DOI Artikel:
Kenyon, Frederic George: Progress of Egyptology, [2]: Graeco-Egyptian Literary Discoveries 1891-93
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10054#0043
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Progress of Egyptology.
long lost treatise of Aristotle on the Constitution of Athens ('Adrjuaimv
77-n>t.Te'.n') from a papyrus in the British Museum, and the first publication
of the text took place at the end of January in that year ('). The same
year saw the publication, by Dr. Mahaffy. of the Flinders Fetrie papyri,
among which were fragments of Plato's Phaedo, and of the lost Antippe
of Euripides (;). These fragments were written not later than the third
century B.C., and are consequently the oldest classical MSS. at present
known to exist. Another batch of papyri, published by the British
Museum iu the summer of 1891, included the hitherto unknown Mimes
of Herodas, part of an oration of Hyperides against Philippides, a
grammatical treatise bearing the name of Tryphon, several MSS. of parts
of Homer's Iliad (one probably as early as the first century, B.C.), the
oration of Isocrates On the Peace, and the third epistle of Demosthenes (3).
It will be admitted that this forms a pretty considerable harvest for a
single year. The only discoveries which need be added as having been
announced since that date, are the important oration of Hyperides against
Athenogenes, identified and acquired for the Louvre in 1888 by Prof.
E. Kevillout, provisionally printed by him in the Revue Egyptologiquc
during 1891 and 1892, and finally published with facsimile at the
beginning of 1893 ('') ; and a long niedicaLtreatise by au unknown
author, acquired by the British Museum in 1890, and described in the
Classical Review for June, 1892.
These discoveries, interesting and important as they are, both in them-
selves and as a foretaste of what may still be to come, concern Hellenists
primarily, rather than Egyptologists. Their sole connection with Egypt
arises from the fact that it is in the soil of that country that they have
been preserved for us. To the same category belongs the recent
remarkable discovery of portions of the apocryphal Goirpel of Peter and
Apocalyjwe of Peter, and the Greek text of part of the Book of Enoch (5).
These unique works have been recovered, not from a papyrus, but from
a vellum MS., originally discovered during the excavations at Akhmim,
in the season of 1886-87, but (for reasons which are obscurely hinted at)
only published by M. Bouriant at the end of 1892. The number of
publications which they have already evoked is a sufficient sign of the
value attached to them, and especially to the apocryphal Gospel.
Of more interest to students of Egyptian history, and therefore falling
more properly within the scope of this publication, are the official and
private documents which have been recovered of late years in very great
numbers from the soil of Egypt. Isolated " finds " of such documents
occurred so long ago as the year 1788, and early in the present century
Progress of Egyptology.
long lost treatise of Aristotle on the Constitution of Athens ('Adrjuaimv
77-n>t.Te'.n') from a papyrus in the British Museum, and the first publication
of the text took place at the end of January in that year ('). The same
year saw the publication, by Dr. Mahaffy. of the Flinders Fetrie papyri,
among which were fragments of Plato's Phaedo, and of the lost Antippe
of Euripides (;). These fragments were written not later than the third
century B.C., and are consequently the oldest classical MSS. at present
known to exist. Another batch of papyri, published by the British
Museum iu the summer of 1891, included the hitherto unknown Mimes
of Herodas, part of an oration of Hyperides against Philippides, a
grammatical treatise bearing the name of Tryphon, several MSS. of parts
of Homer's Iliad (one probably as early as the first century, B.C.), the
oration of Isocrates On the Peace, and the third epistle of Demosthenes (3).
It will be admitted that this forms a pretty considerable harvest for a
single year. The only discoveries which need be added as having been
announced since that date, are the important oration of Hyperides against
Athenogenes, identified and acquired for the Louvre in 1888 by Prof.
E. Kevillout, provisionally printed by him in the Revue Egyptologiquc
during 1891 and 1892, and finally published with facsimile at the
beginning of 1893 ('') ; and a long niedicaLtreatise by au unknown
author, acquired by the British Museum in 1890, and described in the
Classical Review for June, 1892.
These discoveries, interesting and important as they are, both in them-
selves and as a foretaste of what may still be to come, concern Hellenists
primarily, rather than Egyptologists. Their sole connection with Egypt
arises from the fact that it is in the soil of that country that they have
been preserved for us. To the same category belongs the recent
remarkable discovery of portions of the apocryphal Goirpel of Peter and
Apocalyjwe of Peter, and the Greek text of part of the Book of Enoch (5).
These unique works have been recovered, not from a papyrus, but from
a vellum MS., originally discovered during the excavations at Akhmim,
in the season of 1886-87, but (for reasons which are obscurely hinted at)
only published by M. Bouriant at the end of 1892. The number of
publications which they have already evoked is a sufficient sign of the
value attached to them, and especially to the apocryphal Gospel.
Of more interest to students of Egyptian history, and therefore falling
more properly within the scope of this publication, are the official and
private documents which have been recovered of late years in very great
numbers from the soil of Egypt. Isolated " finds " of such documents
occurred so long ago as the year 1788, and early in the present century