XV PAPYRI A NUMBER of literary fragments have made their appearance during the past year, for the most part in two publications, the Berliner Klassikertexte1 and the Hibeh Papyri. Of the former, two parts have been issued. Part IV, edited by H. von Arnim, with the assistance of W. Schubart, contains considerable portions of a treatise upon the Principles of Ethics ('Horn ΣTоixeίwσis), by Hierocles, preserved on the verso of the commentary by Didymus on Demosthenes, which was published in a previous part of the same series. The author is identified on stylistic grounds with the Hierocles excerpted by Stobaeus, whose quotations do not however come from this particular book. The manuscript, which is written in a semi-uncial hand, with numerous abbreviations, appears to belong to the second century, and is thus separated by but a short interval from the date at which the philosopher, a Stoic, and probably a contemporary of Epictetus, is supposed to have flourished. Part V, edited by Schubart and Wilamowitz-Möllendorff, will appeal to a wider circle. It is devoted to poetical fragments, and is issued in two instalments, one containing epic and elegiac pieces, the second lyrics, fragments of tragedy and comedy, etc. None of the items is of great length, and their mutilated condition is often most tantalising; but several of them make valuable additions to our knowledge, and the features 1 Berlin, Weidmann, 1906-7. * Part i, by Grenfell and Hunt; Egypt Exploration Fund, GraecoRoman Branch, 1906. of interest are brought out to the full in WilamowitzMöllendorff's learned commentaries. In the Homeric section (i) the principal text (2) is part of a treatise giving a prose paraphrase, with extracts, of an Orphic poem on the rape of Persephone. This poem is identified by F. Bücheler, who edits the fragments, with the Κόρης ἁρπαγὴ καὶ Δήμητρος Sýrnois mentioned in the Parian marble; but the chief point of interest is that the quotations to a large extent coincide with the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which was coolly appropriated by the Orphic writer. Since the papyrus belongs to the first century B.C. its testimony is of much weight for the text of the Hymn, which depends upon a single inferior MS. of the fourteenth century. The difference between the two witnesses is however far less than would be expected, and the effect of the discovery, as Mr. Allen in his article upon it recognises,' is decidedly to increase our respect for the mediaeval tradition. 3, a small fragment of Iliad Σ, with critical signs, is also attributed to the first century B.C., and is remarkable, like earlier Ptolemaic texts, for the presence of several verses not found in the vulgate; four of them come from the Hesiodic Aspis. Hesiod (ii. 1-5) is represented by four fragments from the Catalogues and one from the Works, but three of these are too small to be of importance, and of the other two, both from the Suitors of Helen, one has been previously printed. The second, a papyrus of the third century, includes two long columns in fair preservation. The editors show good grounds for holding that the treatment of Ajax presupposes the Homeric Catalogue as we now have it, and hence that the composition of the poem cannot be earlier than the age of Pisistratus; but they seem mistaken in explaining the marginal in the second column as denoting a new section; it is much more likely to mark, as usual, the 200th line of the book. Several columns, one moderately complete, from the Phaenomena of Aratus (iii. 1) are of some interest, since hitherto that poem has not occurred among the papyri. 1 Classical Review, June 1907, pp. 97 ff. Another small fragment in the British Museum has lately been identified by Mr. Bell. The Berlin MS. shows in general a text of poor quality, but gives some good readings. A small piece of Theocritus on vellum and a few broken Theocritean scholia on papyrus (iv. 1, 2) are of slight value; but thirty lines of Euphorion (v), identified by means of a quotation in the scholia of Nicander, and mostly in good preservation, are very welcome. They afford a clearer idea than was formerly attainable of the quality of this poet, who would appear to have been a feeble imitator of Callimachus. A considerable fragment of an unknown epic poem on Diomedes (vi), apparently of the early Hellenistic period, is of some merit, and the date of the papyrus shows that the work had readers as late as the fifth century; vii. 1, containing a few extant epigrams from the Stephanus of Meleager, and viii, some fragments from a papyrus codex of Oppian, Halieutica v, are unimportant. A curious form of composition is represented in ix, part of a fourth-century book containing panegyrics on two dead professors of Berytus, one of whom was a rhetorician. These effusions are divided into two parts, an iambic preface being followed in one case by hexameters, in the other by elegiacs; and, with a singular economy, the author uses practically the same preface for both persons. The longest text in