A Late Greek Tragedy On The Theft Of The Palladion: P. Colon. Inv. Nr. 5932.

This dissertation presents the edition and commentary of an unpublished papyrus belonging to Cologne University (P. Colon. Inv. Nr. 5932). The document, a fragment from a papyrus roll reportedly from Upper Egypt, is composed of two pieces which once bore three columns of text. Only the middle column, forty-two lines in length, is legible. The text, a fragment of Greek dramatic poetry which, on paleographic and linguistic grounds, appears to have been written in the third century A.D., concerns Odysseus's mission to Troy to steal the Palladion, and Antenor's collaboration in the enterprise. The principal speaker, Antenor, as I argue, recites a prayer to Athena, and gives a prologue-like account of the course of events, starting with the death of Paris, which led to the theft of the idol. While the work follows a traditional version of the Palladion episode, it is distinguished by several variant features, including the description of Athena as a syncretistic pantocrator, the delivery of letters from Menelaus to Helen apparently by Odysseus and the shepherd's disguise adopted by him. The papyrus casts new light upon the continuing role of Greek tragedy--including its performance--long after the genre's classical heyday, and further testifies to the lasting vigor of literary life in Upper Egypt. Lastly, the new papyrus may be the only autograph of a dramatic manuscript preserved, or at least published, from antiquity.Ph.D.Classical literatureLanguage, Literature and LinguisticsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/127670/2/8422308.pd