Ancient Greek Verses Discovered In Vatican

Reuters ^ | 12-5-2003

[blam]

Ancient Greek verses discovered in Vatican

Fri 5 December, 2003 22:21

ROME (Reuters) - A manuscript containing possibly unknown verses penned by the ancient Greek playwright Menander more than 2,000 years ago have come to light at the Vatican Library, the Vatican's newspaper has said.

While half of the 400 verses, copied on to a parchment in the ninth century, appear to be come from Menander's only salvaged play "The Grouch", or "Dyskolos", researchers believe 200 verses could be completely new finds.

"The deciphering and deep analysis of the new fragments...will allow us to read again, after two millennia, a text that was believed to be lost," L'Osservatore Romano daily said on Friday.

The verses were discovered by Francesco D'Aiuto, the Vatican Library's specialist in Greek manuscripts.

Menander, a prolific writer of Greek comedies who was born in 342 BC, has been called the father of the modern sitcom.

For years his texts were only known due to references from his contemporary admirers. Over the last century, manuscripts with fragments of his plays have come to light, including an almost complete copy of "The Grouch".

The protagonists of the new verses found at the Vatican Library are an old woman, a newborn child and a girl, according to initial studies, although the details of the plot have yet to unfold, L'Osservatore said.

The manuscript is a copy of Menander's verses written on animal skin and stored in a Syrian monastery before making its way to the Vatican.

[blam]

Ping.

[stylin19a]

It seems most of the verses start out:

"There once was two greeks from Thebes..."

[farmfriend]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
List for articles regarding early civilizations , life of all forms, - dinosaurs - etc.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this ping list.

[clee1]

Wonder what else the Vatican has stashed away? Elvis? JFK's real assasin? A UFO or two dozen?

[aristeides]

I suppose we should be grateful for anything that turns up, but I confess I am disappointed that the ancient literature that has been being rediscovered recently is largely Menander, who wrote sort of the ancient equivalent of situation comedies. How much more exciting it would be to get new Aeschylus, say, or Sappho, or Aristotle (whose dialogues were still known to Cicero, and were said to be written in a better style than Plato's.)

[CatoRenasci]

Aristotle whose dialogues were still known to Cicero, and were said to be written in a better style than Plato's.

That wouldn't be hard. I have never found Plato a particularly enjoyable read, apart from is thoroughly rotten philosophy.

[aristeides]

Have you read Plato in Greek? I consider the prose of Plato (as well as the prose of Herodotus) to be among the most pleasing in all literature, in terms of style.

By the way, Cicero, who was no mean stylist himself, was qualified to judge prose style.

[Calvin Locke]

Wonder what else the Vatican has stashed away?

I'm sure the Vatican would like to know too. I'd bet that more than one libranian died of the plague before filing the Dewey Decimal tracking cards

[Calvin Locke]

I consider the prose of Plato to be among the most pleasing in all literature, in terms of style.

May be, but he doesn't translate well. And his philosphy, well, any one that would ban Homer is just plain green with envy.

Now, banning Hollywoodizations of Homer, that's a different, um, story.

[DefCon]

Sometimes I think the Vatican just needs to haul
all those boxes of stuff in their basement
out to the driveway and have a big garage sale.

[CatoRenasci]

No, only in translation I'm afraid. I've read at least two different English translations of most of the dialogues, and probably four of the Republic. I have yet to find one that would suggest Plato was anything of a stylist. My Greek-reading friends tend to be divided on his style: those (a minority) who like his philosophy tend to like his style, those who find him disagreeable as a philosopher almost all dislike his style.

I agree about Cicero being a great Latin stylist.

[Physicist]

While half of the 400 verses, copied on to a parchment in the ninth century, appear to be come from Menander's only salvaged play "The Grouch", or "Dyskolos", researchers believe 200 verses could be completely new finds.

I recently read the Penn translation of Dyskolos (although I think a better translation of the title would be "The Old Fart"). I really enjoyed it, along with the rest of Menander's plays. I hope this new manuscript fills in some of the gaps.

[diotima]

Ping!

I think there is more where this came from......

[Physicist]

How much more exciting it would be to get new Aeschylus, say

I'm sure you've heard of this.

[aristeides]

Your link doesn't work for me.

[Physicist]

How about this?

[bert]

In the AP account, one of the verses was the plot line for a Simpsons episode

[aristeides]

Thanks, I hadn't known so much of that play had recently been discovered. I wonder if the text (of the new fragments in Ancient Greek) is published some place.

[BobS]

Menander, a prolific writer of Greek comedies who was born in 342 BC, has been called the father of the modern sitcom.

Does he beat Sanford and Son?