Philip II and Alexander the Great: Father and Son ... - Historia Antigua

208 RECEPTION OF FATHER AND SON
This is the task for Memory, whenever you are going to die and
go down to the well-built house of Hades. There is a spring on
the right, and a white/shining cypress stands beside it. Going
down to there the souls of the dead are refreshed ( psuchai
nekuōn psuchontai). Do not go near this spring! Further on you
will fi nd cold water pouring forth from the lake of Memory.
There are guards above it ( ephuperthen). They will ask you with
clever minds why you are inquiring into the darkness of gloomy
Hades. Tell them: “I am the son of Earth and starry Heaven.” I
am dry with thirst and I am dying. But quickly give me the cold
water of the lake of Memory to drink. And they will speak to the
underworld king. And they will allow you to drink from the
lake of Memory. And you as well, after drinking, will travel
along the sacred road taken by the other glorious initiates and
bacchants.
L1 Bernabé and Jiménez San Cristóbal
Let us compare the motifs in this and the other tablets with those of
the Romance.
1. Underworld Context
The underworld context of the tablets is self-evident. They were given
to the dead to take with them into the next world. They speak to their
wearers as they are on the point of dying (L1–2), and speak of them
being in Hades (L1–4, L16l) or below the earth (L7a–b). Hades the god
is made to preside over the realm either under this name (L1–4), or in
the guise of “underworld king” (L1), “Pluto” or simply “master”
(L15a), as is Persephone, either under this name (L7a–L8, L14–15,
L16b, L16k) or under the title of “underworld queen” (L2) or “queen
of the chthonic” (L9–10b). It is of particular interest for Alexander’s
adventure that some of the tablets lay emphasis upon the enveloping
darkness of Hades (L2–3), or describe the soul’s entry into it as a forsaking
of the light of the sun (L8). In the latter connection we may
note that the Romance introduces Alexander’s arrival in the Land of
the Blessed with the phrase, “within two days we came to a place
where the sun does not shine.”
2. The State of Blessedness
The condition in the underworld for which the tablet-bearers are
heading is characterized by the word olbios, which can mean either