Download or read book Myths of the Underworld Journey written by Radcliffe G. Edmonds, III and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-09-20 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 this detailed analysis of the specific ways in which each author makes use of the tradition.