DOI article:
Kenyon, Frederic George: Progress of Egyptology: graeco-roman Egypt, 1906-7
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12424#0070
56
Pkogress of Egyptology.
few literary texts, of which by far the most interesting is a fragment of
the lost Greek original of the work of Dictys Cretensis. It is written on
the verso of a document dated in a.d. 206, and is itself probably not much
later. This throws back the composition of the work at least as far as
the second century, and makes the date (a.d. 67) claimed in the author's
prologue for the " discovery " of it not impossible. The reappearance of
two columns of the Greek original shows that the Latin translator
endeavoured to improve upon the simplicity of style characteristic of his
author, and that the ChronograpMa of Malalas was based upon the Greek
text and not on the Latin. The text is fragmentary, and corresponds to
bk. iv. 10-15 of the Latin version. The other literary texts in this volume
include a fine uncial Homer of the 2nd century, two columns of
Demosthenes, Be Falsa Legatione, and miscellaneons fragments of minor
importance.
The most interesting single text published during the year is that which
has been the latest to appear, namely, some fragments of what seems to
be the oration of Antiphon in his own defence, which Thucydides (viii. 68)
declares to have been the finest speech of the kind that was ever heard.
The fragments, which were acquired by Prof. Nicole (to whom we are
already indebted for the Geneva papyri, and especially for the fragment of
Menander's BTusbandman) and are edited by him,3 belong to a papyrus
roll of the third century, and consist of three consecutive and fairly
complete columns, with small portions of four others, which leave a good
deal to the imagination.
Dr. G. A. Gerhard4 has made a contribution to the extant Greek
choliambic literature by publishing nearly 100 lines (of which only about
30 approach completeness) from Pap. 310 at Heidelberg, and 41 (10
complete) from Brit. Mus. Pap. 155, which, by a remarkable chance, are
partially supplemented by a papyrus at Oxford. One of the poems in the
Heidelberg MS. bears the name of Phoenix (of Colophon). All three
papyri are so mutilated that little coherent literature is to be obtained
from them; but Gerhard, according to his wont, supplies a detailed
commentary, and promises more to follow.
Another text from a British Museum papyrus (no. 275), containing
fragments of an unidentified philosopher, has been published by M. Bidez.8
The MS. consists of portions of two leaves from a well-written codex of
the 3rd century, but M. Bidez (with the powerful support of Prof. Gomperz,
who suggests Antisthenes the Cynic as a possible author), assigns the work
itself to the age of Socrates. The papyrus, however, is so mutilated that
little continuous sense can be derived from it.
Pkogress of Egyptology.
few literary texts, of which by far the most interesting is a fragment of
the lost Greek original of the work of Dictys Cretensis. It is written on
the verso of a document dated in a.d. 206, and is itself probably not much
later. This throws back the composition of the work at least as far as
the second century, and makes the date (a.d. 67) claimed in the author's
prologue for the " discovery " of it not impossible. The reappearance of
two columns of the Greek original shows that the Latin translator
endeavoured to improve upon the simplicity of style characteristic of his
author, and that the ChronograpMa of Malalas was based upon the Greek
text and not on the Latin. The text is fragmentary, and corresponds to
bk. iv. 10-15 of the Latin version. The other literary texts in this volume
include a fine uncial Homer of the 2nd century, two columns of
Demosthenes, Be Falsa Legatione, and miscellaneons fragments of minor
importance.
The most interesting single text published during the year is that which
has been the latest to appear, namely, some fragments of what seems to
be the oration of Antiphon in his own defence, which Thucydides (viii. 68)
declares to have been the finest speech of the kind that was ever heard.
The fragments, which were acquired by Prof. Nicole (to whom we are
already indebted for the Geneva papyri, and especially for the fragment of
Menander's BTusbandman) and are edited by him,3 belong to a papyrus
roll of the third century, and consist of three consecutive and fairly
complete columns, with small portions of four others, which leave a good
deal to the imagination.
Dr. G. A. Gerhard4 has made a contribution to the extant Greek
choliambic literature by publishing nearly 100 lines (of which only about
30 approach completeness) from Pap. 310 at Heidelberg, and 41 (10
complete) from Brit. Mus. Pap. 155, which, by a remarkable chance, are
partially supplemented by a papyrus at Oxford. One of the poems in the
Heidelberg MS. bears the name of Phoenix (of Colophon). All three
papyri are so mutilated that little coherent literature is to be obtained
from them; but Gerhard, according to his wont, supplies a detailed
commentary, and promises more to follow.
Another text from a British Museum papyrus (no. 275), containing
fragments of an unidentified philosopher, has been published by M. Bidez.8
The MS. consists of portions of two leaves from a well-written codex of
the 3rd century, but M. Bidez (with the powerful support of Prof. Gomperz,
who suggests Antisthenes the Cynic as a possible author), assigns the work
itself to the age of Socrates. The papyrus, however, is so mutilated that
little continuous sense can be derived from it.