EURIPIDES: BACCHAE

MS 1802/01
MS Short Title EURIPIDES: BACCHAE
Text EURIPIDES: BACCHAE, 681-6, 725-730, 1032-34, 1068-71
Description MS in Greek on papyrus, Egypt, 6th c., 4 fragments, 3,5x8,1 cm, 3,9x9,0 cm, 3,0x7,6 cm, 3,2x9,0 cm, single column, 3-5 lines in an informal sloping Greek half-uncial.
Context The 4 fragments were used as pastedown in a leather binding. Part of the leather adheres to fragment 3. Fragments 1 and 2 origins from a late classical codex. Fragment 3 is uninscribed, but has offsets of Bacchae 1032-4, and 725-30. Fragment 4 has 1 line of a commentary in Greek cursive, and offsets of Bacchae 1069-71.
Provenance 1. 1. Mohammed Sha'ar, Cairo (1920'es); 2. Issa Marogi Collection, Jerusalem (ca. 1955-ca. 1984); 3. Heirs of Marogi family, Jerusalem (1984-1993); 4. Fayez Barakat, Los Angeles, California, March 1994.
Commentary Bacchae (The women of Bacchus, or Dionysus) was Euripides' (485-406 BC) last play, written 408-606 BC for king Archelaos of Macedonia. It is the only preserved Greek Dionysian cult drama. Dionysus, god of wine and ecstasy, was son of Zeus and Semele, daughter of Cadmus, king of Thebes. Euripides' drama was about the introduction into Greece of a new religion, different from the cult of the traditional 12 Olympian gods. Nevertheless Dionysius' name has been found on linear B tablets, indicating his name and cult might be Minoan or Mycenaean in origin. Apart from the present papyrus, only 7 papyri of Bacchae survive.
Published Papyrologica Florentina, vol. XXXV. Rosario Pintaudi: Papyri Graecae Schøyen. Firenze, Edizioni Gonnelli, 2005 (Manuscripts in The Schøyen Collection V: Greek papyri, vol. I), pp. 29-32.
Place of origin Egypt
Dates 6th Century