Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1231

A photograph of a papyrus fragment
P. Oxy. 1231 fr. 56.

Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1231 (P. Oxy. 1231 or P. Oxy. X 1231) is a papyrus discovered at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, first published in 1914 by Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt.[1] The papyrus preserves fragments of the second half of Book I of a Hellenistic edition of the poetry of the archaic poet Sappho.[lower-alpha 1][1]

The papyrus comes from a second century AD roll,[3] and is made up of 56 smaller fragments.[4] The largest piece, fragment one, measures 17.7 cm × 13.2 cm; it covers two columns and includes fragments of four poems.[4] It is written in a small informal upright hand, and corrections and marginalia have been added in a second hand, using a different ink.[5]

The papyrus preserves a number of fragments by Sappho. Fragment one of the papyrus preserves four consecutive fragments; frr. 15, 16, 17, and 18 in Voigt's edition.[6] Also preserved, on fragment 56 of the papyrus, is the final poem of Book I of Sappho, fragment 30.[7] A colophon at the end of fragment 56 of the papyrus shows that Sappho's Book I contained 1320 lines, or 330 stanzas.[7] Sappho's name is not preserved here; instead, the authorship of the fragments is established by the metre (Sapphic stanzas), dialect (Aeolic), and three overlaps with previously-known fragments attributed to Sappho.[4]

The papyrus is now in the collection of the Bodleian Library.[3]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Fragments 15–30 in Voigt's edition of Sappho are all preserved in this papyrus.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Bierl & Lardinois 2016, p. 1.
  2. ↑ Rayor & Lardinois 2014, p. 102.
  3. 1 2 Obbink 2016a, p. 15.
  4. 1 2 3 Grenfell & Hunt 1914, p. 20.
  5. ↑ Grenfell & Hunt 1914, p. 21.
  6. ↑ Obbink 2016b, p. 46, n. 42.
  7. 1 2 Obbink 2016b, p. 43.

Works cited

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