DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1036#0044
36
THE GREEK PAPYRI.
text. The page was 8-i- inches in length, with a
margin at the top i inch wide and at the bottom i-i
inches wide. The space between the columns averages
f of an inch. Each column contains 37 lines of text
written in capitals. The dialogue is distinguished by
horizontal lines drawn over the first letter or two of
the line which introduces a new speaker. Unfortu-
nately the fragments are in a bad condition. The
majority of the lines are imperfect partly through
injury to the papyrus, partly through the obliteration
of the letters by the plaster with which they have
been smeared.
The first fragment seems to contain a dialogue
between Dirke and Lykos, in which reference is made
to the exposure and supposed death of the two sons
of Antiope, Zethos and Amphidn. This is followed
by a dialogue between the sons and their mother
which leads on to the death of Dirke. In the next
fragment the chorus is introduced, and Lykos then
appears upon the scene, exclaiming: " Ah me ! I am
to die, unaided, at the hands of two." To this Zethos
replies: " But do you not lament your wife who is
now among the dead ? " " How so ? " is the answer,
" is she dead ? 'tis of a new evil that thou speakest."
"Yes," says Zethos, "she is dead, torn in pieces with
thongs of bull-hide." " By whom ? " asks Lykos ; " by
you ? for I must needs learn this." Lykos, however,
is saved at the critical moment by the appearance of
Hermes, who orders him to bury his wife, and after
burning her bones on the funeral pyre to throw them
into the " Spring of Ares," which henceforth should
bear the name of Dirke, and flow through the city,
watering the land and saving it from bane. Hermes
then turns to the two brothers, who are to provide
" the city of Kadmos " with seven gates " in order that
it may be holy," while at the same time a lyre made
from the shell of a tortoise is given to Amphidn.
Amphi6n is appointed King of Thebes in place of
Lykos, he and his brother receiving " the highest
honours in the city of Kadmos," and preparations are
made for the marriage of Amphidn with Niobe " the
daughter of Tantalos," from among the "distant
Phrygians," and to send for her at once,* and Lykos
concludes the play with a sort of paternal blessing.
He yields the throne to his two sons, telling them
from henceforth to govern the land instead of himself,
"taking the sceptres of Kadmos." He goes on to
state that he will fling the ashes of his wife into the
spring as had been ordered by Hermes, and concludes
1 Hermes also declares that Amphion and Zethos shall be '' called the
white twin-foals of Zeus."
with the words, " I put an end to strife and to all that
is past."
Among the lines preserved in the papyrus are two,
belonging to a chorus, which have been quoted by
Stobaios (Eel. i. 3, 25, p. 118), a writer who flourished
in the fifth century A.D. The variations between the
text as given by the papyrus and by Stobaios are
very considerable, and confirm the inferences derived
from the fragments of the Phcedo that the text of the
Greek writers of the pre-Alexandrine period has
come to us in a much modified condition. It is
needless to insist upon the importance of this con-
clusion to the scholar.
Another fragment of a classical character is a page
which contains two imperfect columns of writing and
the ends of lines belonging to a third. It was found
along with documents dated in the 39th year of
Ptolemy Philadelphus (B.C. 247). The text is written
in large capitals but in a schoolboy's hand, and is
probably the rhetorical exercise of a pupil to whom it
was given to learn by heart. It is a passage in the
form of a dialogue from some rhetorical or philosophi-
cal work, now lost, which describes the duty of being
true to one's friends and draws an illustration from
Akhilles, who "tho' deprived even' of his armour
ran the greatest risks and alone of any who have ever
yet been born encountered death on behalf of his dead
companion."
67. The classical fragments, however, form but a
small part of the collection. This consists mainly
of private letters, rough copies of wills, receipts and
tax-gatherers' accounts. They throw a vivid light on
the social history of the Greek inhabitants of Egypt
at the time they were written, on the manners and
customs of the Ptolemaic period, and the economical
condition of the country. They bear out the con-
clusion recently arrived at by Prof. Mahaffy in his
work on Greek Life and Thought from Alexander to
the Roman Conquest, that the Greeks were much
more widely scattered through Egypt in the age of
the Ptolemies than has hitherto been supposed. They
were to be found not only in the great centres of
political life, Alexandria, Arsinofi Krokodilopolis,
Ptolemais and Diospolis or Thebes, but also in the
country, Mr. Petrie's papyri showing that the country
villages of the Fayoum were full of them. They
represented, in fact, not only the modern Greek
traders, but also the Turks of more recent days, and
constituted the main bulk of the higher official and
landed classes. Greek soldiers occupied country-
seats where the native peasants worked for them, and
THE GREEK PAPYRI.
text. The page was 8-i- inches in length, with a
margin at the top i inch wide and at the bottom i-i
inches wide. The space between the columns averages
f of an inch. Each column contains 37 lines of text
written in capitals. The dialogue is distinguished by
horizontal lines drawn over the first letter or two of
the line which introduces a new speaker. Unfortu-
nately the fragments are in a bad condition. The
majority of the lines are imperfect partly through
injury to the papyrus, partly through the obliteration
of the letters by the plaster with which they have
been smeared.
The first fragment seems to contain a dialogue
between Dirke and Lykos, in which reference is made
to the exposure and supposed death of the two sons
of Antiope, Zethos and Amphidn. This is followed
by a dialogue between the sons and their mother
which leads on to the death of Dirke. In the next
fragment the chorus is introduced, and Lykos then
appears upon the scene, exclaiming: " Ah me ! I am
to die, unaided, at the hands of two." To this Zethos
replies: " But do you not lament your wife who is
now among the dead ? " " How so ? " is the answer,
" is she dead ? 'tis of a new evil that thou speakest."
"Yes," says Zethos, "she is dead, torn in pieces with
thongs of bull-hide." " By whom ? " asks Lykos ; " by
you ? for I must needs learn this." Lykos, however,
is saved at the critical moment by the appearance of
Hermes, who orders him to bury his wife, and after
burning her bones on the funeral pyre to throw them
into the " Spring of Ares," which henceforth should
bear the name of Dirke, and flow through the city,
watering the land and saving it from bane. Hermes
then turns to the two brothers, who are to provide
" the city of Kadmos " with seven gates " in order that
it may be holy," while at the same time a lyre made
from the shell of a tortoise is given to Amphidn.
Amphi6n is appointed King of Thebes in place of
Lykos, he and his brother receiving " the highest
honours in the city of Kadmos," and preparations are
made for the marriage of Amphidn with Niobe " the
daughter of Tantalos," from among the "distant
Phrygians," and to send for her at once,* and Lykos
concludes the play with a sort of paternal blessing.
He yields the throne to his two sons, telling them
from henceforth to govern the land instead of himself,
"taking the sceptres of Kadmos." He goes on to
state that he will fling the ashes of his wife into the
spring as had been ordered by Hermes, and concludes
1 Hermes also declares that Amphion and Zethos shall be '' called the
white twin-foals of Zeus."
with the words, " I put an end to strife and to all that
is past."
Among the lines preserved in the papyrus are two,
belonging to a chorus, which have been quoted by
Stobaios (Eel. i. 3, 25, p. 118), a writer who flourished
in the fifth century A.D. The variations between the
text as given by the papyrus and by Stobaios are
very considerable, and confirm the inferences derived
from the fragments of the Phcedo that the text of the
Greek writers of the pre-Alexandrine period has
come to us in a much modified condition. It is
needless to insist upon the importance of this con-
clusion to the scholar.
Another fragment of a classical character is a page
which contains two imperfect columns of writing and
the ends of lines belonging to a third. It was found
along with documents dated in the 39th year of
Ptolemy Philadelphus (B.C. 247). The text is written
in large capitals but in a schoolboy's hand, and is
probably the rhetorical exercise of a pupil to whom it
was given to learn by heart. It is a passage in the
form of a dialogue from some rhetorical or philosophi-
cal work, now lost, which describes the duty of being
true to one's friends and draws an illustration from
Akhilles, who "tho' deprived even' of his armour
ran the greatest risks and alone of any who have ever
yet been born encountered death on behalf of his dead
companion."
67. The classical fragments, however, form but a
small part of the collection. This consists mainly
of private letters, rough copies of wills, receipts and
tax-gatherers' accounts. They throw a vivid light on
the social history of the Greek inhabitants of Egypt
at the time they were written, on the manners and
customs of the Ptolemaic period, and the economical
condition of the country. They bear out the con-
clusion recently arrived at by Prof. Mahaffy in his
work on Greek Life and Thought from Alexander to
the Roman Conquest, that the Greeks were much
more widely scattered through Egypt in the age of
the Ptolemies than has hitherto been supposed. They
were to be found not only in the great centres of
political life, Alexandria, Arsinofi Krokodilopolis,
Ptolemais and Diospolis or Thebes, but also in the
country, Mr. Petrie's papyri showing that the country
villages of the Fayoum were full of them. They
represented, in fact, not only the modern Greek
traders, but also the Turks of more recent days, and
constituted the main bulk of the higher official and
landed classes. Greek soldiers occupied country-
seats where the native peasants worked for them, and