The Bacchic gold tablets are a remarkable collection of objects from the Ancient Greek world: inscribed with short verse texts and buried in graves of mystery initiates, they express extraordinary hopes for post-mortem salvation. Past approaches to these objects have sought to reconstruct their underlying belief system. This book is the first to examine them primarily within the context of early Greek poetry and performance culture. The patterns of thought and expression in the tablets find instructive poetic antecedents and analogies, including in non-canonical and inscribed genres that are not included in conventional descriptions of the poetic tradition. Applying a range of analytical approaches from the fields of epigraphy, anthropology, and religious studies, this book ultimately uses the tablets to cast more familiar literature in a new light. ‘This book offers an innovative and stimulating reassessment of the Bacchic gold tablets from angles previously scarcely explored, furnishing crucial keys for a global understanding of their function and meaning(s).’ Marco Antonio Santamaría, Bryn Mawr Classical Review Analyses the Bacchic gold tablets from Greek mystery cults as products of performance culture and early Greek poetry. MARK F. MCCLAY is an Assistant Professor of Classics at Hillsdale College.