DOI Artikel:
Kenyon, Frederic George: Progress of Egyptology: graeco-roman Egypt
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12051#0065
Gkaeco-Romax Egypt.
53
B.-GRAECO-ROMAN EGYPT.
The great event of the past year has heen the very successful season
of Dr. G-renfell and Dr. Hunt at Oxyrhynchus. Not only have their
excavations been richer in literary discoveries than ever before, but the
literary pieces so discovered are longer than usual, and promise to be real
and substantial additions to Greek literature. The texts of these MSS.
cannot be made known until next year, but the preliminary announcement1
shows that they include at least 150 lines of paeans by Pindar, for the most
part in good condition ; 100 lines or more of a tragedy which is probably
the Hypsipyie of Euripides; a considerable number of lines of the
meliambics of the practically unknown Cercidas: a long fragment of a
history of Greece in the -4th century, the authorship of which appears to
be a matter of considerable uncertainty ; fragments perhaps of Sappho, and
of a second MS. of Bacehylides, which may be of first-rate importance as a
test of the trustworthiness of the existing papyrus. These are but a few
of the items in a discovery, the full publication of which will be awaited
with the greatest interest. In addition, a vellum leaf of an unknown
Gospel was discovered, the value of which will depend on the date
to which it is found to belong.
These are not the only literary discoveries which have been announced
during the past year. In a communication to the Berlin Academy,' Prof,
von "Wilamowitz-Moellendorff reports that the Berlin Museum possesses
fragments of the Hesiodic KaraXoyot, the 'A^aiosv %v\\oyo$ of Sophocles,
the Phaethon and Cretans of Euripides, two Attic comedies, an epic of the
Hellenistic period, some curious anapaests spoken by Cassandra, and (of
works already extant) portions of a MS. of Aristophanes (chiefly the
Acharnians) and books 14 and 15 of Nonnus. Further communications s
report the acquisition of fragments of two poems by Corinna (a very
attractive announcement), a number of aphoristic verses from an early
Ptolemaic MS., and portions of two poems of Euphorion, in a style which
recalls Callimachus. Nothing is said, however, of the extent of these
fragments, or of the date at which their publication may be expected.
The administration of the Berlin Museum, however, has not been idle
in the matter of publications of papyri. Two parts of the Berliner
Klassikertexte have been issued. The first,4 by K. Kalbfleisch and
H. Schone, contains ten fragmentary texts of a medical or scientific
character. Two of them contain portions of the epistles of Hippocrates ;
one of these gives the 5th epistle in both its shorter and its longer form,
and in both the 5th epistle is immediatsly followed by the 11th. The
53
B.-GRAECO-ROMAN EGYPT.
The great event of the past year has heen the very successful season
of Dr. G-renfell and Dr. Hunt at Oxyrhynchus. Not only have their
excavations been richer in literary discoveries than ever before, but the
literary pieces so discovered are longer than usual, and promise to be real
and substantial additions to Greek literature. The texts of these MSS.
cannot be made known until next year, but the preliminary announcement1
shows that they include at least 150 lines of paeans by Pindar, for the most
part in good condition ; 100 lines or more of a tragedy which is probably
the Hypsipyie of Euripides; a considerable number of lines of the
meliambics of the practically unknown Cercidas: a long fragment of a
history of Greece in the -4th century, the authorship of which appears to
be a matter of considerable uncertainty ; fragments perhaps of Sappho, and
of a second MS. of Bacehylides, which may be of first-rate importance as a
test of the trustworthiness of the existing papyrus. These are but a few
of the items in a discovery, the full publication of which will be awaited
with the greatest interest. In addition, a vellum leaf of an unknown
Gospel was discovered, the value of which will depend on the date
to which it is found to belong.
These are not the only literary discoveries which have been announced
during the past year. In a communication to the Berlin Academy,' Prof,
von "Wilamowitz-Moellendorff reports that the Berlin Museum possesses
fragments of the Hesiodic KaraXoyot, the 'A^aiosv %v\\oyo$ of Sophocles,
the Phaethon and Cretans of Euripides, two Attic comedies, an epic of the
Hellenistic period, some curious anapaests spoken by Cassandra, and (of
works already extant) portions of a MS. of Aristophanes (chiefly the
Acharnians) and books 14 and 15 of Nonnus. Further communications s
report the acquisition of fragments of two poems by Corinna (a very
attractive announcement), a number of aphoristic verses from an early
Ptolemaic MS., and portions of two poems of Euphorion, in a style which
recalls Callimachus. Nothing is said, however, of the extent of these
fragments, or of the date at which their publication may be expected.
The administration of the Berlin Museum, however, has not been idle
in the matter of publications of papyri. Two parts of the Berliner
Klassikertexte have been issued. The first,4 by K. Kalbfleisch and
H. Schone, contains ten fragmentary texts of a medical or scientific
character. Two of them contain portions of the epistles of Hippocrates ;
one of these gives the 5th epistle in both its shorter and its longer form,
and in both the 5th epistle is immediatsly followed by the 11th. The