The Shelves · Epic and hexameter poetry
Dionysiac-Orphic Sacred Books (hieroi logoi) surrendered under Ptolemy IV's edict
I · The entry, in his form
In the table of Epic and hexameter poetry: “sacred narratives”
Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placementVarious initiators (anonymous)
Dionysiac-Orphic Sacred Books (hieroi logoi) surrendered under Ptolemy IV's edict
Opening words not preserved.
Length: not counted
Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.
II · Does it survive? Where to read it
Lost
Known only from the royal edict itself (BGU VI 1211). The Gurob papyrus, a 3rd-century BCE Orphic ritual text from the Fayum, gives a sense of what such a book held.
Was it in Alexandria?
Known · AttestedAcquired for the Library.
In the cupboard: an ancient source reports it entering the collection or the Pinakes.
Read it today
The edict (BGU VI 1211) and the Gurob papyrus are translated in Graf and Johnston, Ritual Texts for the Afterlife (2013).
III · In the show
The show has not yet spoken of this work.
IV · Sources and the living entry
Ancient references (2)
- BGU VI 1211 (edict of Ptolemy IV)
- P.Gurob 1
Modern scholarship (3)
- F. Graf and S. I. Johnston, Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2013).
- M. L. West, The Orphic Poems (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983).
- P. M. Fraser, Ptolemaic Alexandria, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972)
Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›
DIONYSIAC-ORPHIC SACRED BOOKS (HIEROI LOGOI) SURRENDERED UNDER PTOLEMY IV'S EDICT