DOI article:
Kenyon, Frederic George: Progress of Egyptology: graeco-roman Egypt, 1910-11
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12421#0063
Graeco-EomAn Egypt.
51
by Dr. Hunt to the second century—an ascription which errs, if anything
on the side of lateness. Four substantial fragments are preserved, with
many smaller; in all, some 75 lines in a fairly complete state. Their
poetical merit is not great; their most noticeable characteristic is a
fondness for long compound words, generally of a forced and tasteless kind.
The principal passages preserved contain some railing at the impotence or
indifference of the gods in the matter of the just treatment of men, and a
recommendation of easy courses in affairs of love. Some lines in the latter
were apparently in the mind of Horace when he wrote Sat. i, 2, 119-12G.
Besides Cercidas, the volume contains nine theological papyri and
seventeen classical. Of the former the most interesting are a fourth
century Old Latin text of Genesis v, 4-13, 29-31, vi, 1, 2, and a few verses
of Tobit (ii, 2-4, 8) in a text different from either of the recensions already
known, but apparently identical with that which is found in certain
cursives in chapters vi-xiii. There is also a leaf from a treatise of
Gnostic character, possibly a Gospel, since it is in the form of teaching
given by Christ in reply to questions from the disciples. The classical
texts include 20 complete lines, with smaller scraps, of a satyric drama;
about 25 lines of the panegyrical poem of Pancrates on Hadrian and
Antinous; considerable scholia on Iliad ii and vii; part of a column
containing Bacchylides xvi (xvii) 47-78, 91, 92, with a o-t\A.i>/3q? attached
which proves that Blass was right in assigning the title of Dithyramb to
the non-epinician odes, but hardly proves (as Dr. Hunt suggests) that they
formed a separate roll in the British Museum MS., unless we are to
■assume that one roll could not contain two species of poems, an
.assumption for which there is no evidence, while the evidence of the
Oxyrhynchus Callimachus tends the other way; fragments of Herodotus
ii, 154-175; Demosthenes Contra Bocotuin, §§ 7-23; a leaf from a
papyrus book (probably fifth century) containing the end of Cicero
Pro Lege Manilia and the beginning of the Second Verrine; a few lines
of the second Aeneid in square capitals ; and a leaf from a Graeco-Latin
vocabulary to Virgil. The most valuable of these is the Bacchylides, which
solves decisively' some problems connected with the text of the least easy
of his odes. Good facsimiles are given of thirteen of these literary texts,
besides two non-literary documents.
Part VI of the " Berliner Klassikertexte "4 breaks new ground, being
devoted to early Christian texts, which are edited by C. Schmidt and
W. Schubart. The largest and most important is a Festal Letter, extending
to no less than 326 lines of great length, and occupying a roll measuring
more than 16 feet. The protocol is in both Greek and Arabic, which
e 2
51
by Dr. Hunt to the second century—an ascription which errs, if anything
on the side of lateness. Four substantial fragments are preserved, with
many smaller; in all, some 75 lines in a fairly complete state. Their
poetical merit is not great; their most noticeable characteristic is a
fondness for long compound words, generally of a forced and tasteless kind.
The principal passages preserved contain some railing at the impotence or
indifference of the gods in the matter of the just treatment of men, and a
recommendation of easy courses in affairs of love. Some lines in the latter
were apparently in the mind of Horace when he wrote Sat. i, 2, 119-12G.
Besides Cercidas, the volume contains nine theological papyri and
seventeen classical. Of the former the most interesting are a fourth
century Old Latin text of Genesis v, 4-13, 29-31, vi, 1, 2, and a few verses
of Tobit (ii, 2-4, 8) in a text different from either of the recensions already
known, but apparently identical with that which is found in certain
cursives in chapters vi-xiii. There is also a leaf from a treatise of
Gnostic character, possibly a Gospel, since it is in the form of teaching
given by Christ in reply to questions from the disciples. The classical
texts include 20 complete lines, with smaller scraps, of a satyric drama;
about 25 lines of the panegyrical poem of Pancrates on Hadrian and
Antinous; considerable scholia on Iliad ii and vii; part of a column
containing Bacchylides xvi (xvii) 47-78, 91, 92, with a o-t\A.i>/3q? attached
which proves that Blass was right in assigning the title of Dithyramb to
the non-epinician odes, but hardly proves (as Dr. Hunt suggests) that they
formed a separate roll in the British Museum MS., unless we are to
■assume that one roll could not contain two species of poems, an
.assumption for which there is no evidence, while the evidence of the
Oxyrhynchus Callimachus tends the other way; fragments of Herodotus
ii, 154-175; Demosthenes Contra Bocotuin, §§ 7-23; a leaf from a
papyrus book (probably fifth century) containing the end of Cicero
Pro Lege Manilia and the beginning of the Second Verrine; a few lines
of the second Aeneid in square capitals ; and a leaf from a Graeco-Latin
vocabulary to Virgil. The most valuable of these is the Bacchylides, which
solves decisively' some problems connected with the text of the least easy
of his odes. Good facsimiles are given of thirteen of these literary texts,
besides two non-literary documents.
Part VI of the " Berliner Klassikertexte "4 breaks new ground, being
devoted to early Christian texts, which are edited by C. Schmidt and
W. Schubart. The largest and most important is a Festal Letter, extending
to no less than 326 lines of great length, and occupying a roll measuring
more than 16 feet. The protocol is in both Greek and Arabic, which
e 2