the collection is x, comprising most of Book xv, with the end of xiv and beginning of xvi, of Nonnus' Dionysiaca. This papyrus, which is assigned to the seventh century, is valuable for critical purposes, our tradition having hitherto been virtually dependent upon a single Laurentian manuscript. The epic fragments conclude with three encomia of late date, (1), already published, on the victory of Germanus over the Blemmyes, (2) on a dux of the Thebaid, (3) on one John, perhaps a praefectus praetorio Orientis, consisting of 90 lines divided, as in ix, between an iambic preface and the poem proper in hexameters. The second half of Part V is no less noteworthy. Of two 1 Classical Quarterly, April 1907. pieces of Alcaeus (xii. 1, 2), one had already been published; but it is now recognised (p. 148) that parts of ten lines at Aberdeen1 belong to the same papyrus. The other Alcaic fragment contains seven stanzas, unfortunately so much mutilated that no consecutive reconstruction is attempted. The two fragments of Sappho (xiii. 1, 2) also are not new, but scholars will be grateful for the careful revision of the important longer piece. Interest in this section largely centres upon a second-century papyrus (xiv) containing considerable remains of two poems attributed, with much probability, to Corinna, one describing a contest in singing between the mythical personages Helicon and Cithaeron, from whom the mountains were named; the other relating to the daughters of Asopus, who holds a dialogue with Acraephen, the prophet of Apollo of Ptoion. They are sadly broken, but throw an instructive light upon the methods and subjects of the poetess of Tanagra, who is found treating local Boeotian legends in a simple style, entirely different from that of Pindar. A fragment, written about 300 B.C., of a collection of skolia (xv. 1) preserves a couple of songs complete. They appear to date from the fourth century, and serve to illustrate the later development of this kind of poetry, of which the known specimens were older. Tragedy is represented by a small piece of papyrus, the contents of which point to the 'Αχαιών Σύλλογος of Sophocles (xvi), and nine fragments of Euripides, the most important (xvii. 1) consisting of fifty-two verses, which are mainly occupied by a speech of Pasiphae, and identify the play with sufficient clearness as the Cretans. They are preserved on a vellum leaf, which is assigned to the first century A.D., but can hardly be earlier than the end of the second, at least. Remains of two florilegia give some lyrics from the Phaethon, found also in the Cod. Claromontanus of St. Paul's Epistles (xvii. 2), and thirty-two lines from the Melanippe Desmotis (xx. col. 3), identified by coincidences with extant citations, besides an extract from the Hippolytus (xx. col. 5). 1 Th. Reinach, Revue des Études Grecques, xviii. 413. Other considerable pieces of the last drama and a fragment of the Melanippe (xvii. 3, 4) were already edited, and scraps of the Medea and Troades (5, 6: the latter on a wooden tablet) are insignificant. Of Aristophanes there are several leaves from a papyrus book (5th century?) covering portions of the Acharnians, Frogs, and Birds, and textually of some value (xviii. 1), as well as some worthless fragments of the Clouds on vellum. It is remarkable that the Egyptian testimony to Aristophanes is so far all of this late epoch. xix. A and B are remnants of comedies of the Menandrian period, the second being a fair-sized piece from near the beginning of the play, which may well be by Menander, though no identification can be established. The decadence of taste is exemplified in an insipid anapaestic poem (xxi) on a Trojan theme, probably of the late Ptolemaic age. A short lyrical address to 1úxn, written on the back of some metrical rules in hexameters (xxii), closes the series. The literary section of the Hibeh papyri, which were obtained from the cartonnage of mummies, belongs roughly to the first half of the third century B.C., and includes some of the oldest specimens of the Greek book-hand extant. Among the new poetical pieces is the commencement of a gnomic poem (1), in trochaic tetrameters, claiming the authorship of Epicharmus, but more probably the work of Axiopistus, who collected and edited extracts from the poet's writings; fragments of tragedies, doubtfully identified as the Tyro of Sophocles and the Oeneus of Euripides (3, 4); several damaged columns from two New Attic comedies (5, 6), one of which, it is suggested, may be by Philemon, and the original of Plautus' Aulularia.1 Of the prose fragments the most interesting consists of thirty-four practically complete lines from a discourse upon music (13), not improbably by Hippias of Elis, the contemporary of Socrates. There are also some remains of the speech of Lysias against Theozotides (14), four well-preserved columns of a rhetorical exercise on 1 This very questionable hypothesis is controverted by Leo, Hermes, xli. p. 629, and defended by Blass, Rhein. Museum, xlii. pp. 102 ff. |