Literature
The papyri show people in all aspects of
everyday life. They also give insight into the reading habits of the
inhabitants of Tebtunis. The books that have been found at Tebtunis
include both Greek and Egyptian blockbusters. On the Greek side, the
most popular author in Tebtunis, as in the remainder of Greco–Roman
Egypt, was Homer, especially the Iliad. The hands of the Homer
manuscripts identified thus far range from exquisite bookhands to
clumsy scripts; some, perhaps, are writing exercises.
Among the books on the reading tables of at
least certain people in Tebtunis were also a number of Greek works one
might not expect in the Egyptian countryside. Two works stand out: The
first is a substantial fragment of a work that was known only in its
Latin adaptation until the discovery of the Tebtunis papyri. The work
concerns the Trojan War and was allegedly written by a certain Dictys
from Crete, the supposed companion of the Greek warrior Idomeneus at
the walls of Troy. The second is a fragment of a work from that was
considered to be lost: the Inachus, written by the Greek
tragedian Sophocles (5th century BCE).
On the Egyptian side, other collections with
papyri from Tebtunis (notably Copenhagen) possess literary texts like
romances and mythological works. Up to now, very little scholarly
attention has been given to the Egyptian part of the Berkeley
collection. However, a rapid survey of the uncatalogued portion of the
collection by a scholar who is presently publishing Egyptian literary
material from the Copenhagen collection has revealed as many as three
dozen fragments that likely are part of Egyptian narrative texts. These
texts have not yet been properly studied.
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P. Tebt. II 265
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Homer
Iliad, Book 2
2nd century CE
Recovered from a house at Tebtunis, this is
one of several fragments that survive from a scroll containing Book 2
of the Iliad. To date, 18 different Homeric papyri have been found in
the collection -- proof of the popularity and wide distribution
of Homer's work in antiquity. The writing on this fragment is a
particularly beautiful Greek uncial. The Bancroft has 14 fragments from
this particular scroll mounted in 6 glass frames.
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P.Tebt.II 268
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Dictys Cretensis
De bello Troiano IV, 8–15
Early 3rd century CE
The Trojan War was an enormously popular
subject during the Middle Ages. Its story had been transmitted through
the Latin version of a work by Dictys Cretensis (Dictys of Crete), not
via the Homeric version. For years it was disputed whether the Dictys
really had an ancient Greek original as claimed. The discovery in the
Tebtunis papyri of this large fragment of Dictys's "novel" in Greek
settled the question.
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P.Tebt. III.1 692
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Sophocles
Inachus
2nd century BCE
Sophocles is known to have written over 120
plays, but only seven texts survive today. His best known works are Oedipus
Rex, Oedipus at Colonnus and Antigone. Recovered
from a human mummy at Tebtunis were these fragments of a satyr play
that has been identified as the lost Inachus. It includes lines
for the chorus and for the god Hermes.
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