Book Description

This volume discusses Greek subliterary papyri containing mythical catalogues, stories of the Mythographus Homericus, and summaries of Iliad, Odyssey, tragedies, comedies, and poems of Callimachus. The first part of the book explores the following questions: what kind of knowledge is transmitted in the papyri and how is this done? How is the knowledge related to that found in other literature? What do we know about the function and readership of these papyri? Although comparable questions have been asked before regarding some papyri, this study attempts to present a more precise and comprehensive picture based on a systematic examination of all the relevant papyri. The second part contains all the papyrus texts discussed in the first part, thereby offering a convenient aid to the reader and a useful instrument for future research.