Multitextuality in the Homeric Iliad

Graeme Bird examines a small group of early papyrus manuscripts of Homer's Iliad, known as the Ptolemaic papyri, which although fragmentary, are the oldest surviving physical evidence (excluding such things as vase paintings) of the text of the Iliad, dating from the third to the first centuries BCE.

These papyri have been described as "eccentric" or even "wild" by some scholars. They differ significantly from the usual text of the Illiad, sometimes presenting lines with significantly different wording, at other times including so-called "interpolated" lines that are completely absent from our more familiar version.

Whereas some scholars tend to denigrate these papyri because of their "eccentricity," this book analyzes some of their unusual readings and shows that they in face present authentic variations on the Homeric text, exemplifying the variability characteristic of oral performance.

Graeme D. Bird is Associate Professor of Linguistic and Classics at Gordon College in Wenham, MA. He also teaches at the Harvard Extension School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.