The first work of the Græco-Roman Branch was to publish the recently discovered Oxyrrhynchos papyri, of which two volumes, containing many important classical and theological texts, were issued in 1898 and 1899 and 1900. Among its contents are parts of two odes of Pindar, of which one begins with a description of the poet’s relation to Xenocritus, the inventor of the Locrian mode of music; a considerable piece of the “Kolax” of Menander, one of the two plays upon which the “Eunuchus” of Terence was based; part of a rhetorical treatise in Doric dialect, which is undoubtedly a work of the Pythagorean school; the conclusion of the eighteenth Keo-Tcfe of Julius Africanus, dealing with a question of Homeric criticism; and part of a biography of Alcibiades. A new light is thrown upon some of the less-known departments of Greek literature by a well-preserved papyrus, which contains on one side a prose mime in two scenes, a work of the school of Sophron, having points of resemblance to the fifth mime of Herondas; while on the other side is an amusing farce, partly in prose, partly in verse. The scene is laid on the shores of the Indian Ocean, and the plot turns upon the rescue of a Greek maiden from the hands of barbarians, who speak a non-Greek language with elements apparently derived from Prakrit.*
* This is a peculiarly interesting suggestion in view of the
fact that there is in the British Museum an unpublished
fragment which for some time was considered by Doctor Budge
to be a species of Egyptian stenography, but which has also
been suggested to be in Pehlevi characters.
The new Homeric fragments include one of Iliad VI., with critical signs and interesting textual notes. Sappho, Euripides (Andromache, “Archelaus,” and “Medea”), Antiphanes, Thucydides, Plato (“Gorgias” and “Republic”), Æschines, Demosthenes, and Xenophon are also represented. Among the theological texts are fragments of the lost Greek original of the “Apocalypse of Baruch” and of the missing Greek conclusion of the “Shepherd” of Hennas.
In the winter of 1898-99, Doctors Grenfell and Hunt conducted excavations for the Græco-Roman Branch in the Fayûm. In 1899-1900, they excavated at Tebtunis, in the Fayûm, on behalf of the University of California; and by an arrangement between that university and the Egypt Exploration Fund an important section of the Tebtunis papyri, consisting of second-century B.C. papyri from crocodile mummies, was issued jointly by the two bodies, forming the annual volumes of the Græco-Roman Branch for 1900-01 and 1901-02. Since 1900 Doctors Grenfell and Hunt have excavated each winter on behalf of the Græco-Roman Branch,—in 1900-01 in the Fayûm, and in 1901-02 both there and at Hibeh, with the result that a very large collection of Ptolemaic papyri was obtained. In the winter of 1902-03, after finishing their work at Hibeh, they returned to Oxyrrhynchos. Here was found a third-century fragment of a collection of sayings of Jesus, similar in style to the so-called “Logia” discovered at Oxyrrhynchos in 1897. As in that papyrus, the separate sayings are introduced by the words “Jesus saith,” and are for the most part unrecorded elsewhere, though some which are found in the Gospels (e.g. “The Kingdom of God is within you” and “Many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first”) occur here in different surroundings. Six sayings are preserved, unfortunately in an imperfect condition. But the new “Logia” papyrus supplies more evidence concerning its origin than was the case with its predecessor, for it contains an introductory paragraph stating that what follows consisted of “the words which Jesus, the Living Lord, spake” to two of His disciples; and, moreover, one of the uncanonical sayings is already extant in part, the conclusion of it, “He that wonders shall reign and he that reigns shall rest,” being quoted by Clement of Alexandria from the Gospel according to the Hebrews. It is, indeed, possible that this Gospel was the source from which all this second series of “Logia” was derived, or they, or some of them, may perhaps have been taken from the Gospel according to the Egyptians, to which Professor Harnack and others have referred the “Logia” found in 1897. But the discoverers are disposed to regard both series as collections of sayings currently ascribed to our Lord rather than as extracts from any one uncanonical gospel.
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CHAPTER VIII.—IMPORTANT RESEARCHES IN EGYPT
The Royal Tombs at Abydos: Reconstruction of the First and Second Dynasties: The Ten Temples at Abydos: The statuette of Khûfûi: Pottery and Pottery Marks: The Expedition of the University of California.
Some interesting explorations have been conducted in Egypt by the Exploration Fund during the four years 1900-04, under the guidance of Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, whose enthusiasm and patience for the work in this field seem to increase with the years of labour. In the winter of 1899-1900, Professor Petrie and his zealous helpers began their investigation of the royal tombs of the first dynasty at Abydos. Commenting on this undertaking, Professor Petrie writes: