DOI Artikel:
Grenfell, Bernard P.; Hunt, Arthur S.: Egypt Exploration Fund: graeco-roman branch (excavations at Oxyrhynchus)
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12051#0024
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Egypt Exploration Fund.
the work to Cratippus, who is said to have completed the history of
Thucydides. The other new prose text is a commentary on the Second
Book of Thucydides, different from the extant scholia, and, since the
views of Dionysius of Halicarnassus are criticized, probably a work of
the first century.
The remainder of the season was practically devoted to clearing
another large and high mound, in which we were fortunate enough to
discover the remains of a second classical library within a few days after
we had begun work upon it. In this mound the fourth to fifth century
layers reached down to a level of 10-15 feet, beneath which were the Eoman
strata, extending below the crest of the mound to a depth of 30 feet. Here,
about 8 feet from the surface, we came upon a thin layer which through-
out an area of many square yards was full of literary fragments, while
stray pieces belonging to the same texts were discovered some distance
away. The evidence of documents found below the literary texts shows
that the latter must have been thrown away in the fifth century; but the
MSS. themselves are chiefly of the second or third century. Compared
with the first literary find, the second is in point of bulk more than
twice as large, and the MSS. probably exceed thirty in number; but as a
whole it is hardly likely to prove so valuable, since the papyri have
been much more broken up. A hexameter poem of twenty-two lines in
praise of Hermes is complete, and there are several pieces containing
more than one column of writing ; but it is doubtful whether continuous
sheets of much length can be built up out of the innumerable fragments,
which range in size from some lines to a few letters. This is the more
regrettable because the owner of the library was much interested in the
lyric poets. His collection included two or three MSS. apparently of
Sappho, and one of the dithyrambs of Bacchylides (attested by the title of
the roll which still adheres to part of the first ode upon Theseus), as well as
a MS. of the meliambi of Cercidas. Since one fragment of the last-named
work contains upwards of seventy lines, and in the extant remains of
Cercidas there are only fourteen, it will now be possible to form a fairer
estimate of the fourth century b.c. poet-philosopher of Megalopolis. The
authorship of the other MSS. in the second find has not yet been deter-
mined. The task of sorting and combining the many hundreds of literary
fragments will be very long and difficult, for owing to the large area over
which they were spread, an immense quantity of papyri requires to be
carefully examined. We shall therefore deal first with the other great
find of literary texts, which is far more compact.
In another part of the same mound, at the unusual depth of 25 feet,
Egypt Exploration Fund.
the work to Cratippus, who is said to have completed the history of
Thucydides. The other new prose text is a commentary on the Second
Book of Thucydides, different from the extant scholia, and, since the
views of Dionysius of Halicarnassus are criticized, probably a work of
the first century.
The remainder of the season was practically devoted to clearing
another large and high mound, in which we were fortunate enough to
discover the remains of a second classical library within a few days after
we had begun work upon it. In this mound the fourth to fifth century
layers reached down to a level of 10-15 feet, beneath which were the Eoman
strata, extending below the crest of the mound to a depth of 30 feet. Here,
about 8 feet from the surface, we came upon a thin layer which through-
out an area of many square yards was full of literary fragments, while
stray pieces belonging to the same texts were discovered some distance
away. The evidence of documents found below the literary texts shows
that the latter must have been thrown away in the fifth century; but the
MSS. themselves are chiefly of the second or third century. Compared
with the first literary find, the second is in point of bulk more than
twice as large, and the MSS. probably exceed thirty in number; but as a
whole it is hardly likely to prove so valuable, since the papyri have
been much more broken up. A hexameter poem of twenty-two lines in
praise of Hermes is complete, and there are several pieces containing
more than one column of writing ; but it is doubtful whether continuous
sheets of much length can be built up out of the innumerable fragments,
which range in size from some lines to a few letters. This is the more
regrettable because the owner of the library was much interested in the
lyric poets. His collection included two or three MSS. apparently of
Sappho, and one of the dithyrambs of Bacchylides (attested by the title of
the roll which still adheres to part of the first ode upon Theseus), as well as
a MS. of the meliambi of Cercidas. Since one fragment of the last-named
work contains upwards of seventy lines, and in the extant remains of
Cercidas there are only fourteen, it will now be possible to form a fairer
estimate of the fourth century b.c. poet-philosopher of Megalopolis. The
authorship of the other MSS. in the second find has not yet been deter-
mined. The task of sorting and combining the many hundreds of literary
fragments will be very long and difficult, for owing to the large area over
which they were spread, an immense quantity of papyri requires to be
carefully examined. We shall therefore deal first with the other great
find of literary texts, which is far more compact.
In another part of the same mound, at the unusual depth of 25 feet,