Homer, Odyssey 11.557-573, 588-610 (roll, 1-2 ce) 12.3 cm high x 7.6 cm wide.

Parts of two columns of a roll, in stichoi, with an estimated 32 stichoi per column, written along the fibers [--] "in medium-sized uncials. Late first or second century" (G-H). The hand is strictly bilinear (letters about 0.3 cm tall), except that the upper and lower ends of the vertical stroke of phi and psi are extended. The letter forms of mu (deeply rounded in the middle), kappa (almost like IS), ksi and zeta (very similar), along with ample use of small serifs, suggest possibly a slightly earlier date (turn of the era). The preserved upper margin is just over 2 cm high, and the vertical space between columns varies considerably from zero to more than 2 cm wide. If the lower margin were also about 2 cm or slightly more, the total height of the roll would have been approximately 20 to 21 cm. The approximate width of the original columns of writing would have been about 12 cm (with an uneven right margin). The text has few variations from standard editions (see the notes), but does not include line 604. There is no evidence of diacritics or punctuation or spacing between words. Some areas are severely abraded, and the letters that probably were found there are left in black within the red reconstructions below. The base text printed below is from the TLG.

The other side  has a few barely legible letters (doodling? and at a slight angle) in three very short groups in a "second century cursive" (G-H) written against the fibers [||], but is otherwise blank except for the archaeologists' note "A B14" -- presumably the find location.

column 1 (556-587)

column 2 (588-620, without 604)

Line Notes:

Homer, Iliad 7.1-30, 32-35 (reused panel [||], 3 ce); three adjoining fragments; 19.8 cm high x 8.5 cm wide

The Homer material is written "in small upright uncials" (about .25 cm tall) against the fibers [||] on the back of a list of names  (?? untranscribed?) which is written along the fibers [--] "in a cursive hand" and dated to "the late second or early third century" by G-H. Thus the Homer is probably an excerpt, dating to the third century (G-H), perhaps a "school exercise" of some sort. In this image, the three fragments have been moved to their proper positions electronically. Parts of a full column of 34 lines are preserved (line 31 is missing), with top (1.6 cm) and bottom (2.7 cm) margins as well. The start of a second column to the right is also in evidence (leftmost traces of a few letters), with the intercolumn irregular but averaging about 1.5 -2.0 cm. Whether the second column was continuous with the first is not clear, although the scanty evidence is largely consistent with such a possibility. There is no evidence of a heading above line one at the top of the main column. The surface of the papyrus is badly abraded in spots (and possibly also with an occasional overlay), and there are many holes as well, consistent with vertical rolling and/or crushing.

Between the columns at lines 9-10 a second hand has written in larger, more careless letters, AUTAI (? AUTON?), but its significance is not clear. No diacritical markings are evident except for a dieresis over the final iota in line 19, and no punctuation or spacing. Iota adscript is frequent (2, 6, 18, 22, ), sometimes where it is not expected (33, 34), and the nu-moveable is present at the end of line 5. Occasional ligatures occur, and the hand has a somewhat "sloppy" look due partly to the thickness of the heavy black ink strokes, and also to inconsistent vertical alignment of some of the letters. Notable features include a left-leaning tail on the top of the delta, a mu with a deep (but not always smoothly executed) U middle,  and a nu in which the middle stroke reaches the lower extremity of the right vertical stroke. The occasional variations from the standard TLG text are recorded in the line notes.

column 1 (1-30, 32-35)

Line Notes:

Homer, Odyssey 17.137-148, 182-193 (codex, 3 ce); 7.3 cm high x 5.3 cm wide

A small, nearly square fragment from the bottom of the page of a codex, written stichometrically. The left, right, and top margins have been lost on side one, but part of a lower margin of about 2.0 cm remains. The piece is compromised by multiple holes and tears in the papyrus. The first side, written against the fibers [||], contains the middle parts of 11 partly legible lines; the other side, written with the fibers [--], has portions of the ends of 12 lines in the same hand. Assuming the normal text of Homer,  the lost portion between the preserved materials would have contained 33 lines, resulting in about 45 lines per column on the original page (thus about 19-20 cm tall, plus margins). Judging from the relative placement of text on each side of the page, the "print block" would have been about 10 cm wide, but the right margins would have contained considerable blank space, especially where shorter lines appeared. Thus we can estimate an approximate page size of 24 cm tall and 12-14 cm wide, similar to Turner's "group 8" (half as wide as high). It is unlikely that the original codex began at the start of Odyssey 17, since this surviving page would have begun at approximately line 104, requiring more than a double sided leaf of 90 lines for what preceded, but much less than another full column of 45 lines (or another full double sided leaf).

