron. 1.331336). Olympiodorus the Alchemist prayed to Ophiuchus, the daimon of alchemists (De arte sacra 28, CAAG 2.4, vol. 1, p. 86). This Ophiuchus seems to be identical with the snake (the tail-eating) described by the same author as the sacred sky-serpent whose body is dotted with stars and Ouranos being the world image (De arte sacra 18, CAAG 2.4, vol. 1, pp. 7980, tr. E.O.). Another alchemical treatise (without a title, CAAG 1.56, vol. 1, pp. 2123) instructs the adept how to kill and sacrifice Ouroboros, the temple-warden, in order to obtain silver and gold from base
37 38

Betegh 2004: 336; Betegh 2011. For the battle against Ophioneus see the useful commentary by Schibli, pp. 78 103. 39 It is not clear whether the material bearing the title On snakes was a part of Philos main work The Phoenician History. Anyway, this work is known only from a Eusebius quotation in his PE 1.10.4553. 40 As far as this work is concerned, see Suda, Phi 214 s.v. (= Pherecydes fr. 2 Schibli): . , (Seven Gulfs or Divine Mixture or Birth of the Gods. There is also a Story of the Gods in ten books, containing the birth and successors of the gods, SOL translation).

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metals. If we take into consideration that in alchemy metals were planetary gods, we can understand why the alchemists believed that Ophiuchus-Ouroboros the heavenly snake encicrcling the seven planets can support the process of metal transmutation.41

FIG. 4. Ouroboros with the pantheistic formula , all is one, in the alchemical manuscript. After CAAG vol. 1, p. 132, fig. 11.

In the times of Hippolytus of Rome (ca. AD 230) and Origen of Alexandria (ca. AD 248) flourished a Gnostic sect called Ophites, or Snake Worshippers. Origen saw with his own eyes an Ophite diagram which was the graphic representation of God and the universe (CC 6.2531 [vol. 3, pp. 23858 Borret]). Andrew J. Welburn (1981) and Attilio Mastrocinque (2005: 94121) proposed reconstructions of this scheme. Inside the yellow circle, beneath the thick black line dividing the mundane spheres from the supra-mundane ones, there were seven concentric cirles encircled by Leviathan the serpent and signifying the visible world. The circles inside the ring made by the Leviathans body signified planetary zones named after Gnostic archonts and provided with seven gates guarded by theriomorphic door-keepers. Leviathan, the boundary and the center of the whole visible world, surrounded them all, see fig. 5. Apparently, Leviathan is no one else than Ouranos, the starry sky.

41

LIMC 7.1, 13637, s.v. Ouroboros.

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1. HORAIOS Moon gate 2. AIOLAIOS Mercury gate 3. ASTAPHAIOS water gate 4. ADONAIOS Sun gate 5. SABAOTH Mars gate 6. IAO Jupiter gate 7. IALDABAOTH fire gate, Saturn 8. LEVIATHAN the dragon

Fig. 5. The Ophite diagram (Origen CC 6.2531). The heresiographer Hippolytus (Ref. 5.20.45 [194 Marcovich]) claims that the strange doctrine of Ophites, also called Sethians, was derived from the ancient theologians: Musaeus (fr. 43 OF), Linus (fr. 76 OF), and Orpheus (OF 532), and in particular from the latters Bacchics. From the (in Latin, Liberalia), a cultic song with the hymnic address to Helios-Dionysus,42 only a few hexametric fragments were preserved (OF 53945). Two verses from the Bacchics (OF 539.1: ; OF 540.7: ) coincide with the inscription on the famous Orphic-Gnostic bowl (OF 66iii), lost in New York City in 1957. The interior of the bowl showed the solar dragon encircling something invisible, worshipped by the congregation of sixteen naked men and women, see fig. 6:
42

Suda, Omicron 654 s.v. ; Macr. Sat. 1.18.22 = OF 538.

