麻豆视频

CU Boulder Classics scholars identify previously unknown fragments of two lost tragedies by Greek tragedian Euripides

After months of intense scrutiny, two 麻豆视频 scholars have deciphered and interpreted what they believe to be the most significant new fragments of works by classical Greek tragedian Euripides in more than half a century.

In November 2022, Basem Gehad, an archaeologist with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, sent a papyrus unearthed at the ancient site of Philadelphia in Egypt to Yvona Trnka-Amrhein, assistant professor of classics. The two scholars have also recently discovered the upper half of a colossal statue of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II in their joint excavation project at Hermopolis Magna.

She began to pore over the high-resolution photo of the papyrus (Egyptian law prohibits physically removing any artifact from the country), scrutinizing its 98 lines.

鈥淚t was very clearly tragedy,鈥� she says.

Using the , a comprehensive, digitized database of ancient Greek texts maintained by the University of California, Irvine, Trnka-Amrhein confirmed she was looking at previously unknown excerpts from mostly lost Euripidean plays.

鈥淎fter more digging, I realized I should call in an expert in Euripides fragments,鈥� she says. 鈥淟uckily, my mentor in the department is just that!鈥�

Working together, Trnka-Amrhein and renowned classics Professor John Gibert embarked on many months of grueling work, meticulously poring over a high-resolution photo of the 10.5-square-inch papyrus. They made out words and ensured that the words they thought they were seeing fit the norms of tragic style and meter.

Eventually, they became confident that they were working with new material from two fragmentary Euripides plays, Polyidus and Ino. Twenty-two of the lines were previously known in slightly varied versions, but 鈥�80 percent was brand-new stuff,鈥� Gibert says.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 think there has been a find of this significance since the 1960s,鈥� he says.

鈥淭his is a large and unusual papyrus for this day and age,鈥� Trnka-Amrhein says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of a big deal in the field.鈥�

Retelling a Cretan myth

Polyidus retells an ancient Cretan myth in which King Minos and Queen Pasipha毛 demand that the eponymous seer resurrect their son Glaucus after he drowns in a vat of honey.

鈥淎ctually, it has a relatively happy ending. It鈥檚 not one of these tragedies where everyone winds up dead,鈥� Trnka-Amrhein says: Polyidus is able to revive the boy using an herb he previously saw one snake use to revive another.

The papyrus contains part of a scene in which Minos and Polyidus debate the morality of resurrecting the dead, she says.

Ino came close to being one of Euripides鈥� best-known plays, Gibert says. Part of the text was inscribed on cliffs in Armenia that were destroyed in modern conflict. Fortunately, early 20th-century Russian scholars had preserved the images in drawings.

The eponymous character is an aunt of the Greek god Dionysus and part of the royal family of Thebes. In previously known fragments of a related play, Ino is an evil stepmother intent on killing her husband the Thessalian king鈥檚 children from a previous marriage. The new fragment introduces a new plot, Trnka-Amrhein says.

鈥淎nother woman is the evil stepmother, and Ino is the victim,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he third wife of the king is trying to eliminate Ino鈥檚 children. 鈥� Ino turns the tables on her, causing her to kill her own children and commit suicide. It鈥檚 a more traditional tragedy: death, mayhem, suicide.鈥�

Of course, in matters of ancient Greek, there is always room for interpretation, and such bold claims will receive careful scrutiny from other experts. Gibert and Trnka-Amrhein decided not to pull any punches with their conclusions.

鈥淲e could play it safe,鈥� Gibert says. 鈥淲e are establishing a solid foundation, and on top of that we are sticking our necks out a little.鈥�

They鈥檝e already entered the gauntlet of scrutiny, making their case to 13 experts in Washington, D.C., in June and having their first edition of the fragment accepted for publication in August.

On Sept. 14, they will host the Ninth Fountain Symposium on the CU Boulder campus, supported by long-time Boulder resident and classics enthusiast Dr. Celia M. Fountain. The day-long event will feature three illustrious experts: Professor Paul Schubert, a Swiss specialist in papyrology; specialist in ancient Greek literature and drama Laura Swift of Oxford University; and Professor Sarah Iles Johnston, an expert in Greek religion, goddesses and magic from the Ohio State University. They will be joined by Trnka-Amrhein, Gibert and Associate Professor of Classics Laurialan Reitzammer.

鈥淚n a departure, instead of having the guests give hour-long papers, we鈥檙e going to present for 20 to 25 minutes each, in pairs, in dialogue, followed by Q-and-A,鈥� Gibert says.

And as the academic year gets underway, Gibert says he and Trnka-Amrhein will 鈥渢ake the show on the road鈥� to such places as Dartmouth and Harvard.

鈥淛ohn鈥檚 contacts and readers in the Euripides world have given us reassurance we鈥檙e not going to have too much pie on our faces,鈥� Trnka-Amrhein says. 鈥淲e feel extremely lucky to have worked on this material and look forward to the world鈥檚 reactions.鈥�

Top image:听A marble bas-relief show Euripides (seated), a standing woman holding out a theater mask to him (left) and the god Dionysus (right), dated to between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE, from the Misthos collection in the Istanbul (Turkey) Archaeological Museum. (Photo:听John-Gr茅goire/Wikimedia Commons)

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