The Oxyrhynchus Papyri

Volume LXXXIX

Edited by A. Benaissa Edited by N. Gonis

Book cover: The Oxyrhynchus Papyri

Extent: 262 pages

Publisher: Egypt Exploration Society

Subjects: Classical Studies, Mediterranean Archaeology

Series: Graeco-Roman Memoirs

Series volume number: 110

Language: English

Hardback (Forthcoming)

(September 2026)

ISBN: 9780856982804

7.5 x 10 inches

Price: $95.00

PDF (Forthcoming)

(September 2026)

ISBN: 9780856982811

Price: $95.00

This volume presents a further group of papyri edited as part of the research project Hexameters Beyond the Canon: New Poetry on Papyri from Roman and Byzantine Egypt. The most intriguing is a rare example of Imperial choral lyric in multiple metres. The highlight is three papyri of Dionysius Periegetes.


This volume presents a further group of papyri edited as part of the research project Hexameters Beyond the Canon: New Poetry on Papyri from Roman and Byzantine Egypt, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The most intriguing is a rare example of Imperial choral lyric in multiple metres, including a hexameter hymn to a creator god. Another hymn, to Sarapis, seems to be the work of a local poetaster. The Trojan saga appears in a large fragment of an ethopoea, while didactic poetry is represented by compositions on stars and on stones. This body of new hexameter poetry is complemented by a wide-ranging selection of extant texts in the same metre. The highlight is three papyri of Dionysius Periegetes, an author previously unknown from ancient copies. Substantial stretches of a reused roll present the last book of the Odyssey with abundant variants crammed into nine overfilled columns. The volume concludes with subliterary and documentary papyri. Extensive pieces of a manual from the first century deal with divination from animal behaviour; numerous parallels suggest a Mesopotamian source. On the documentary side, over a hundred texts centred on Philoxenus, a wine steward, illustrate the wine flows of the ‘Apion’ estate in the late fifth century. Together they offer a valuable snapshot of the estate’s geographical reach and the scale of its viticultural operations during an otherwise sparsely documented period. The volume concludes with indexes and a selection of photographs.

Preface

Table of Papyri

List of Plates

Numbers and Plates

Note on the Method of Publication and Abbreviations

TEXTS

I. New Post-Classical Poetry (5682-94)

II. Extant Hexameter Poetry (5695-5701)

III. Divination (5702-3)

IV. Documentary Texts (5704-5840)

INDEXES

I. New Post-Classical Poetry (5682-94)

II. Homeric Scholia (5696)

III. Divination (5702-3)

IV. Consuls

V. Indications and Eras

(a) Indications

(b) Eras

VI. Months

VII. Dates

VIII. Personal Names

IX. Geographical

X. Religion

XI. Official and Military Terms and Titles

XII. Professions, Trade, and Occupations

XIII. Measures:

(a) Weights and Measures

(b) Money

XIV. Tax

XV. General Index of Words

XVI. Correstions to Published Papyri

  • Edited by A. Benaissa
  • Edited by N. Gonis