EUREKA! For you ancient Greek scholars, Sopohocles finally translated, plus many more!
From the Independent newspaper:
Decoded at last: the ‘classical holy grail’ that may rewrite the history of the world. Scientists begin to unlock the secrets of papyrus scraps bearing long-lost words by the literary giants of Greece and Rome
By David Keys and Nicholas Pyke
17 April 2005
"For more than a century, it has caused excitement and frustration in equal measure - a collection of Greek and Roman writings so vast it could redraw the map of classical civilisation. If only it was legible.
Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed…"
Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed.
In the past four days alone, Oxford’s classicists have used it to make a series of astonishing discoveries, including writing by Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other literary giants of the ancient world, lost for millennia. They even believe they are likely to find lost Christian gospels, the originals of which were written around the time of the earliest books of the New Testament.
That’s great news. I was a bit disappointed not to see any philosophy amongst the finds but maybe some will come to light later.
On the grape vine, it’s been long rumoured that lost works of Aristotle have been found in Armenian monestaries and just await translation, but it seems hard to believe that those who know about them wouldn’t take active steps to be part of the discovery process, even if they themselves are not competent to do the translating.
As for the claim in the article that this breakthrough might herald a new renaissance, one would have to regard that as mighty fanciful. The real renaissance ushered in a period of scientific, philosophical and general speculation that lasts to this day. The newly discovered works will not prove to be at the scientific or philosophical cutting edge. Literature doesn’t really have a cutting edge but any new discoveries will be more than welcome.
We already have Biblical texts that are not part of the offical canon, including ones that have been found in modern times (the dead sea scrolls).
There wasn’t really any craziness over those texts, and religious people didn’t find themselves forced to either accept them or declare them fakes. Although some conspiracy theorists claim there are missing scrolls covered up by the Vatican.
“Texts deciphered over the past few days will be published next month by the London-based Egypt Exploration Society, which financed the discovery and owns the collection.”