Papyrology at the APA (Philadelphia)

This seminar will workshop lyric fragments from the Michigan collection as a precursor to
publication. The verses discuss the construction of the Trojan Horse, but the identities of both the
narrator and a quoted speaker are uncertain, as is the mythographic context. Their editor tentatively
attributes the style and language to Euripides, but the verses are not manifestly dramatic and cannot be
ascribed to a known play. The fragments raise many problems—papyrological, mythographical,
metrical, narratological, and literary—and following the panelists’ presentations, the seminar will
collaborate to shed further light on them.

1. C. Michael Sampson, University of Michigan
New ‘Euripidean’ Lyric in the Michigan Collection: P. Mich. Inv. 3498+3250b (verso) and 3250c
(verso)

2. Jennifer Clarke Kosak, Bowdoin College
Observations on P. Mich. Inv. 3498+3250b (verso) and 3250c (verso)

3. Martin Cropp, University of Calgary
P. Mich. Inv. 3498+3250b (verso) and 3250c (verso): Mythical and Mythographic Context

Culture and Society in Greek, Roman, and Early Byzantine Egypt
Sponsored by the American Society of Papyrologists
Raffaella Cribiore, Organizer

This panel testifies to the richness of the discipline of papyrology and shows a variety of approaches that
illuminate important areas of study. Several papers concern the legal system in Greek, Roman, and early
Byzantine Egypt. They analyze the Ptolemaic law enforcement system; the access that non-elites had to
legal rights; the litigiousness of individuals in light of the modern legal system; and the coexistence of
legal traditions and change. Other papers concern the process of dictating letters, which is enlightened by
comparative evidence, and the application of bibliological and palaeographical criteria to contextualize
literary papyri from the Fayyum.

1. John Bauschatz, The University of Arizona
Ptolemaic phylakitai: Variety and Versatility (15 mins.)

2. Ari Bryen, The University of Chicago
The Rhetoric of Rights in Roman Egypt (15 mins.)

3. Maryline Parca, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Legal Continuity, Legal Change, and Resistance to Change in the Papyri (15 mins.)

4. Ben Kelly, York University
Aurelius Isidorus as “Repeat Player”: The Sociology of Litigiousness in Early-Byzantine Egypt
(15 mins.)

5. Arthur Verhoogt, University of Michigan
Dictating Letters in Greek and Roman Egypt: A Comparative Perspective (15 mins.)

6. Natascia Pellé, Università di Lecce
The Greek Book in the Fayyum Area (15 mins.)