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Fig. 6. A lost Orphic-Gnostic bowl. After DelbrueckVollgraff 1934. On the exterior there were four Winds and, between them, a four-line inscription with the citations from Euripides Melanippe the Wise and the Bacchics of Orpheus. I quote the inscription after its first and last edition of Richard Delbrueck and Carl W. Vollgraff (1934): (OF 539ii) (OF 66iii = Euripides, TrGF 484.2) . . (OF 540ii) , . Hear [you who perennially turn] the radiant sphere of distant movement! Heaven and earth were one form. Gods. [First he Phanes was born and named Dionysus Mastrocinque] Because he turns the infinite, the lofty Olympus in a round circle. Shining Zeus, generator of the cosmos! (Mastrocinque translation [2005: 197]) Delbrueck and Vollgraff, who examined this bowl in the early 1930s, excluded the possibility of forgery. They maintained that this was an alabaster copy of the metal original, both (copy and original) impossible to date more precisely than to AD 300529. The special importance of the bowl the scholars claim lies in the fact that it is, so far as we know, the only representation of a cult-scene, a , from the jealously-concealed Orphic mysteries (1934: 136). This led them to the conclusion that the radiant snake, pointing at the omphalos, had to be Phanes, the Orphic god of the sun. Hans Leisegang (1955), who saw the vessel in question a few years before them, supposed it was associated with the cult of the heavenly serpent worshipped by Gnostic sects (Ophites, Sethians, Naassenes) as well as by the Orphics, who sang their Bacchics to honor Phanes, envisioned as dragon. Manuel Bendala

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Galn43 differs from other scholars in interpreting the monster on the bowl as Chronos himself, who, according to Hellanicus theology (FGrHist 4 F 87 = OF 7580), was also a dragon and the grandfather of Phanes. No matter which candidate we prefer: grandfather Chronos, son Phanes, or grandson Ouranos, the most important message the lost bowl has for us is the continuity of the tradition from Pherecydes (544 BC) to the late Empire.

5. Hermes and the Mystery Rites

The figure of Hermes demands special attention. His patronage over the law tablet (Nonnus D 41.34344, 36884) can be easily explained by legal epithets of the god: (Cornutus, Introduction in Greek Theology 16 [25.1822 Lang]) and (Nonnus D 41.335). There was a close relationship between Hermes and the Bacchic Dionysus, the god of mysteries, whose name appears on every gold tablet of the D pattern. According to the Orphic myth (OF 328xi = Ps.-Nonnus Scholia 5.20 [195 Nimmo Smith]), Zeus took Dionysus, who was an embryo, and sewed him into his thigh. Later, in the seventh month, Hermes came and undid Zeus thigh. Dionysus, then, as they say, was born. He [Hermes] took him to Nyssa in Thrace, and there he was suckled by the nymphs. (Nimmo Smith translation) Nonnus knew the same or a very similar version. In book 9, the poet narrates how Hermes transferred Dionysus, the horned baby, from one nurse to another to finally place him under the tutorship of Cybele, the goddess residing in Asia Minor (D 9.1199).44 This is the famous Hermes Dionysophoros (Carrying Dionysus), widely known from many representations in ancient art.45

43 44

LIMC 3.1, 27678, s.v. Chronos. Fayant 1998. 45 LIMC 5.1, pp. 31920, s.v. Hermes, nos. 36582.

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FIG. 7. Hermes carrying the baby Dionysos. A Roman mosaic from Antioch, AD 4th century. Worcester (MA) Art Museum, inv. no. 1936.32. CIMRM 5.1, p. 319, s.v. Hermes, no. 373. Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ roger_ulrich/4226781199/

The Orphic gold tablets never mentioned Hermes by name, while contemporary vase paintings show him as the guide of the initiates, bacchants, satyrs, and other characters associated with Dionysus.46 As an Orphic deity, Hermes is attested by the later Orphic writings and related literature. In the Orphic hymn to Hermes (OH 28 [78 Ricciardelli]), the initiate invokes the god to support his memory (v. 12: 47). Similarly, a magical hymn addresses Hermes as the mighty son of Memory who brings full mental powers (PGM 5.415416: , Betz translation). This Mnemosyne can be linked to the great goddess of Memory from the A and B tablets. The Christian apologist Athenagoras (ca. AD 178) preserved an interesting Orphic fragment (OF 87i = Athenag. Leg. 20.3 [p. 61 Marcovich]). A late Hellenistic author (Hieronymus or Hellanicus), quoted by Athenagoras, interprets Hermes rod ( )

