Amin Benaissa - Böcker

Graeco-Roman Memoirs 98This volume presents Oxyrhynchus Papyri nos. 5101-5126, which include an early and textually valuable copy of the Septuagint Psalms, five hexameter poems and diverse documents from the Roman and Byantine periods.5101, probably the earliest extant copy of the Septuagint Psalms, is of considerable textual interest, including use of the Tetragrammaton for the divine name.5102 includes tantalising fragments of a Hellenistic mythological poem echoing Callimachus and Apollonius Rhodius, possibly depicting Hermes and Artemis in a pastoral setting. 5103, if correctly attributed to Dionysius’ Bassarica, offers a new, earlier, chronological marker. 5104 and 5105 feature later narratives centered on Aphrodite; notably, 5105 depicts her descending to Earth to retrieve Poppaea Sabina from Nero, who must reluctantly bid farewell to her husband and take her place among the stars. 5106 exemplifies hexameters used for moral exhortation, emphasising moral purity and the afterlife.5111 is a perplexing petition from temple officials with notable realia. 5114 publishes a new Severan consitution on intervals between successive appointments. 5116 records the earliest mention of Saloninus Caesar. 5118 reports proceedings at a Nile-god sanctuary. 5119 documents a man from Eleutheropolis, Palestine, residing in the Oxyrhynchite nome. 5123 reveals the estate of Apion purchasing wine from two of its coloni adscripticii before harvest, indicating more complex economic relations between estate and labourers than traditionally allowed.

Papyri nos 5404-5476 P. Oxy LXXXIV marks a new departure for the series: it is the first to publish texts in Egyptian. One is a Greek-Coptic paraphrase of Homer's Iliad, the other a sale of house property in Demotic accompanied by a Greek tax receipt. Section I presents extensive remains of a set of codices of the Septuagint. Section II includes a miscellany of new literary and subliterary texts: remnants of post-Classical hexameter poetry, a possible fragment of Middle comedy with an Anacreontic theme, and a cento of Homeric verses on the myth of Daphne. The seventeen papyri of Apollonius Rhodius published in Section III, providing some two dozen variant readings, confirm the Argonautica's status as the most popular epic poem in Roman Egypt after the Homeric and Hesiodic classics. The papyri of Apollonius are complemented by a painting of a wheeled float carrying the Argonauts, perhaps an llustration of a local spectacle. Section IV publishes the remaining (readable) declarations of livestock so far identified in the collection; and the largest number of accounts published from the 'Apion archive' since vol. XVI, a focus of intensive debate in the last two decades. The global figures for the estate's income, expenditure, and tax payments in the new texts offer fresh 'hard data' to steer and inform this lively discussion.

The epic poet Dionysius, who probably flourished in the first century CE, is a key transitional figure in the history of Greek poetry, sharing stylistic and thematic tendencies with both the learned Hellenistic tradition and the monumental epic poetry of the later Roman period. His Bassarica is the earliest known poem on the conquest of India by the god Dionysus and was an important model of Nonnus' Dionysiaca. His Gigantias related the battle of the giants against the Olympian gods and legends surrounding it, with particular focus on the figure of Heracles. This is the most comprehensive edition to date of his poetry, expanding the number of fragments available and providing a more reliable text based on a fresh inspection of the papyri. The volume includes a substantial introduction contextualising the poetry, a facing English translation of the text, and a detailed linguistic and literary commentary.