DOI article:
Kenyon, Frederic George: Progress of Egyptology: graeco-roman Egypt
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12583#0071
Graeco-Boman Egypt.
55
The second part of the Amherst Papyri comprises the remaining Greek
papyri of the collection, and in externals is the handsomest volume in which
such texts have yet been given to the world. What is more important, it
contains no less than twenty-five admirable collotype plates, so that tbe
requirements of palaeographical students are met more fully than, un-
fortunately, is usually the case. The contents of the volume include five
additional theological texts, seventeen literary or semi-literary fragments,
two Latin texts of legal character, and 130 Greek non-literary documents,
besides brief descriptions of several small fragments, of which two are
literary and three Coptic. Of the literary texts the most important are
the fragments of the Shepherd of Hernias, of the sixth century, one of
which contains a few words from the conclusion of the work, the Greek
text of which is otherwise lost; and a curious fragment of a Babrius MS.,
of the late third or early fourth century, containing fables 17, 16, and 11
(in that order), with an oddly illiterate Latin version prefixed to the Greek
text. It is noticeable that the epimythium of the eleventh fable occurs in
this very early MS. The other literary texts in this volume include two
fragments of Homer (II. v. 481-495, Od. xv. 161-181, 189-210, the latter on
vellum, though as early as the third or fourth century); brief scholia on
Od. xv. 1-521, and a lexicon (on vellum) to II. xi. 558-G01; fragments of
a brief commentary on Herodotus, book I., assigned to Aristarchus, and of
scholia on Callimachus' hymn to Artemis; small portions of Demosthenes'
Second Philippic (§§ 1 and 5) and of Jsocrates inJDemonicum (§§ 50-53);
parts of fifteen lines of a tragedy, apparently on the death of Hector, in a
hand of the second century b.c.; a few lines from the beginning of another
tragedy, which Blass has identified as the ffciVon. of Euripides; and a few
more small fragments of .prose or verse. It cannot be said that the total
result is very great, but there is enough to titillate the palate of classical
scholars. Nor are the palaeographical data remarkable; the most inte-
resting is the fragment of Demosthenes, written on vellum in a very neat
little hand, which the editors may well be right in assigning to the
fourth century.
The literary portion of the Egypt Exploration Fund volume for 1900 3
is of smaller extent, and may have disappointed some who hoped that the
standard of the two Oxyrhynchus volumes could always be maintained.
The only text of importance is the fragment of Chariton's romance,
Chacreas and Oallirrhoe, which throws valuable light on the author's date
and the text of his work. The editors are, no doubt, right in assigning
the papyrus, on palaeographical grounds, to the latter part of the second
century (or thereabouts); hence the composition of the work can hardly
55
The second part of the Amherst Papyri comprises the remaining Greek
papyri of the collection, and in externals is the handsomest volume in which
such texts have yet been given to the world. What is more important, it
contains no less than twenty-five admirable collotype plates, so that tbe
requirements of palaeographical students are met more fully than, un-
fortunately, is usually the case. The contents of the volume include five
additional theological texts, seventeen literary or semi-literary fragments,
two Latin texts of legal character, and 130 Greek non-literary documents,
besides brief descriptions of several small fragments, of which two are
literary and three Coptic. Of the literary texts the most important are
the fragments of the Shepherd of Hernias, of the sixth century, one of
which contains a few words from the conclusion of the work, the Greek
text of which is otherwise lost; and a curious fragment of a Babrius MS.,
of the late third or early fourth century, containing fables 17, 16, and 11
(in that order), with an oddly illiterate Latin version prefixed to the Greek
text. It is noticeable that the epimythium of the eleventh fable occurs in
this very early MS. The other literary texts in this volume include two
fragments of Homer (II. v. 481-495, Od. xv. 161-181, 189-210, the latter on
vellum, though as early as the third or fourth century); brief scholia on
Od. xv. 1-521, and a lexicon (on vellum) to II. xi. 558-G01; fragments of
a brief commentary on Herodotus, book I., assigned to Aristarchus, and of
scholia on Callimachus' hymn to Artemis; small portions of Demosthenes'
Second Philippic (§§ 1 and 5) and of Jsocrates inJDemonicum (§§ 50-53);
parts of fifteen lines of a tragedy, apparently on the death of Hector, in a
hand of the second century b.c.; a few lines from the beginning of another
tragedy, which Blass has identified as the ffciVon. of Euripides; and a few
more small fragments of .prose or verse. It cannot be said that the total
result is very great, but there is enough to titillate the palate of classical
scholars. Nor are the palaeographical data remarkable; the most inte-
resting is the fragment of Demosthenes, written on vellum in a very neat
little hand, which the editors may well be right in assigning to the
fourth century.
The literary portion of the Egypt Exploration Fund volume for 1900 3
is of smaller extent, and may have disappointed some who hoped that the
standard of the two Oxyrhynchus volumes could always be maintained.
The only text of importance is the fragment of Chariton's romance,
Chacreas and Oallirrhoe, which throws valuable light on the author's date
and the text of his work. The editors are, no doubt, right in assigning
the papyrus, on palaeographical grounds, to the latter part of the second
century (or thereabouts); hence the composition of the work can hardly