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Homer's Iliad | MS 5094

HOMER: ILIAD

MS 5094
MS Short Title HOMER: ILIAD
Text HOMER: THE ILIAD XVII:637-644, 679-685, + 1 EXTRA AND 1 NEW UNRECORDED LINE
Description MS in Greek on papyrus, Egypt, mid 3rd c. BC, 5 fragments from column 15 of a scroll of originally 17 columns, 4,0x3,0 cm, 2,5x1,8 cm, 5,5x1,7 cm and 2,0x1,3 cm, parts of column 15, (column size ca. 24x9 cm), 16 lines in irregular Greek capitals.
Binding
Context With book 17 alone, the scroll would have been ca. 26x175 cm. With both books 17 and 18 it would have been a "standard" 20-sheet scroll, ca. 26x350 cm. There are only 17 papyrus fragments preserved of book 17. The present MS and P.Sorb.Inv.2303, lines 566-578 are the oldest, both 3rd c. BC, and both are the oldest witnesses to their parts of the texts.
Provenance 1. Helen Ainsworth and heirs, England (1930'ies-1989); 2. English scholar (1989-2002).
Commentary The very few surviving Homeric papyri that date from before Aristarchus' edition, are of the greatest textual importance, since they alone preserve the earlier forms of the poems, as they were recited by singers in the archaic and classical periods. The present MS and P. Sorb. Inv. 2303 are the only pre-Aristarchan MSS of book 17. There are 2 extra lines, 1 is known, the other is new and unrecorded. Homer is represented in The Schøyen Collection by MS 112/33, The Iliad XV:511-515, ca. 100, MS 112/57, The Iliad II:195-197, 2nd c., MS 112/80, The Iliad XI: 1-5, 2nd c. (the earliest witness to the text and not otherwise extant on papyrus); MS 2628, The Iliad XVI:2-15. 32-37, 40-43, 47-61, 75-91, 1st c. BC-1st c. AD; MS 5094, Homer: The Iliad XVII:637-644, 679-685, + 1 extra and 1 new line (earliest witness to text); MS 5069, The Odyssey XII: 9 - 14; 17 - 28; 41 - 46, late 3rd - 2nd c. BC (earliest witness to text); and MS 2629, The Odyssey XI:509-603, ca. 1st c.
Published Dominic Montserrat. A Ptolemaic papyrus of Illiad 17, in: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 38, London 1991-1993, pp. 55-58.
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Place of origin Egypt
Dates mid 3c BC