Scrap of 1700-Year-Old Copy of The Odyssey Washes up in Utrecht - DutchNews.nl
The fragile parchment contains verses from Book 12 and was identified among Coptic manuscripts bought by the university.
- A 1,700-year-old parchment fragment containing verses from The Odyssey was discovered at Utrecht University. Researcher Mark de Kreij identified the artifact, measuring 6.6cm by 7.7cm, within a collection of manuscripts formerly owned by a German scientist.
- The text, written in Ancient Greek, was nestled among Coptic papyri, which are Egyptian texts written in the Greek alphabet. Kreij discovered the piece while examining manuscripts purchased from the estate of German academic Carl Schmidt.
- Verses from book 12 of Homer's epic detail the moment Odysseus's men consumed the sacred cattle of the sun god Helios. This action prompted Zeus to destroy the fleet and kill the army, ignoring their leader's warnings.
- Utrecht University publicized the find following the success of Christopher Nolan's recent screen adaptation, which renewed interest in The Odyssey. This surge boosted sales of English and Dutch translations.
- Only about 30 similar fragments from this period have survived, underscoring how the epic tale has endured for millennia. Kreij noted "there are so many boring parts in the Odyssey," yet called this passage "a really fun" moment.
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1,700-year-old fragment of the 'Odyssey' discovered between pages of Dutch library book
A researcher was perusing a collection of old Egyptian texts in a Dutch library when he stumbled upon a torn piece of parchment containing a pivotal story: a section from Homer's "Odyssey." The fragment appears to be from a pocket edition of the epic produced in Egypt around A.D. 300.The researcher, Mark de Kreij, a Greek literature expert and professor at Radboud University in the Netherlands, found the parchment while studying early Christian …
Utrecht University Library had been in possession of the piece of parchment for decades, but has only known what text is on it for the past two years. "This was the perfect moment to tell it."
The fragment measures 6.6 by 7.7 centimeters, approximately the size of a card from a deck.It belonged to a Homer reader who lived in Egypt in the year 300.
The preserved verses narrate one of the decisive moments of the work: when Helio, the god of the sun, discovers that the companions of Ulysses (or Odysseus, in the Greek version) sacrificed and ate the sacred flock, despite the prohibition
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