- Title
- God(s), freedom, and nature in the Derveni Papyrus
- Creator
- Tarrant, Harold
- Relation
- 2008 Biennial Conference in Philiosophy Religion and Culture. Proceedings of the 2008 Biennial Conference in Philosophy Religion and Culture (Strathfield, NSW 05-07 October, 2012) p. 145-149
- Publisher
- Body and Soul Dynamics
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2012
- Description
- I deal in this paper with a text that still remains little discussed in Australia, but whose far-reaching importance is now becoming relevant to Hellenists with very different specialisations. It may possibly be the earliest surviving mainland Greek papyrus, discovered in a Macedonian grave in charred condition suggestive of burning. Remains of the top half of a papyrus role, with 26 columns part-extant. It was found in 1962, and published in an unauthorised version in 1982, but the early columns that were in need of painstaking reconstruction were published only in 1997 (Tsantsanoglou 1997). New texts have been published since 2002, including the official version of 2006. At the present time it is being read with promising new multi-spectral imaging that can clear up some uncertainties, and I am fortunate enough to have seen some of what this technique can achieve with the papyrus. However, the papyrus had deteriorated quite considerably since the find, and that will no doubt mean that the earliest photos will still be the best testimony in a few cases. The tomb is said to date from around the late 4th-century BC; the handwriting in this copy, with its careful and well-formed letters, may date from around the mid 4th-century; and the date of author is usually regarded as late 5th-century or very early 4th-century.
- Subject
- Derveni; Hellenists; papyrus; theology
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1316967
- Identifier
- uon:23296
- Identifier
- ISBN:9780646589183
- Language
- eng
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