Posted on 01/11/2003 1:51:35 PM PST by vannrox
Translators unravel old scroll's secrets
2003-01-07 By Diane Clay The Oklahoman
On a dry day 2,000 years ago, a worker charged with mummifying a body among the tombs of Egypt preserved what would become one of the largest ancient literary finds in history.
Experts, including Cincinnati professor Kathryn Gutzwiller, said the worker cut and molded a piece of papyrus -- what to him was a scrap of paper -- into a chest cover that resembled papier-mache. The cover formed a hard layer on the mummy before intricate decorations were added.
The mummy was entombed, along with the papyrus, until 1992, when the body was stolen from Egypt. Gutzwiller said the papyrus, an ancient paper made from a tall grassy sedge in the Nile Valley, made its way to the antiquities market, where it lingered until being discovered by two scholars at the University of Milan.
Papyrologists in Milan studied and translated the scroll for years before discovering its author -- Posidippus. Two of the 112 poems translated from the scroll were already known works of Posidippus, and the rest appear similar in style.
Ancient Poetry
The poems of Posidippus found on the Milan Papyrus are being translated by Frank Nisetich, emeritus professor of classics at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and visiting scholar at Boston University. This poem, in a provisional translation, is one of the few previously known Posidippus poems in the collection.
The purple whip and shimmering reins that desk the horse-ennobled passage into your temple are gifts of Plangon, who beat Philainis racing bareback, steed against steed, the colts of evening just starting to whinny!
Beloved Kypris, grant her the glory she deserves in victory, her thanks forever here memorialized.
This poem was previously unknown.
Wherever you hold Pythermos the good, who died under the chill of Capricorn, cover him lightly, black Earth.
But if it's you, Father of the Sea, who keep him hidden, put him out now, intact, on the bare sand in full view of Kyme (a place), giving, as you should, the dead man, O Master of the Sea, back to his native land.
The full translation of what papyrologists are calling one of the earliest poetry books took 10 years.
An Italian company produced the works last year, publishing them in Italian, English and the original Greek. The results were presented to American experts in November.
More than 60 experts on papyrus writings, Hellenistic and Roman literature, art history and Ptolemaic history met at the University of Cincinnati to present the findings of their research.
Scholars may never know for sure who wrote all of the poems, since the name of the author or authors is missing. Several sections of the scroll have holes or missing pieces from the mummification process as the worker cut the paper to fit the body.
"The fact that we have the artifact, that we have an original copy of an ancient work, that's what's particularly remarkable," said Gutzwiller, professor of classics and an expert on Greek poetry at the University of Cincinnati.
"For some reason, someone was no longer interested in this copy. It was trash at that point."
Gutzwiller said she believes Posidippus is the sole author of the scroll, since most of the writings match his style of witty, short epigrams. Also, no other names appear on the scroll near the separate works.
The very short poems that make up the 600-line scroll are written for prostitutes, queens, Greek rulers, shipwrecks, omens, official dedications and equestrian victories at the Panhellenic Games. It is a record of daily life.
The work includes several references to Alexander the Great, a king of Macedonia who conquered a vast empire in the third century, including Egypt. Alexandria, Egypt, is named for him.
The style of short Greek poems or epigrams originated as inscriptions written on stone as grave epitaphs or dedications to gods.
When they became a literary form, they involved other subjects, but maintained their shortness.
The writing form continued into the 20th century and is still practiced for "fun" by some people with traditional classical training, Gutzwiller said.
The style of Posidippus' writings made him somewhat of the syndicated columnist of third century B.C.
Until the third century B.C., poets and writers produced few copies of their works and did not gather them in collections as is common today.
The new scroll provides researchers further proof that poetry collections first appeared during that period.
"It looks like it is well-written and carefully written," Gutzwiller said.
"It looks like it was professionally done."
The poems were meant to be read or recited for enjoyment, rather than just to commemorate a person or event.
Posidippus was popular even then for his epigrams. The author from Pella worked in the Aegean region from about 280 to 240 B.C.
He expanded on the usual couplets of epigrams, creating poems on the wonders of nature, gems, rocks and weather omens. He described cures for ills and was fascinated with shipwreck deaths. He critiqued sculpture and gave special attention to queens whose horses won derbies.
His work found on the mummy was likely discarded papyrus used on the body after it had been mummified and wrapped in linen strips. A casting was placed over the mummy's chest, made from layers of papyrus.
The casting on this mummy was brightly painted red, white and blue with flourishes of winged griffins, a prized find for tomb robbers.
Gutzwiller said while scholars know the body was stolen, little is known about how the paper ended up at the University of Milan. And with good reason. Looting is a crime in Egypt, and authorities could ask for the scroll to be returned.
She said the thieves shopped the paper around the antiquities market until it was purchased by the two scholars at the University of Milan.
The looters did not know what they had, and neither did scholars.
"They didn't know quite what they had until they had worked on it for a while. They certainly didn't know it was Posidippus," Gutzwiller said.
The mummy, which dates from the second century B.C., is in a private collection.
Daniel Snell, a history professor at the University of Oklahoma, said the preservation of ancient artifacts, including paper literature, is more likely in places such as Egypt than places such as Europe.
The dry conditions along with processes such as mummification keep the materials safe from erosion, preserving them for centuries.
Many of the Greek works preserved today were recreated or reprinted through the centuries as copies of the originals.
The few examples of original ancient Greek work have come from mummies, although many of them are partial pieces of papyrus with writing on them. They do have dates.
The Posidippus scroll is nearly complete except for the missing sections and a few missing poems at the end.
"Most of classical literature comes from much earlier text. We assume there is a lot missing," Snell said.
"There will be others like this."
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