Decoded: the 'classical holy grail' that may rewrite the history of world

[illbill]

http://www.realopinion.com/realboards/showthread.php?p=2556

<snip>For more than a century, it has caused excitement and frustration in equal measure - a collection of Greek and Roman writings so vast it could redraw the map of classical civilisation. If only it was legible.

Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed.<snip>

http://www.realopinion.com/realboards/showthread.php?p=2556

[Tux]

1. It also

has lost gospels that were written when jesus was still alive. Get them translated and published. Let's see what the spiritual teacher really said.

[illbill]

2. Probably...

one of the most interesting articles I've read in awhile.

[regnaD kciN]

3. Before anyone gets TOO excited...

The Oxyrhynchus Papyri have been known for some time. There's a website devoted to them here. Much of the discoveries there have already been published -- this article is merely talking about using infra-red technology to detect faded ink on some unreadable passages.

It should be noted that what we're talking about here are fragments of works, not the entire works themselves. For example, they mention having discovered a previously lost play by Sophocles, The Progeny. However, what they actually have discovered of that play are only a few lines, translated below:

Speaker A: . . . gobbling the whole, sharpening the flashing iron.

Speaker B: And the helmets are shaking their purple-dyed crests, and for the wearers of breast-plates the weavers are striking up the wise shuttle's songs, that wakes up those who are asleep.

Speaker A: And he is gluing together the chariot's rail.

Thus, what is likely to be found are only a few sentences (or, in most discoveries, fragments of sentences with key words missing altogether). Interesting from a classicist's standpoint? Definitely! But not exactly like finding a hidden storeroom with entire books or scrolls from the Alexandria Library. And, despite the breathless tone of the article, about as likely to bring about a "second renaissance" as the Jeff Gannon scandal is likely to bring about the imminent resignation of the entire Bush administration and their replacement by a Democratic-Green coalition headed by President Ralph Nader and Vice President Barak Obama.

:eyes:

[reprehensor]

5. Well, guess I'll cancel the Toga party...

Man, what a buzz-kill.

[Bridget Burke]

6. More Sophocles! Maybe a bit of Sappho?

But the "Holy Grail" stuff is over the top, I agree.

[Moochy]

7. Great link on Oxyrhynchus Papyri

Neat Link, here's a cool image from the site, Amazing to see how clear the greek writing is.



http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/VExhibition/millennium_docs/oxyrhynchus_repairs.html

[RedCloud]

4. How can a myth be alive?

[skip fox]

8. How can it not be? If still a myth and not

relegated to books only or the back stacks of a library.

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. Unable...to resist...WMD joke...