Archaeologists Unearth a Papyrus Fragment From the 'Iliad' Tucked Inside the Wrappings of a 1,600-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy

Smithsonian Magazine ^ | April 23, 2026 | Ellen Wexler

[SunkenCiv]

In the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, archaeologists recently discovered a 1,600-year-old tomb with several mummies inside. Some of them were decorated with gold leaf or geometric patterns—features commonly found in burials of this kind.

But one of the mummies was unearthed alongside a particularly unusual artifact: a papyrus fragment from Homer's Iliad, the epic poem set during the Trojan War. The ancient Greek text had been tucked beneath the wrappings on the mummy's abdomen during the embalming process.

"The fact that in this case the text, in Greek, refers to a literary text is truly novel," say Maite Mascort and Esther Pons, who lead the Oxyrhynchus Archaeological Mission, in a statement to Smithsonian magazine. "We are currently studying and proposing various hypotheses."

The passage in question comes from a famous section of the Iliad that's known as the catalog of ships. In Book II of the more than 2,700-year-old text, the narrator calls on the muses, asking them to name the leaders of the Greek forces that sailed to the city of Troy: "For you are goddesses and are in all places so that you see all things." The remainder of the passage provides a lengthy list of these warriors. A man named Guneus arrived with "two and twenty ships from Cyphus." Tlepolemus, "son of Hercules, a man both brave and of great stature," brought nine ships from Rhodes. And so on.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

I know...he said something, but it was but Greek to you! :)

[Does so]

The first Mummy’s Day card?

[PUGACHEV]

Sadly, I cannot read Ancient Greek, but I know a nun who does and she has tutored me a bit. Whenever I want to judge a translation of the Iliad, I go to Book XXI and read of the death of Lycaon. It is simply the most terrifying, but poetically lyrical passage in all of literature, IMHO. Even a poor translation is certain to give you a chill; a good one you will remember for the rest of your life: “…And the silver-sided fish will dart from beneath the shadow of a dark ripple to nip at the white fat of Lycaon”.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Well, that applies to a lot of people. You almost have to go to a specialized prep school or college to find Greek being taught.

The Open Society Initiatives that "Thought Leaders" began in the 1930s have de-empahsized Western Civilization courses, including Greek and Latin, and replaced them with Leftist Poly-Sci, Sociology, and small world self discovery curriculum aimed at finding personal "Meaning". In 1945 Harvard had a Curriculum recommendations were about 50/50 Western Civ and Technical. The most recent recommendations do not contain any Western Civ.

[PUGACHEV]

I have been told that one cannot truly appreciate the beauty of the Iliad in any form of translation. The same is apparently true of Russian literature. With Shakespeare, at least, we enjoy the other side of the equation. Still, I hope I live long enough for some poet to do with the Iliad what Seamus Heaney did for Beowulf.