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Papyrus 273

Record Id:

040-002104646

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002104451

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000173.0x0003d1

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100147468314.0x000001

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Papyrus 273

Title:

Dionysius, Epic Fragments (P.Lond.Lit. 40, TM 59691, LDAB 795, MP³343), and Aratus, Phaenomena (P.Lond.Lit. 34, TM 59218, LDAB 313, MP³115)

Scope & Content:

Fragments from two papyrus codices:

Fragments 1-18 (P.Lond.Lit. 40, TM 59691): Portion of two epic poems by the poet Dionysius, Bassarica, on Dionysius’s conquest of India, and Gigantias on the battle of the giants against the Olympian gods. Assigned to the late fourth or early fifth century. The number in brackets refers to the numbers given in Benaissa’s edition (2018).

Bassarica

Fr. 1 and fragment 3 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 33 and Fr. 34): Bassarica, Book XVIII;

Fr. 2 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 35); Fr. 14 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 36); Fr. 15 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 37); Fr. 16 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 38): Bassarica, uncertain book.

Gigantias

The fragments mostly relate events concerning Heracles prior to the gigantomachy in Phlegre and the gigantomachy itself.

Fragment 4 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 46); Fragments 6+7 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 53); Fragment 8 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 48); Fragment 9 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 50); Fragment 10 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 51); Fragment 11 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 52); Fragment 12 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 45); Fragment 13 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 49); Fragment 17 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 47); Fragment 18 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 54).

Bassarica or Gigantias

Fr. 5 (= Benaissa’s Fr. 41).

Fragment 273(B) (P.Lond.Lit. 34, TM 59218): Fragment from the same papyrus codex as a papyrus in Vienna (Vienna, Nationalbibliothek G 29776), containing Aratus, Phaenomena 741-753 (written across the fibres), and 804-816 (813 omitted – along the fibres), with scholia. The fragment in Vienna bears Phaenomena 754-756, and 817-820. Assigned to the fourth century.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Greek Manuscripts
Papyri Collections

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002104451
040-002104646

Is part of:

Papyrus 1-3136 : Papyri

Papyrus 273 : Dionysius, Epic Fragments (P.Lond.Lit. 40, TM 59691, LDAB 795, MP3 343), and Aratus, Phaenomena (P.Lond.Lit. 34, TM 59218, LDAB 313,…

Hierarchy:

032-002104451[0165]/040-002104646

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Papyrus 1-3136

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Nineteen fragments from two papyrus codices, housed in a glass frame.

Fragments 1-18: Fragments of varying sizes from a papyrus codex, most of which bear writing on both sides, along and across the fibres, with abrasion and surface damage in places. The largest fragment preserves a column of 59 lines, broken off at the bottom; margins are generous and measure up to 55 mm. The reconstructed dimensions of the page of the codex are c. 270 (height) x 135 (width) mm: the codex belongs to Group 8 of Turner, with the height being double the width.

Fragment B: Small fragment belonging to another papyrus codex, further portions of which are in Vienna (Vienna, Nationalbibliothek G 29776); the fragment bears writing on both sides: the side written across the fibres comes first. No complete line.

Digitised Content:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100147468314.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Greek, Ancient

Scripts:

Greek

Start Date:

0300

End Date:

0425

Date Range:

4th century-early 5th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Papyrus.

Dimensions: Fragments of varying size. Largest fragment: 210 x 100 mm; B: 52x 45 mm; housed in a glass frame measuring 270 x 610 mm.

Script: Fragments 1-18: Very small, informal, semi-cursive hand, mostly upright; elision effected, with apostrophe often marking it; diaeresis used, iota adscript often noted; one insertion by the same hand (fr. 33 ro.); no lectional signs apart from an acute accent; one vertical ruling line and presumably a stichometrical annotation. Fragment B: Medium-sized uncial hand, in brownish ink; one smooth breathing by the original hand and two accents added later; different hand for the marginal note, smaller and more cursive.

Custodial History:

Origin: Egypt.

Provenance: Egypt. B: Lenaerts (1968) suggested Soknopaiou Nesos (Dimeh), meris of Herakleides, Arsinoite nome, Egypt, rejected by P. van Minnen (1998) and R. Luiselli, CLGP I.1.3. Purchased as part of a lot comprising Papyri 272-400 from Theodor Graf (b. 1840, d. 1903) on 11 April 1893.

Former External References:

P.Lond. II 273 descr.
P.Lond.Lit. 34
P.Lond.Lit. 40

Publications:

Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1888-1893 (London: British Museum 1894), p. 422.

Greek Papyri in the British Museum II (London: British Museum 1898), p. xxvi, no. 273 descr.

F. G. Kenyon, ‘Fragments of an epic poem’, in Album gratulatorium in honorem Henrici van Herwerden propter septuagenariam aetatem munere professoris, quod per 38 annos gessit, se abdicantis (Trajecti ad Rhenum: Kemink 1902), pp. 137–142.