The writing is in black ink, in a loose literary hand that slants slightly to the right ("rather small sloping oval uncials" dated 3rd ce by G-H), with characters that average about 0.3 cm tall. The middle stroke of the nu connects rouighly in the middle of the right vertical stroke. Lambdas tilt left so that the bottom of the curved right diagonal stroke is noticeably higher than the bottom of the left stroke. The left side of the epsilon is noticeably flattened. Grenfell and Hunt note that accents and stops are written in lighter ink, but they are now almost entirely faded and invisible; probably line 142 has a double dot (trema or a breathing mark?) over the iota, while in line 183 the U of UFORBOS is similarly marked and there is what appears to be a grave accent mark over the first omicron of that word; a mid-line stop is still visible at the end of line 189. In the bottome margin of side one is the notation "F 27.12," in light brown ink, presumably to mark the find location in the dump. In the lower right margin of side two is the inventory number 782 in red ink.

Textually, the fragment varies from the standard TLG text only in line 187, where the known variant GENESQAI is found rather than LIPESQAI.

[lines 149-181 are missing from the top of this column]

Line Notes:

Homer, Odyssey 4.520-529 (roll, 1/2 ce); blank ||; 6.25 cm high x 2.5 cm wide.

This small, rectangular fragment has lost its upper, left, and right margins; about 0.5 cm of the lower margin still remains. The text is written in stichoi along the fibers [--] with parts of 10 lines preserved from near the starts of the lines. The other side [||] is blank except for the archaeologist's note "M B.02" (or perhaps "M 3.62") written perpendicularly in a faint brownish ink. The bottom right margin of the first side has the inventory number 776 in red. Thus this is probably part of a column from a roll, written in black ink in a regular literary block hand ("round uncials" of the "first or early second century" G-H), with characters about 0.25 cm tall. Diacriticals and accents in the same color ink are well preserved in lines 522 (acute accent) and both 524 and 528 (apostrophe shaped elision marks), while in 529 there seems to be an acute mark over the final A, but nothing over the D.  In line 525, there is a dot-like mark between the G and the I, like a midpoint.

Characteristic features of letters include a two-stroke rounded epsilon (also three stroke), an almost Roman alpha (nearly horizontal mid stroke), kappa with a low upper diagonal, and a mu with very deep "U-shaped" middle stroke. Omicrons and sigmas are two stroke, thetas are three. Eta has a very high middle stroke.

Line Notes:

Homer, Odyssey 10.26-50 (roll, 2/3 ce) [on display, 3rd floor]; reused on || for a letter (3 ce); 20.6 cm. high x 17.2 cm wide.

"A nearly complete column ... with stops (high, middle and low point). ... Late second or third century, written in handsome round upright uncials. On the verso parts of the last 7 lines of a letter in a cursive hand of the late third century" (G-H).

Homer, Odyssey  16.243-256, 288-301 (codex, 3 ce) 6.2 cm high x 3.5 cm wide

No margins are preserved in this fragment from a codex page, which is damaged by vertical creases and tears about every cm across, perhaps from crushing or folding. The first side, written with the fibers [--] has parts of 14 lines and the other side preserves parts of the ends of 14 lines, in a stichometric format resembling PPennMuseum E02816 (POxy 782), described above. The original page probably contained about 45 lines and thus would have been about 20 cm tall (plus upper and lower margins), and perhaps 12 cm wide (Turner's group 8).

