ABSTRACT
The texts of the Gold Tablets contain details that imply a ritualized, performative background. The most important indication is their metrical structure. Basically, all texts are in hexameters: ancient scholars, beginning with Plato’s uncle Critias, regarded Orpheus as the inventor of this metre.1 Some texts are entirely hexametrical, such as the Hipponion tablet (our no. 1); others also contain short passages that are non-metrical. These passages are best explained as ritual acclamations inserted into a hexametrical frame.2 The smaller tablet from the Timpone Grande in Thurii (our no. 3) contains a sequence of acclamations that move from hexameters to prose and back to hexameters (I underline the non-metrical parts and normalize the Greek spelling):
χαῖρε piαθὼν τὸ piάθηµα τὸ δ᾽οὔpiω piρόσθε ἐpiεpiόνθεις. 3 θεὸς ἐγένου ἐξ ἀνθρώpiου ἔριφος ἐς γάλα | ἔpiετες. 4 χαῖρε, χαῖρε δεξιὸν ὁδοιpiόρει 5 λειµω˜νας θ᾽ἱεροὺς καὶ ἄλσεα | Φερσεφονείας. 6
Greetings, you who suÍ ered the painful thing; you have never endured this before.
