To Descend into Oblivion:The Landscape of the Underworld, Identity, and Escape from Reincarnation in the Orphic Tablets

The inscribed golden leaves known as the Orphic tablets contain remarkably clear and concrete instructions for its owners, to be carried out after death in the Underworld. While the tablets have been studied extensively from a literary perspective and in the context of the experiences of the living, their role in describing a physical geography of the afterlife is woefully understudied. This paper shows that the tablets’ owners saw the Greek Underworld as a real place, in which certain physical actions were to be carried out in order to avoid the oblivion of death and rebirth. It connects Orphic views on life, death, memory, and identity to the geography of the Orphic conception of the Underworld, and shows that these themes were intricately linked after death. Careful narrative analysis of the texts contained in the tablets shows that physical manipulation of the mythical landscape of the Underworld allowed one to retain their identity instead of being lost to post-mortem oblivion. In line with the Orphic belief system, this was crucial to the escape of the cycle of death and rebirth caused by the events of Orphism’s core narrative, the Zagreus myth. This paper thus highlights the perceived reality and urgency of the Underworld for the ancient Greeks, instead of relegating it to the realm of myths which only hold relevance in the context of pre-mortem experiences

To Descend into Oblivion:The Landscape of the Underworld, Identity, and Escape from Reincarnation in the Orphic Tablets

The inscribed golden leaves known as the Orphic tablets contain remarkably clear and concrete instructions for its owners, to be carried out after death in the Underworld. While the tablets have been studied extensively from a literary perspective and in the context of the experiences of the living, their role in describing a physical geography of the afterlife is woefully understudied. This paper shows that the tablets’ owners saw the Greek Underworld as a real place, in which certain physical actions were to be carried out in order to avoid the oblivion of death and rebirth. It connects Orphic views on life, death, memory, and identity to the geography of the Orphic conception of the Underworld, and shows that these themes were intricately linked after death. Careful narrative analysis of the texts contained in the tablets shows that physical manipulation of the mythical landscape of the Underworld allowed one to retain their identity instead of being lost to post-mortem oblivion. In line with the Orphic belief system, this was crucial to the escape of the cycle of death and rebirth caused by the events of Orphism’s core narrative, the Zagreus myth. This paper thus highlights the perceived reality and urgency of the Underworld for the ancient Greeks, instead of relegating it to the realm of myths which only hold relevance in the context of pre-mortem experiences

To Descend into Oblivion:The Landscape of the Underworld, Identity, and Escape from Reincarnation in the Orphic Tablets

The inscribed golden leaves known as the Orphic tablets contain remarkably clear and concrete instructions for its owners, to be carried out after death in the Underworld. While the tablets have been studied extensively from a literary perspective and in the context of the experiences of the living, their role in describing a physical geography of the afterlife is woefully understudied. This paper shows that the tablets’ owners saw the Greek Underworld as a real place, in which certain physical actions were to be carried out in order to avoid the oblivion of death and rebirth. It connects Orphic views on life, death, memory, and identity to the geography of the Orphic conception of the Underworld, and shows that these themes were intricately linked after death. Careful narrative analysis of the texts contained in the tablets shows that physical manipulation of the mythical landscape of the Underworld allowed one to retain their identity instead of being lost to post-mortem oblivion. In line with the Orphic belief system, this was crucial to the escape of the cycle of death and rebirth caused by the events of Orphism’s core narrative, the Zagreus myth. This paper thus highlights the perceived reality and urgency of the Underworld for the ancient Greeks, instead of relegating it to the realm of myths which only hold relevance in the context of pre-mortem experiences

To Descend into Oblivion:The Landscape of the Underworld, Identity, and Escape from Reincarnation in the Orphic Tablets

The inscribed golden leaves known as the Orphic tablets contain remarkably clear and concrete instructions for its owners, to be carried out after death in the Underworld. While the tablets have been studied extensively from a literary perspective and in the context of the experiences of the living, their role in describing a physical geography of the afterlife is woefully understudied. This paper shows that the tablets’ owners saw the Greek Underworld as a real place, in which certain physical actions were to be carried out in order to avoid the oblivion of death and rebirth. It connects Orphic views on life, death, memory, and identity to the geography of the Orphic conception of the Underworld, and shows that these themes were intricately linked after death. Careful narrative analysis of the texts contained in the tablets shows that physical manipulation of the mythical landscape of the Underworld allowed one to retain their identity instead of being lost to post-mortem oblivion. In line with the Orphic belief system, this was crucial to the escape of the cycle of death and rebirth caused by the events of Orphism’s core narrative, the Zagreus myth. This paper thus highlights the perceived reality and urgency of the Underworld for the ancient Greeks, instead of relegating it to the realm of myths which only hold relevance in the context of pre-mortem experiences

To Descend into Oblivion:The Landscape of the Underworld, Identity, and Escape from Reincarnation in the Orphic Tablets

