Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 222 (P. Oxy. 222 or P. Oxy. II 222) is a list of ancient Olympic victors by an unknown author, written in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a roll. It is dated to the third century. Currently it is housed in the British Library (Department of Manuscripts, 1185) in London. [1]
The document was written by an unknown copyist. The recto side contains a list of Olympic victors from 480–468 BC and 456–448 BC. The verso side contains an accounting of money. The measurements of the fragment are 180 by 95 mm. The text is written in a small semi-cursive hand. [2]
It was discovered by Grenfell and Hunt in 1897 in Oxyrhynchus. The text was published by Grenfell and Hunt in 1899. [2]
According to Grenfell and Hunt, "the number of interesting points upon which the papyrus throws new light is very considerable."
A few examples of these points are as follows: The manuscript allowed the dating of Pindar's victory odes on the Pythian Games to be definitively confirmed at 582 BC. It also allowed the dates of three of Pindar's odes, which had previously been disputed, to be determined precisely. The papyrus also dated Pindar's First Olympian Ode and the Fifth ode of Bacchylides.
This papyrus proved that Bacchylides was alive as late as 452 BC, when the latest previously known date was 468 BC. It showed that Polykleitos and Pythagoras of Rhegium flourished in the fifth century BC. It also cleared up a long-disputed point of interpretation of a passage in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (vii 4.2).
The more general value of the papyrus lies in its bearing on the wider question of the credibility of early scholiasts and commentators on matters of fact of the sort discussed in the manuscript. Because it was found at a remote and relatively unimportant center of Hellenic culture, it shows that such information was widely diffused and easily accessible throughout the Hellenic world. Given such diffusion, false statements of fact by ancient authors would have been easily detected, which makes it very unlikely that such authors would risk exposure by making things up. Thus this manuscript supports an assumption of the trustworthiness of ancient tradition as a sound principle of modern textual criticism.
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient rubbish dump near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 212 consists of three fragments of a comedy of Aristophanes, written in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a roll. It is dated to the first or second century. Currently it is housed in the British Library in London.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 213 consists of two fragments of a tragedy by an unknown author, written in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a roll. It is dated to the second century. Currently it is housed in the British Library in London.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 214 is a fragment of an epic by an unknown author, written in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a codex. It is dated to the third century. Currently it is housed in the British Library in London.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 215 is a philosophical fragment by an unknown author, written in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a roll. It is dated to the first century BC or first century AD. Currently it is housed in the British Library in London.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 216 is a rhetorical exercise by an unknown author, written in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a roll. It is dated to the first century BC or first century AD. Currently it is housed in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (35) of the Yale University.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 217 is a letter to a king of Macedon by an unknown author, written in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a roll. It is dated to the third century AD. Currently it is housed in the Cambridge University Library (35) in Cambridge.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 218 is a historical fragment by an unknown author, written in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a roll. It is dated to the third century AD. Currently it is housed in the British Library in London.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 219 is a lament for a pet by an unknown author, written in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a roll. It is dated to the first century AD. Currently it is housed in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (36) of the Yale University.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 220 is a treatise on prosody, written by an unknown author in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a roll. It is dated to the first century or second century AD. Currently it is housed in the British Library in London.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 221 contains Homeric scholia by an unknown author, written in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a roll. It is dated to the second century. Frederic G. Kenyon dated it to the first century or the first half of the second century. Currently it is housed in the British Library in London.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 236 consists of three fragments concerning Ptolemy Neos Dionysus (Auletes), written in Greek. They were discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a sheet. It is dated to the 1st century BC. Currently it is housed in The British Library.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 246 is a fragment of a registration of some sheep, written in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a sheet. It is dated to 24 July 66. Currently it is housed in the Cambridge University Library in Cambridge.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 249 is a fragment of a registration of some property, written by an unknown author, in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a sheet. It is dated to 10 October 80. Currently it is housed in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of the Yale University in New Haven.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 250 is a fragment of a registration of some property, written by an unknown author in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a sheet. It is dated to 26 April - 25 May 61. Currently it is housed in the library of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 257 is a fragment of a census return, in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a sheet. It is dated to the year 94-95. The owner of the fragment and the place of its current housing is unknown.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 277 is a fragment of a Lease of Land, in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a sheet. It is dated to 6 September 19 BC. Currently it is housed in the British Library in London.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 281 is a fragment of a Complaint against a Husband, in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a sheet. It is dated between years 20-50. Currently it is housed in the library of the Royal Holloway College in Surrey.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 284 is a fragment of an Extortion by a Tax-Collector, in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a sheet. It is dated to the year about 50. Currently it is housed in the Houghton Library of the Harvard University in Cambridge.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 287 is a fragment of a Payment of Corn, in Greek. It was discovered in Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a sheet. It is dated to the 23 November 23. Currently it is housed in the library of the Columbia University in New York City.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: B. P. Grenfell; A. S. Hunt (1899). Oxyrhynchus Papyri II. London: Egypt Exploration Fund.