J. Bidez, in Revue de philologie, de littérature et d’histoire anciennes 27 (1903), p. 82, n. 6.

W. Crönert, ‘Literarische Texte mit Ausschluß der christlichen’, Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete 2 (1903), pp. 337-381 (p. 351).

A. Ludwich, ‘Das Papyrus-Fragment eines Dionysos-Epos’, Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift 23 (1903), pp. 27–30.

H. I. Bell, ‘A note on the Dionysiaca of Nonnus’, Classical Review 23 (1910), pp. 223–224.

F. Hiller von Gaertringen, ‘Herakles Rückkehr von Ilion’, Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen 1923 (1924), pp. 24–26.

H. J. M. Milne, ‘Dionysiaca (Brit. Mus. Pap. 273)’, Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete 7 (1924), pp. 3–10.

U. von. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, ‘Zu den Dionysiaca’, Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete 7 (1924), pp. 11–16.

H. J. M. Milne, Catalogue of the Literary Papyri in the British Museum (London: British Museum 1927), p. 33, no. 40, pl. 1.

R. Keydell, ‘Zu den Londoner Dionysiaca’, Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift 49 (1929), p. 1101.

P. Maas, ‘Bibliographische Notizen und kleinere Mitteilungen’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 29 (1930), p. 383.

W. Morel, ‘Zu Arch. Pap. vii 3–16’, Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete 9 (1930), pp. 222–223.

A. Wifstrand, ‘De s.k. Dionysiakafragmenten i London’, Eranos 28 (1930), pp. 102–104.

A. Wifstrand, ‘Än en gång de s.k. Dionysiakafragmenten’, Eranos 29 (1931), p. 39.

R. Keydell, ‘Zu den sogenannten Londoner Dionysiaka’, Hermes 67 (1932), pp. 240-241.

E. Heitsch, Die Griechischen Dichterfragmente der römischen Kaiserzeit. I (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1963), p. 63 no. XIX 9.

M. L. West, ‘Review of Heitsch (1963)’, Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen 215 (1963), pp. 164–172.

E. Livrea, Dionysii Bassaricon et Gigantiadis fragmenta (Roma: in aedibus Athenaei 1973), pp. 16-24, 71-80.

D. Marcotte, ‘Héraclès d'Ilion à Cos (Dionysios, Gigantias, fr. 71 Livrea)’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 75 (1988), pp. 53-56.

E. G. Turner, The typology of the early codex (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1977), p. 20, no. 60, and passim.

C. G. Brown, ‘Actaeon and Modaeus: Dionysius fr. 19v Livrea’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 80 (1990), pp. 19-22.

E. Livrea, ‘Un frammento di Dionisio e Nonno’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 106 (1995), pp. 56-60.

G. Agosti, ‘Crudeltà dionisiache dall’alto impero’, Analecta Papyrologica 13 (2001), pp. 115-147.

A. Benaissa, ‘P.Lond. Lit. 40 Revisited: New Readings in Dionysius’ Bassarica’, Archiv für Papyrusforschung und verwandte Gebiete 59 (2013), pp. 280-297.

C. Meliadò, ‘Su alcuni frammenti di Dionisio epico’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 190 (2014), pp. 76-80.

A. Benaissa, Dionysius. The Epic Fragments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2018), pp. 75-78, 108-139, π1.

Greek Papyri in the British Museum II (London: British Museum 1898), p. xxvi, no. 273 descr.

H. I. Bell, ‘An Aratus Fragment in the British Museum’, The Classical Quarterly 1 (1907), pp. 1-3.

H. Oldfather, The Greek Literary Texts from Greco-Roman Egypt (Madison: University of Wisconsin 1923), no. 74.

H. J. M. Milne, Catalogue of the Literary Papyri in the British Museum (London: British Museum 1927), p. 29, no. 34.

J. Martin, Histoire du texte des Phénomènes d'Aratos (Paris: C. Klincksieck 1956), pp. 214-216.

J. Lenaerts, ‘Le papyrus des Phénomènes d'Aratos, PACK2 115 + 116’, Chronique d‘Égypte 43 (1968), pp. 356-362.

E. G. Turner, The typology of the early codex (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1977), no. 8, passim.

K. McNamee, Annotations in Greek and Latin Texts from Egypt (New Haven, Conn.: American Society of Papyrologists 2007), pp. 174-175, no. 115, pl. 21.

R. Luiselli, ‘Aratus’, in G. Bastianini et al. (eds.), Commentaria et lexica graeca in papyris reperta (CLGP) I.1.3 (Berlino-New York: De Gruyter 2011), pp. 110-118, no. 4.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Aratus, Soliensis, Greek didactic poet, c 315 BC - c 245 BC
Dionysius Periegetes, Greek poet and geographer, fl 1st century-2nd century

Related Material:

Papyrus 273(B) belongs to the same codex as a papyrus in Vienna (G 29776).