The inscribed golden leaves known as the Orphic tablets contain remarkably clear and concrete instructions for its owners, to be carried out after death in the Underworld. While the tablets have been studied extensively from a literary perspective and in the context of the experiences of the living, their role in describing a physical geography of the afterlife is woefully understudied. This paper shows that the tablets’ owners saw the Greek Underworld as a real place, in which certain physical actions were to be carried out in order to avoid the oblivion of death and rebirth. It connects Orphic views on life, death, memory, and identity to the geography of the Orphic conception of the Underworld, and shows that these themes were intricately linked after death. Careful narrative analysis of the texts contained in the tablets shows that physical manipulation of the mythical landscape of the Underworld allowed one to retain their identity instead of being lost to post-mortem oblivion. In line with the Orphic belief system, this was crucial to the escape of the cycle of death and rebirth caused by the events of Orphism’s core narrative, the Zagreus myth. This paper thus highlights the perceived reality and urgency of the Underworld for the ancient Greeks, instead of relegating it to the realm of myths which only hold relevance in the context of pre-mortem experiences

Abnormal Reward Valuation and Event-Related Connectivity in Unmedicated Major Depressive Disorder

BackgroundExperience of emotion is closely linked to valuation. Mood can be viewed as a bias to experience positive or negative emotions and abnormally biased subjective reward valuation and cognitions are core characteristics of major depression.MethodsThirty-four unmedicated subjects with major depressive disorder and controls estimated the probability that fractal stimuli were associated with reward, based on passive observations, so they could subsequently choose the higher of either their estimated fractal value or an explicitly presented reward probability. Using model-based functional magnetic resonance imaging, we estimated each subject's internal value estimation, with psychophysiological interaction analysis used to examine event-related connectivity, testing hypotheses of abnormal reward valuation and cingulate connectivity in depression.ResultsReward value encoding in the hippocampus and rostral anterior cingulate was abnormal in depression. In addition, abnormal decision-making in depression was associated with increased anterior mid-cingulate activity and a signal in this region encoded the difference between the values of the two options. This localised decision-making and its impairment to the anterior mid-cingulate cortex (aMCC) consistent with theories of cognitive control. Notably, subjects with depression had significantly decreased event-related connectivity between the aMCC and rostral cingulate regions during decision-making, implying impaired communication between the neural substrates of expected value estimation and decision-making in depression.ConclusionsOur findings support the theory that abnormal neural reward valuation plays a central role in major depressive disorder (MDD). To the extent that emotion reflects valuation, abnormal valuation could explain abnormal emotional experience in MDD, reflect a core pathophysiological process and be a target of treatment

Subcortical brain alterations in major depressive disorder: findings from the ENIGMA Major Depressive Disorder working group

The pattern of structural brain alterations associated with major depressive disorder (MDD) remains unresolved. This is in part due to small sample sizes of neuroimaging studies resulting in limited statistical power, disease heterogeneity and the complex interactions between clinical characteristics and brain morphology. To address this, we meta-analyzed three-dimensional brain magnetic resonance imaging data from 1728 MDD patients and 7199 controls from 15 research samples worldwide, to identify subcortical brain volumes that robustly discriminate MDD patients from healthy controls. Relative to controls, patients had significantly lower hippocampal volumes (Cohen\u27s d=-0.14, % difference=-1.24). This effect was driven by patients with recurrent MDD (Cohen\u27s d=-0.17, % difference=-1.44), and we detected no differences between first episode patients and controls. Age of onset 21 was associated with a smaller hippocampus (Cohen\u27s d=-0.20, % difference=-1.85) and a trend toward smaller amygdala (Cohen\u27s d=-0.11, % difference=-1.23) and larger lateral ventricles (Cohen\u27s d=0.12, % difference=5.11). Symptom severity at study inclusion was not associated with any regional brain volumes. Sample characteristics such as mean age, proportion of antidepressant users and proportion of remitted patients, and methodological characteristics did not significantly moderate alterations in brain volumes in MDD. Samples with a higher proportion of antipsychotic medication users showed larger caudate volumes in MDD patients compared with controls. This currently largest worldwide effort to identify subcortical brain alterations showed robust smaller hippocampal volumes in MDD patients, moderated by age of onset and first episode versus recurrent episode status

Acceptability and feasibility of a multidomain harmonized data collection protocol in youth mental health

Objective To develop targeted treatment for young people experiencing mental illness, a better understanding of the biological, psychological, and social changes is required, particularly during the early stages of illness. To do this, large datasets need to be collected using standardized methods. A harmonized data collection protocol was tested in a youth mental health research setting to determine its acceptability and feasibility. Method Eighteen participants completed the harmonization protocol, including a clinical interview, self-report measures, neurocognitive measures, and mock assessments of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and blood. The feasibility of the protocol was assessed by recording recruitment rates, study withdrawals, missing data, and protocol deviations. Subjective responses from participant surveys and focus groups were used to examine the acceptability of the protocol. Results Twenty-eight young people were approached, 18 consented, and four did not complete the study. Most participants reported positive subjective impressions of the protocol as a whole and showed interest in participating in the study again, if given the opportunity. Participants generally perceived the MRI and neurocognitive tasks as interesting and suggested that the assessment of clinical presentation could be shortened. Conclusion Overall, the harmonized data collection protocol appeared to be feasible and generally well-accepted by participants. With a majority of participants finding the assessment of clinical presentation too long and repetitive, the authors have made suggestions to shorten the self-reports. The broader implementation of this protocol could allow researchers to create large datasets and better understand how psychopathological and neurobiological changes occur in young people with mental ill-health