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Poetry as Initiation

The Center for Hellenic Studies Symposium on the Derveni Papyrus

Leonard Muellner editor Ioanna Papadopoulou editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Harvard University, Center for Hellenic Studies

Published:21st Apr '14

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Poetry as Initiation cover

The Derveni Papyrus is the oldest known European "book." It was meant to accompany the cremated body in Derveni Tomb A but, by a stroke of luck, did not burn completely. Considered the most important discovery for Greek philology in the twentieth century, the papyrus was found accidentally in 1962 during a public works project in an uninhabited place about 10 km from Thessaloniki, and it is now preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki.

The papers in Poetry as Initiation discuss a number of open questions: Who was the author of the papyrus? What is the date of the text? What is the significance of burying a book with a corpse? What was the context of the peculiar chthonic ritual described in the text? Who were its performers? What is the relationship of the author and the ritual to the so-called Orphic texts?

ISBN: 9780674726765

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 19mm

Weight: 476g

296 pages