RARE FINDS IN EGYPT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 81, 30 December 1907, Page 10

RARE FINDS IN EGYPT.

l)r. B. P. Grenfell delivered an address at the annual meeting of the Egypt Exploration Eund,- describing- a number of interesting and important papyri' which have recently been discovered at Oxyrhyncus, and which belong to the fifth or sixth century. ■The new papyri were excavated from the mound which, proved so productive .in texts of the Greek lyric poets last year. They incjude fragments of the lost "Hypsipyle" of Euripides, a long commentary 011 the. second book of Thucydides, apparently written in the lirst century,. portions of a Philo-Maco-donian oration directed against Demosthenes and of an unknown cpmedy, perhaps by Hollander,, and parts of tho lost Greek originals of the Acts of Peter and an unknown version of tho Acts of John. There arc also portions of extant authors, and soveral important official documents of the third and fourth centuries. Tho fragments of the "Hypsipyle" are sufficiently extensive for us to form a fairly complete idea of the construction of the play. There are two coincidences .with extant quotations that make identification certain, and the story of'Hypsipyle as given by Apollodorus and .others is closely followed. One of the larger fragments deals with the meeting between Amphiaraus and Hypsipyle, who, after being banished by the women of Lemnos for saving the life of her father King Thoas, when they had killed "all' tho men on the island, had become the nurse of the infant son'of Eurydicc. Amphiaraus, a leader in , the expedition of the Seven against Thebes, asks' Hypsipyle to show them a spring- of pure. Water. She consents, and, putting down the child of which she was in charge, proceods to show the way to the water, but in her absence tho child is bitten by-a snake and dies. Hypsipyle attempts flight, > but. is captured by Eurydice and condemned' to . deatfy, -Then comes a long passage of 110 lines," of which more than' naif ,is preserved. • Hypsipyle protests her innocence, but is: being" carried off' to her doom when, Amphiaraus, arrives .and persuades Eurydice/ that her son's death was accidental, and not designed by Hypsipyle, as she suppo'sedl He also appears to bring about tho recognition of Hjpisipyle ■ and her two sons, who had been received by Eurydicc in ignorance of their identity. The lattor portion of tho scene of recognition is in good order, and the piece concludes with tho appearance of the god Dionysus, the ancestor of Hypsipyle. Many of the recovered linos aro useless fragments, but there arc also some connected passages of considerable length, including about seventy lines'of lyrics, apart from thoso between Hypsipyle and her sons, in which lyrical verses are interspersed with iambics. These passages are thoroughly worthy of Euripides, and in places are marked by very great beauty and dramatic force. The version of the Acts of John recounts an attempt made to provent-the apostle from crossing a bridge, the miraculous disappearance of tho obstructor, and the subsequent prayer that ho offered up in gratitude.