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1,700-Year-Old Odyssey Fragment Unearthed in Utrecht Library
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Discovery of the Parchment
While examining a collection of early-Christian and Egyptian manuscripts at Utrecht University Library, Greek literature specialist Mark de Kreij of Radboud University identified a torn piece of parchment containing Greek verses. The fragment, hidden among Coptic papyri acquired from the heirs of German Coptologist Carl Schmidt, was recognized as belonging to Homer's *Odyssey* after de Kreij spotted characteristic words. He reported that the piece had lain unnoticed in the archive for decades before his 2024 inspection.
Historical Context of the Epic
The *Odyssey*—composed in the late eighth or early seventh century B.C.—narrates the ten-year return of the hero Odysseus from the Trojan War. The discovered verses come from Book 12, describing the episode in which Odysseus’s crew slaughters the sacred cattle of the sun god Helios, prompting Zeus to destroy their ship. Earlier in the same year, archaeologists reported a separate papyrus fragment of Homer's *Iliad* recovered from an Egyptian mummy, underscoring a renewed wave of classical-text discoveries in the region.
Physical Description and Rarity
The parchment measures roughly 6.6 cm × 7.7 cm (about the size of a playing card) and is written on both sides in a small, neat Greek script. Utrecht University states that the fragment likely originated from a pocket-size codex produced in Egypt’s Fayum oasis during the third or fourth century A.D. Only around thirty similar Odyssey fragments from this period are known worldwide, making the find exceptionally rare.
Official Comments
The university also noted that Book 12 is the final book in Odysseus’s nested narrative before his return to Ithaca. Bart Jaski, curator of manuscripts at the library, highlighted the timing of the announcement, saying the university chose to publicise the discovery amid heightened public interest following recent film adaptations of the epic.
Verbatim Quote
“It's quite remarkable that such a fragment would just be lying somewhere in Utrecht, but nobody knew about it,” — De Kreij, researcher
Significance and Impact
The fragment’s survival is attributed to its position in the middle of the codex, which would have been protected by outer pages. Its identification expands the corpus of surviving Homeric material and illustrates how ancient literary works continued to circulate in Egypt centuries after their composition. Scholars anticipate that de Kreij’s forthcoming monograph, *Hieratic, Demotic, Greek, and Coptic Texts in the Utrecht University Collection*, will provide a fuller analysis of the codex and its broader textual context.