"Plato, Aristophanes, and the creators of the 'Orphic' gold tablets employ the traditional tale of a journey to the realm of the dead to redefine, within the mythic narrative, the boundaries of their societies. Rather than being the relics of a faded ritual tradition or the products of Orphic influence, these myths can only reveal their meanings through a close analysis of the specific ways in which each author makes use of the tradition. For these authors, myth is an agonistic discourse; it is neither a kind of sacred dogma nor a mere literary diversion, but rather a flexible tool that serves a wide variety of uses. The traditional tale of the journey to the underworld in Greek mythology is neither simple nor single, but each telling reveals a perspective on the cosmos, a reflection of the order of this world through the image of the other."--BOOK JACKET.

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