DOI Artikel:
Kenyon, Frederic George: Progress of Egyptology: graeco-roman Egypt
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11174#0062
Graeco-Roman Egypt.
49
unplaced fragments of the MS.; tliongli it must be admitted that some of
the combinations by which this reduction is effected are highly doubtful.
Yet another edition has still more recently been issued by Professor H.
Jurenka of Vienna, and an edition de luxe of the more perfect odes,
with illustrations from ancient sources, by M. T. Reinach of Paris.
From the literary point of view we have gained a new Greek classic,
not indeed of the very first rank, but one of real merit, interesting alike
for himself abd for his place in literary history, and, in addition, one of
the easiest Greek writers in existence.
Next in importance unquestionably comes the first part of the
Oxyrhynchus papyri, the first annual volume of the Graeco-Roman branch
of the Egypt Exploration Fund." Here the actual discoverers of the
papyri are also the editors of them; and Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt
have proved themselves as capable in the one sphere of action as in the
other. It is, indeed, no small feat to have published so substantial and
important a volume within eighteen months of the extraction of the
papyri themselves from the rubbish heaps of Behnesa; and the new
branch of the Fund has every reason to be grateful to its servants.
The most sensational of the literary fragments contained in this volume
is unquestionably the page to which the name of "_Xogia" has been
assigned ; but that had been already published, as also had the interest-
ing_Thucydides manuscript, edited by Mr. Hunt in last year's Report.
The new publications include, however, a matter of no less interest than
an ode which there is every reason to assign to JSappho ; unfortunately
it is much mutilated, but the extraordinarily ingenious restoration of it
by Professor Blass serves at least to give us its probable sense, though
it would be too much to hope that the German professor has every-
where divined the actual words of the Lesbian poetess. In quality it
cannot be said to equal the remains of her poetry previously extant. For
the rest, it must suffice to mention a page of a third-century copy of St.
Matthew's Gospel (tending, so far as it goes, to support the "revised"
text as against the "authorized" ), a considerable fragment of a metrical
treatise, probably by Aristoxenus. a rather tantalizing and perplexing
chronological work, dealing with events in Greek and Roman history from
355 to 315 b.c., and several fragments of poetical works by unknown
authors. The fragments of authors already known include (in addition to
Thucydides) Homer,, Herodotus, Sophocles, Plato, Demosthenes, Xeno-
phon, Isocrates. and Euclid. Perhaps, if one were under cross-examina-
tion, one would have to admit that the actual addition to our knowledge
from these fragments is not very great. They are all quite small, and
E
49
unplaced fragments of the MS.; tliongli it must be admitted that some of
the combinations by which this reduction is effected are highly doubtful.
Yet another edition has still more recently been issued by Professor H.
Jurenka of Vienna, and an edition de luxe of the more perfect odes,
with illustrations from ancient sources, by M. T. Reinach of Paris.
From the literary point of view we have gained a new Greek classic,
not indeed of the very first rank, but one of real merit, interesting alike
for himself abd for his place in literary history, and, in addition, one of
the easiest Greek writers in existence.
Next in importance unquestionably comes the first part of the
Oxyrhynchus papyri, the first annual volume of the Graeco-Roman branch
of the Egypt Exploration Fund." Here the actual discoverers of the
papyri are also the editors of them; and Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt
have proved themselves as capable in the one sphere of action as in the
other. It is, indeed, no small feat to have published so substantial and
important a volume within eighteen months of the extraction of the
papyri themselves from the rubbish heaps of Behnesa; and the new
branch of the Fund has every reason to be grateful to its servants.
The most sensational of the literary fragments contained in this volume
is unquestionably the page to which the name of "_Xogia" has been
assigned ; but that had been already published, as also had the interest-
ing_Thucydides manuscript, edited by Mr. Hunt in last year's Report.
The new publications include, however, a matter of no less interest than
an ode which there is every reason to assign to JSappho ; unfortunately
it is much mutilated, but the extraordinarily ingenious restoration of it
by Professor Blass serves at least to give us its probable sense, though
it would be too much to hope that the German professor has every-
where divined the actual words of the Lesbian poetess. In quality it
cannot be said to equal the remains of her poetry previously extant. For
the rest, it must suffice to mention a page of a third-century copy of St.
Matthew's Gospel (tending, so far as it goes, to support the "revised"
text as against the "authorized" ), a considerable fragment of a metrical
treatise, probably by Aristoxenus. a rather tantalizing and perplexing
chronological work, dealing with events in Greek and Roman history from
355 to 315 b.c., and several fragments of poetical works by unknown
authors. The fragments of authors already known include (in addition to
Thucydides) Homer,, Herodotus, Sophocles, Plato, Demosthenes, Xeno-
phon, Isocrates. and Euclid. Perhaps, if one were under cross-examina-
tion, one would have to admit that the actual addition to our knowledge
from these fragments is not very great. They are all quite small, and
E