Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 842

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Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 842 (P. Oxy. V 842 | LDAB 583) is a papyrus manuscript, written in Ancient Greek, discovered during the 1906 excavations in Oxyrhynchus in modern Egypt by Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt. [1] It contains a history of classic Greece for the years 396-395 BCE. Along with PSI XII 1304, it makes up the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia. [2]

Contents

Background and description

Originally consisting of around 230 fragments of various sizes, Grenfell and Hunt were able to piece together all but 53 of them. [3] They produced a transcription of the pieced together fragments, along with two plates and a translation in The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part 5 in 1908. [1] The manuscript itself is written on the verso (reverse) of a papyrus roll that was originally used as an official land-survey register. [1] Though starting off very fragmentary, the final result evidences around 21 columns of text.

The average dimensions of each column is 16.7 cm height by 9 cm width, with the roll height at 21.2 cm. [3]

The script type of the manuscript is an example of the severe style or strenger stil. [4] This is characterised by a sloping, pointed handwriting with alternating thick and thin horizontal and vertical strokes. [5]

According to Grenfell & Hunt, at least two hands were responsible for the manuscript, with the first hand writing most of the manuscript, from Column 1-4, then Column 6 line 27-Column 21. Hand two therefore wrote column 5 to column 6 line 26. Hand one wrote in "a small neat uncial of the sloping oval type... at the end of a line is generally indicated by a horizontal stroke above the final letter... A peculiar characteristic of this scribe is his tendency (especially at the ends of lines) to combine the letters and or and so that the last vertical stroke of the first letter serves also as the first of the second... Diaereses are sometimes placed over ι and υ." Hand two is characterised as writing "smaller and rougher than the first [hand]. At the end of a line is often written as a horizontal stroke; and a diaeresis occurs in v. 44. Stops (high points) are freely employed, a slight space being also left to mark the pause, and sometimes the space occurs where the stop is omitted... A paragraphus is found in vi. 10 marking a transition which the first hand would have ignored... Unlike the first scribe, the second hand writes ι adscript."

Date of Manuscript

Based on the land register on the recto (front) mentioning the 4th and 12th year of an unnamed Emperor, Grenfell & Hunt state that "since the survey was probably written soon after the 12th year, the reign of Commodus, which in Egypt was reckoned from his father's accession and therefore begins with his 20th year, is out of the question ; the reign of Hadrian or Antoninus is as likely to be meant as that of Marcus Aurelius[,]" [3] : 111  and therefore "the survey on the recto was, as we have said, written about the middle of the second century, and we should ascribe the text on the verso to the end of that century or the early part of the third." [3] : 112  Accordingly, the Leuven Database of Ancient Books gives the manuscript a date range of 150-224 CE. [6]

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Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 581 is a papyrus fragment written in Ancient Greek, apparently recording the sale of a slave girl. Dating from 29 August 99 AD, P. Oxy. 581 was discovered, alongside hundreds of other papyri, by Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt while excavating an ancient landfill at Oxyrhynchus in modern Egypt. The document's contents were published by the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1898, which also secured its donation to University College, Dundee, later the University of Dundee, in 1903 – where it still resides. Measuring 6.3 x 14.7 cm and consisting of 17 lines of text, the artifact represents the conclusion of a longer record, although the beginning of the papyrus was lost before it was found. P. Oxy. 581 has received a modest amount of scholarly attention, most recently and completely in a 2009 translation by classicist Amin Benaissa of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

References

  1. 1 2 3 D'Alessio, Giovan Battista (2001). "Danni materiali e ricostruzione di rotoli papiracei: Le Elleniche di Ossirinco ("POxy" 842) e altri esempi". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik (in Italian). 134: 26.
  2. ↑ Lehmann, G. A. (1977). "Ein neues Fragment der Hell. Oxy.: Einige Bemerkungen zu P. Cairo (Temp. inv. no.) 26/6/27/1-35". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik (in German). 26: 181.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Grenfell, Bernard Pyne; Hunt, Arthur Surridge (1908). The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Vol. V. Oxford; London: Oxford University Press. p. 110.
  4. ↑ Del Corso, Lucio (2006). "Lo 'stile severo' nei P.Oxy.: una lista". Aegyptus (in Italian). 86: 84.
  5. ↑ Orisini, P.; Clarysse, Willy (2012). "Early New Testament Manuscripts and their Dates: A Critique of Theological Palaeography". Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses. 88 (4): 456.
  6. ↑ LDAB 583
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