LIMC 5.1, pp. 33940, s.v. Hermes, nos. 63542, 65060. See commentary by Ricciardelli, p. 344. The Homeric Hymns (4.430431) ascribe to Hermes the hymn in honor of Mnemosyne, the mother of Muses.
47

46

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with two intertwinted serpents as a symbol of the intercourse between Zeus and his mother Rhea; the latter, in consequence, gave birth to Pherephatta (Persephone), the mother of horned Zagreus.48 The staff, as R. Ferwerda deduced (1973), symbolized not only the sacred marriage but also the whole Dionysian myth and mysteries. Then there was compatibility between Hermes wand as interpreted by Hellanicus and the Nonnian tablet of Hermes on which both mystery laws and Orphic songs (Nonnus D 41.343, 375) were wrought. So, when Hermes is called the son of Memory we should understand that the god was responsible for the memories of mysteries the initiates retained after their death, the memory which, as Plato says, causes god to be divine (Phdr. 249c).

FIG. 8. Hermes with his staff in the scene of abducting Persephone to the underworld. The black-and-white mosaic from the Vatican necropolis, the AD 3rd century. Source: http://saintpetersbasilica.org/Necropoli s/MG/Fig-19-p73.jpg

6. Let Us Return to the Orphic Gold Leaves

Let us return to the question whether the golden tablet of Hermes (Nonnus D 41.343 44) could be a literary allusion to Orphic gold leaves. At first glance, it seems hardly possible that Nonnus knew the tablets either from high literature, basically ignoring them, or from his own experience because the objects in question, never used in Egypt, were unseen in the Mediterranean world for two centuries (cf. section 1). The interval between the last

OF 87i (...) and how he persecuted his mother Rhea when she refused to wed him, and, she becoming a she-snake, and he himself being changed into a snake, bound her with what is called the Heraclean knot, and mated with her of which the rod of Hermes is a symbol... (Herrero translation). Macrobius ( Sat. 1.19.16) offers a slightly different interpretation of caduceus as a symbol of two sexes union: That the Sun is worshipped in Mercurys guise is also apparent from his wand, the caduceus, which the Egyptians fashioned in the shape of two intertwinted serpents, male and female, and consecrated to Mercury (Kaster t ranslation).

48

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Orphic tablet, that of Caecilia Secundina (AD 250) and Nonnus lifetime (AD 450) might have been too long for the tradition to survive. Nevertheless, the arguments for the opposite position prevail. Although the Orphic leaves were already out of date in the AD 5th century, Nonnus could read about them in the Orphic Rhapsodies, contemporaneously commented in the Neoplatonic school at Athens. If ancient Orphic deities Ophion, Eurynome, Harmony and Hermes that are associated with the Orphic gold leaves were employed by Nonnus in the analyzed passage (D 41.34099, cf. sections 2, 4, 5), it is actually possible that the poet was acquainted with the old tradition concerning the leaves. Of the seven planetary tablets created by Ophion and Harmony (D 41.34099), the mysterious tablet that belonged to Hermes is undoubtedly the most Orphic one (D 41.343 44, 36884). The color of Hermes tablet is described as golden (D 41.343) whereas Mercury, as we have seen in the section 3, corresponded rather to electrum than to pure gold. The reason is either that the color of electrum was thought to be similar to that of gold, or that the Hermes tablet was polychromic, because, while mystery rites were written on gold, the other laws were inscribed on electrum. The latter option seems to be confirmed by the word , various, used in D 41.371 for the diversity of laws that the tablet contained. We can imagine that Nonnus might have intentionally inserted into the electrum tablet the shining piece of gold with mystic words of Orpheus (D 41.344, 375), to evoke the memory of the Orphic leaves. The poet could have had another reason to present the mystery tablet as made of gold. Hermes was the tutor of Dionysus (cf. section 5), who in Orphic circles was identified with Helios or the sun (OF 492 [the C tablet]; OF 60 and 540.3 [the Orphic hymn to Helios]). Because the sun was traditionally associated with gold, Helios tablet (D 41.385400) represented the golden age of human history (cf. section 2). So the golden insertion in Mercurys tablet can suggest the interrelation between Hermes and Helios and between electrum and gold. After all, Nonnus highlights the connections between these gods, planets, and metals by putting Hermes tablet just before that of Helios. He also emphasizes that both were composed in Greek hexameter (D 41.38588). Furthermore, it should be pointed out that the same term for written mystery rites, (LSJ 1246 q.v.), used in the Bacchic leaf of the D type (OF 493a = G-J 28 = OGT D5:

