DOI Artikel:
Kenyon, Frederic George: Progress of Egyptology: graeco-roman Egypt,1901-1902
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12054#0054
40
Piiogkess of Egyptology.
of two epic poems, both from the same MS., and presumably by the same
author.7 The papyrus is of the fourth century, roughly written, and the
first fragment, which contains ten practically perfect lines on the recto and
eleven on "the verso, besides extremities of several other lines, evidently
belongs to a history of the campaign of Diocletian and Galerius against
Persia in 297, which the editor happily compares with the similar poems
of Claudian. The author was, no doubt, contemporary. The second
fragment contains forty-six lines on the recto and forty-four on the verso,
of which about thirty are actually or approximately perfect. The subject
is the creation of the world, which is performed, at Zeus' order, by Hermes,
who is accompanied by his son A6yo<> ("Word"). The poem embodies a
combination of Stoic and Egyptian cosmogony, and so gives occasion for an
elaborate examination of the subject, interesting enough in itself, in which
the conclusions, however, go further than the evidence appears to justify.
Incidentally Prof. Eeitzenstein also publishes an ostrakon, apparently of
the sixth or seventh century, containing a prayer to the Virgin in which
much of the language of St. Luke with regard to the Annunciation is
embodied. The late date of the ostrakon, however, makes it dangerous to
use it as evidence for the Biblical text, or to extract from it a fragment of
a lost G-ospel.
Another literary text of epic character was contributed by the present
writer to the Album Gratulatorium, presented to the veteran Dutch
scholar, H. van Herwerden, on his retirement at the age of seventy, after
thirty-eight years of work as a professor.8 This consists of a fragment of
a late hexameter poem on the subject (afterwards used by Nonnus) of
Dionysius' expedition to India and his wars with the hero Deriades. The
papyrus is in book form, written in a very minute hand, probably of the
fourth century; it is possible, though definite proof is wanting, that it
belongs to the Bassarica of Dionysius, of which a few fragments are
otherwise known. The incident narrated (the rending limb from limb, at
the instigation of Dionysius, of some unfortunate captive, concealed within
the hide of a stag) is violent and unpleasing, indicative of a late and
depraved taste.
To the same editor is due the publication of a few additional fragments
of the London Medical Papyrus, originally edited by Prof. Diels in 1893 ;9
while a contribution to the G-omperz Festschrift, though dealing primarily
with the palaeography of the Herculaneum papyri, has necessarily some
bearing on the palaeography of literary papyri written and discovered in
Egypt.10
Two other texts of a medical nature have been published by Prof.
Piiogkess of Egyptology.
of two epic poems, both from the same MS., and presumably by the same
author.7 The papyrus is of the fourth century, roughly written, and the
first fragment, which contains ten practically perfect lines on the recto and
eleven on "the verso, besides extremities of several other lines, evidently
belongs to a history of the campaign of Diocletian and Galerius against
Persia in 297, which the editor happily compares with the similar poems
of Claudian. The author was, no doubt, contemporary. The second
fragment contains forty-six lines on the recto and forty-four on the verso,
of which about thirty are actually or approximately perfect. The subject
is the creation of the world, which is performed, at Zeus' order, by Hermes,
who is accompanied by his son A6yo<> ("Word"). The poem embodies a
combination of Stoic and Egyptian cosmogony, and so gives occasion for an
elaborate examination of the subject, interesting enough in itself, in which
the conclusions, however, go further than the evidence appears to justify.
Incidentally Prof. Eeitzenstein also publishes an ostrakon, apparently of
the sixth or seventh century, containing a prayer to the Virgin in which
much of the language of St. Luke with regard to the Annunciation is
embodied. The late date of the ostrakon, however, makes it dangerous to
use it as evidence for the Biblical text, or to extract from it a fragment of
a lost G-ospel.
Another literary text of epic character was contributed by the present
writer to the Album Gratulatorium, presented to the veteran Dutch
scholar, H. van Herwerden, on his retirement at the age of seventy, after
thirty-eight years of work as a professor.8 This consists of a fragment of
a late hexameter poem on the subject (afterwards used by Nonnus) of
Dionysius' expedition to India and his wars with the hero Deriades. The
papyrus is in book form, written in a very minute hand, probably of the
fourth century; it is possible, though definite proof is wanting, that it
belongs to the Bassarica of Dionysius, of which a few fragments are
otherwise known. The incident narrated (the rending limb from limb, at
the instigation of Dionysius, of some unfortunate captive, concealed within
the hide of a stag) is violent and unpleasing, indicative of a late and
depraved taste.
To the same editor is due the publication of a few additional fragments
of the London Medical Papyrus, originally edited by Prof. Diels in 1893 ;9
while a contribution to the G-omperz Festschrift, though dealing primarily
with the palaeography of the Herculaneum papyri, has necessarily some
bearing on the palaeography of literary papyri written and discovered in
Egypt.10
Two other texts of a medical nature have been published by Prof.