ORPHIC TABLETS ~ ANCIENT GREEK INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE DEAD

The Orphic tablets are thin gold foils, folded or wrapped and placed near the dead, or in the deceased's mouth, or in a talisman hanging from the neck. They are printed with texts containing information and instructions to the deceased to pass safely to the Underworld and to obtain the favour of the  Gods. They were mostly found in the Greek colonies of Southern Italy, Northern Greece and Crete. They date back to the 4th century BCE, up until the 2nd century CE.

The content of these thin tablets is very clear. They give instructions to the dead for the journey of the soul after death, which direction to follow and what words to tell the guards they will meet.

On one of these signs found in southern Italy the instructions are:
  "On the left of the House of Hades, you will find a Spring, and beside it there is a white cypress tree - do not approach this Spring.
On your right, you will find another Spring from the lake of Mnemosyne, with cold water running, and  Guards in front of it. Say: I am a Child of the Earth and the  Starry Sky, and my kin is celestial.  You are aware of this Yourselves . I'm burning and perishing with thirst. Give quickly to me the cold water flowing from the Lake of Memory (Mnemosyne). And they  alone will give you to drink from the Sacred Spring and from then on, you will have power among the other heroes. "

Plato and Pythagoras accepted the concept of reincarnation. A story about Pythagoras mentions that, when he once saw someone beating up a dog, he said, "Stop, do not hit it, because it is the soul of a person dear to me."
Empedocles, the Orphic mystic, also describes one of his own experiences of reincarnation: "I was once a boy and a girl, a bush, a bird and a wandering fish, which was leaping out of the water."