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), is repeated in Nonnus (D 41.344: ). Another parallel is provided by the last Orphic amulet that adds the legal term , by law (OF 491.4), perfectly corresponding to the legal setting of Nonnian tablets and to the deification formula. At last, the Nonnian Muse who wrote the content of Hermes tablet is paralleled by Macedonian Muses who engraved golden leaves for dying Posidippus, the pious initiate (cf. section 1). To collect the arguments supporting this view, let us take a look at the parallel topics and verbal similarities between the Nonnian tablet and the Orphic gold leaves see table 3.

Table 3. The juxtaposition of the Nonnian tablet and the Orphic leaves Criterion material literary form shape contents author availability deities Hermes tablet in Nonnus D golden hexameter unfolded oracles; sacred laws; mysteries Orpheus; Harmony the Muse hidden in Harmonys house Ophion & Eurynome Harmony Hermes (mystery laws) (laws) (mystic song) Orphic leaves golden AB: hexameter, CF: prose both unfolded and folded sacred tale; mysteries Hero who remembers; Muses hidden in the graves of initiates Ouranos-Protogonos & Ge Zeus Mnemosyne (mystery of Bacchus) (by law) (initiate)

vocabulary

If we want to reject these arguments, we have to ask ourselves: was there any possibility that the longest Greek poem entirely devoted to Dionysus the Thrice-Born could ignore the mystic tablets dedicated to the dying god and his mother?

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Dr. Ewa OSEK (born 1970) works as an assistant professor in the Department of Humanities at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Poland). Her research interests oscillate between Hellenistic Jewish literature and Greek culture of Roman Empire period. Contact ewaosek@wp.pl

TABLICA HERMESA (NONNOS D 41.343344) ALUZJ DO ZOTYCH TABLICZEK ORFICKICH?

(Streszczenie)

Tre artykuu dotyczy dwu wersw z mitologicznego eposu Dionysiaka: Druga tablica, ze zota, naley do Hermesa i Stilbon si zowie; zost nay na niej wyryte wite prawa misteriw (D 41.343344). Wedug Nonnosa (450470 po Chr.), zota tablica Hermesa z pieniami misteryjnymi Orfeusza bya jedn z siedmiu tablic astrologicznych zapisanych purpurowymi literami przez boga nieba Ofiona i przechowywanych w paacu Harmonii, ktry mia znajdowa si gdzie na kracach wiata (D 41.340399). Niniejsze studium rekonstruuje zawarto kadej z tablic i stara si ustali metal, z ktrego zostay wykonane. ledzenie wstecz rde Nonniaskiego cytatu prowadzi do wniosku, e moe on stanowi poredni aluzj do tak zwanych zotych tabliczek orfickich z okresu pnoklasycznego i hellenistycznego. Pewne analogie treciowe i tekstualne znajduj si w szeregu z nich: z Petelii (OF 476), z Rzymu (OF 491), z Turioi (OF 492), z Ferai (OF 493a) i z Pelli (OF 496b).

Sowa kluczowe: Nonnos z Panopolis, siedem tablic Ofiona, zota tablica Hermesa, teoria metali, magia, zote tabliczki orfickie. Keywords: Nonnus of Panopolis, seven tablets of Ophion, gold tablet of Hermes, theory of metals, magic, Bacchic-Orphic gold leaves.

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