The Religio-Social Message of the Gold Tablets from Pyrgi

Abstract

The gold tablets from Pyrgi, studied many times for linguistic and<br> philological reasons, constitute a clear example of religio-social<br> ideology at work. They deploy their themes (the goddess, the ruler,<br> the sanctuary) in a way that helps create the symbolical universe of<br> the readers, in whose world it is inscribed that these things are part<br> of a greater, orderly whole. The texts are here analysed from the<br> points of view of ideology, power and religious tendency, as parts<br> of the system of religious symbolism that they seek to legitimize.<br> Rhetorical points are also touched upon, as well as the fundamental<br> question of the implied readership of the texts.