The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Volume LXXXII [Nos. 5290 - 5319].

Between 1896 and 1907, B.P. Grenfell and A.S. Hunt led excavations at the site of ancient Oxyrhynchus with the purpose of recovering ancient texts on papyrus. Their finds, estimated at over 500,000 pieces, comprise the modern world’s largest collection of papyri. Grenfell and Hunt also launched a publication series to disseminate their discoveries, which since its first volume in 1898 has set a standard for the accessible publication of papyri, with text, English translation, and commentary. P.Oxy. has grown into the most venerable in the field of papyrology. After two recent thematic collections, on sport (LXXIX) and medicine (LXXX), the usual eclectic mix returns, with editions of 44 new texts from 14 contributors, whose contents range from high literature, through technical or para-literature, to documents (and one drawing). Among the literary texts, of greatest interest to most classicists will be a new fragment of Sophocles, Tereus edited by S. Slattery (5292), dated to the second century CE and offering a scene between Procne, a messenger, and the chorus-leader, which overlaps with and continues a fragment in Stobaeus (4.22.25). Noteworthy too is a copy of Euclid, Elements in abridged form, with diagrams and elucidations but without proofs (5299), edited by A. Cairncross and W.B. Henry, a branch of the tradition likely related to the text from which Boethius made his Latin version. Smaller fragments of known works by Menander, Polybius, Theocritus, and Plutarch complete the literary portion (5293-5301); the Plutarch is the first attestation of the Life of Alexander on papyrus, with some text-critical interest. No Latin texts are included in the strict sense, but a Greek-Latin conjugation table of the second century (5302), edited by M.C. Scappaticcio and A. Wouters, bears new witness to the interest of Egyptians of the Roman period in learning Latin. Among theological texts is a fragment of the Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres edited by S. Beresford (5290), from a fourth-century codex contemporary with the most extensive Greek witness to the text (the codex Chester Beatty XVI). The new fragment fills out a dialogue between Jannes, near death, and his mother, of which only the beginning was previously known, where the new fragment overlaps with the Beatty codex. Here too comes a further fragment of a third-century codex of Philo (P.Oxy. IX 1173, with additions), edited by D.A. Fisher (5291). Accorded a section of its own, and deserving special mention here too, is a group of texts relating to magic. Here is the largest collection of such texts in Greek since the publication of the Supplementum Magicum (1990-1992) augmented the landmark corpus of K. Preisendanz, Papyri Graecae Magicae. The present texts are edited, and furnished with superbly detailed commentary, by the able hand of F. Maltomini, one of the editors behind Supplementum Magicum (along with R.W. Daniel). In total 14 new texts are offered (5303-5314, the latter two by L. Tagliapietra), plus a treatise on the occult medicinal properties of animal products (5315). The first three (5303-5305) belong to ritual formularies, in book-roll format, from the third century. The most substantial portion of 5303 offers a procedure for engraving a ring, and another associated with Typhon-Seth, whose purpose is obscure but likely aggressive. The goal of the ring is taken to be “sexual intercourse,” based on ἔντευξις (line 2). In my view the noun might be also signify “petitioning,” as does the cognate ἐντυχία in a contemporary formulary:1 the ring may have been meant to aid its wearer before authorities. In the directions for the engraving, the puzzling ὀρθὸν τά τ’ [ is printed in line 4, which gives better sense re-divided, ὀρθὸν Τατ; the apostrophe, given by the papyrus, marks the end of a non-Greek word, hence, “Thoth, erect,” object of a preceding γλύψον (“engrave”). As illustrated in the commentary, divine names qualified by ὀρθός are at home in directions for engravings on gems; Τατ, although unusual in the magical papyri (vs. Θωθ or similar), is the standard spelling in the Hermetic Corpus. In 5304 are more substantial remains, of three formulae for erotic procedures, of which one, notably, was designed for the use of a woman upon a man; a procedure for the subjection of an enemy (ὑποτακτικόν); and another to restrain anger (θυμοκάτοχον). The fragmentary first column includes an invocation of Isis, and may belong to the erotic procedure in col. ii, or a separate one, likely promoting sex or fertility. This invocation includes at line 2 the “credential” clause ὅτι ἐγώ ἰμι (i.e. εἰμι: “For I am ...”), followed by a short word ending in -ος (before which, as printed, an estimated two unread letters followed by uncertain ξ). Might I propose Ὧρος, attractive as the son of Isis and frequent appellant of her assistance in Egyptian magic? From the published photograph it looks possible, and fits with the appellation μήτηρ in line 7. On the back, in the fou