Both sides are in black ink, in a regular, if slightly sloppy (and/or hasty), right-slanting uncial ("rather small sloping oval uncials" dated to 3rd ce G-H), with characters about 0.25 cm tall. Notable letter forms include epsilon with a middle stroke that extends farther right than the upper and lower strokes and a very flat left side, nu with the diagonal connecting at the base of the right vertical, small omegas raised above the base line, and alphas sometimes tipped to the left so that the right foot ends about at mid line height. Some diacritical marks (dieresis over the iotas at the start of names in lines 244 and 251, and over the upsilon in line 292, perhaps indicating rough breathing) and punctuation (end of lines 290, 298, 299.300) have been supplied, perhaps by a later hand, in a light, reddish ink, now very faded. Occasional ligatures occur, and there is no obvious specing between words or phrases. The modern finder's marks "F.27.26" (in dark brown ink) and "781" (in red) appear in the right margin of side two.

The only divergences from the standard (TLG) text appear in lines 292, UMEIN (a common itacism), and 293 DE not TE (again, a common variation).

Line Notes:

Homer, Odyssey Od 4.388-400 (roll, 3 ce); blank ||; 8.2 cm high x 4.5 cm wide

This rectangular fragment of a roll on light-colored papyrus contains some tears and shredding. The middle portion of 12 lines written along the fibers [--] is preserved, plus about 1.5 cm of the lower margin. There is no way to tell how tall the column might have been, but it was probably about 11-12 cm wide. The other side of the fragment [||] is entirely blank.

The characters are about 0.3 cm tall in regular, slightly right-leaning oval uncials dated to the 3rd ce (G-H) without any obvious spacing between words. Diacritical marks include an apostrophe after the tau in line 392, a rough breathing on the initial omicron in line 393, and an acute accent over the final epsilon in line 396. Also in 396, a later hand has corrected eta to alpha on the final word, striking a diagonal line through the eta and inserting the alpha above it.Notable paleographic features include very thin thetas with a low and wide mid stroke; lower verticals on rho, tau, upsilon, and phi, that extend well below the line and also curve slightly to the left; and small omicrons raised above the base line. The lower right foot of the kappas is also almost parallel to the base line.

Textually, line 399 (bracketed in the TLG text) is not present, and there is a correction in line 396, as mentioned -- HLEH[TAI to ALEH[TAI.

Line Notes:

Homer, Iliad 10.233-243, 250-255 (roll, 3 ce), blank ||; two fragments, the largest of which is 9 cm high x 4.2 cm wide, and the other 6.7 x 2.2 cm

Both of these pieces are from the end of a column and the smaller fragment preserves a lower margin of 1.5 cm; thus by including the six lost intervening lines, the column would have been at least 21 cm tall, plus whatever may have been above the larger fragment (including an upper margin of perhaps 2 cm.). The first fragment contains the ends of 11 lines, and the smaller fragment has the ends of 6 more lines. The original column thus had at least 23 lines. The text is written along the fibers [--] in black ink using relatively thin strokes. The back [||] is completely blank, thus indicating that the fragments probably came from a roll.

The hand is rather hasty and careless, with frequent ligatures. "Third century, written in a good-sized semi-uncial hand," "with stops (middle and low points) and occasional breathings, accents, and marks of quantity" (G-H). [etc]

Line Notes:

Homer, Iliad 12.125-132, 156-163 (codex; date?); 6.8 cm high x 5.0 cm wide.

Parts of 8 lines, no margins, blurred brown ink. "Graeco-Roman Era." About 23 lines are missing between columns; thus originally there would have been about 31-32 lines per column.

Line Notes:

Homer, Iliad 11.425-437, traces of something else on -- (reused; date?)

12 lines, light yellow surface, neat hand

Line Notes

Homer, Odyssey  Od 4.803-817; traces of different hand on -- (reused; date?)

On the other side, written along the fibers [--], are traces of several lines, perhaps in two different hands (the writing is partly hidden behind a translucent "Japanese paper" backing attached around the edges): 4-6 lines in what may have been a neat uncial, lightly written, then two lines in a documentary cursive, more heavily written (...LENON, ...KAIT), perhaps dating to 1-3rd CE.

Line Notes: