A FRAGMENT OF HOMER'S ILIAD
131
864. This line contains the only reading which Grenfell and Hunt printed in
their description, as? Moe]aqS "rE Kai 'AvT[<os. However, after close examination,
I have reached the conclusion that the vital letter is not an alpha, but a lambda.
The papyrus had been badly mounted, with a small strip below the letter placed
back to front and with the fibres running from side to side instead of from top to
bottom, although it is impossible to say whether it was in this condition when
Grenfell and Hunt read it. This strip proved to contain a dot of ink belonging to
the bottom of the left-hand hasta of the letter. Thus reconstructed, the letter may
be described as follows: two firm hastae which do not meet at an apex, and a
rather weak, slightly saucer-shaped stroke running between the hastae, about
two-thirds of the way down. There is no other lambda in the fragment with which
this letter may be compared, but the characteristics of the alpha may be defined.
It is formed with two firm hastae and a cross-stroke, made very firmly and without
removing the pen after the left hand down-stroke, running from the bottom of the
left-hand hasta to the middle of the right-hand hasta. The weak cross-stroke on
the letter under discussion is not at all characteristic of the alpha made by this
hand. As may be seen from the apparatus, there is no variant reading for the name
which includes an alpha. It seems probable, therefore, that this letter is to be
read as a lambda. The weak cross-stroke looks like a dribble made by the pen in
the transition from one hasta to the other.
865. The Massaliotic edition reads yupaicos, according to Eustathius. The
Hawara text reads ruyatri, with the scholion yupcn'r. According to the scholiast
(A), Aristarchus removed the iota. There is no way of telling whether the adscript
would have appeared in this fragment or not, since there is no other point at
which an iota adscript might have occurred.
866. There is no sign in this fragment, or in any other papyrus text of the
additional line which is quoted by Strabo, xiii. 4.6.
867. There are three small dots of ink below the omicron, with the apparent,
but very faded remains of a small loop connecting the upper two.
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
ALAN K. BOWMAN
