1,700-year-old fragment of the 'Odyssey' discovered in Dutch library
Live Science • • entertainment
Key Points:
- Mark de Kreij, a Greek literature expert at Radboud University, discovered a torn parchment fragment containing verses from Homer's "Odyssey" while studying early Christian manuscripts in the Utrecht University library.
- The tiny fragment, about 2.6 by 3 inches, dates back to around A.D. 300 and includes a passage from Book 12 describing the punishment of Odysseus' men for killing the sun god Helios' sacred cattle.
- This discovery is the second recent find of Homeric epic fragments, following the spring 2024 unearthing of "Iliad" papyrus inside a Roman-era Egyptian mummy.
- The parchment likely originated from a pocket-sized codex from Egypt's Fayum oasis and may have survived due to its protected position within the codex; its presence in the larger manuscript collection remains unexplained.
- De Kreij's full research on the Utrecht University’s Greco-Roman texts collection will be published soon in a book titled "Hieratic, Demotic, Greek, and Coptic Texts in the Utrecht University Collection."
