The Derveni papyrus is an Ancient Greek papyrus roll that was discovered in 1962 at the archaeological site of Derveni , near Thessaloniki , in Central Macedonia . A philosophical treatise, the text is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem, a theogony concerning the birth of the gods, produced in the circle of the philosopher Anaxagoras . The roll dates to around 340 BC, during the reign of Philip II of Macedon , making it Europe's oldest surviving manuscript . The poem itself was originally composed near the end of the 5th century BC, and "in the fields of Greek religion , the sophistic movement , early philosophy , and the origins of literary criticism it is unquestionably the most important textual discovery of the 20th century." While interim editions and translations were published over the subsequent years, the manuscript in its entirety was first published in 2006.
29-748: The roll was found on 15 January 1962 at a site in Derveni , Macedonia , northern Greece , on the road from Thessaloniki to Kavala . The site is a nobleman's grave in a necropolis that was part of a rich cemetery belonging to the ancient city of Lete . It is the oldest surviving manuscript in the Western tradition, the only known ancient papyrus found in Greece proper, and possibly the oldest surviving papyrus written in Greek regardless of provenance. The archaeologists Petros Themelis and Maria Siganidou recovered
58-417: A better approach to the edition of a difficult text. However, results of this initiative were not published or made available to other scholars. The papyrus was finally published by a team of researchers from Thessaloniki (Tsantsanoglou et al., below), and they provided a complete text of the papyrus based on an analysis of the fragments, with photographs and translation. Subsequent progress was made in reading
87-721: A high social group that everywhere spoke the same kind of "civilized Ionic". However, local speech by the "man in the street" must have shown differences. An inkling of this may be witnessed in the language of Ephesian "beggar poet" Hipponax , who often used local slang (νικύρτας, σάβαυνις: terms of abuse; χλούνης, thief ; κασωρικός, whorish ) and Lydian loanwords (πάλμυς, king ). Proto-Greek ā > Ionic ē ; in Doric , Aeolic , ā remains; in Attic , ā after e, i, r , but ē elsewhere. Proto-Greek e, o > East/Central Ionic ei, ou : compensatory lengthening after loss of w in
116-494: A literary dialect called Homeric Greek or Epic Greek , which largely comprises Old Ionic, but with some admixture from the neighboring Aeolic dialect to the north, as well as with some Mycenean elements as a result of a long pre-Homeric epic tradition. This Epic Ionic was used in all later hexametric and elegiac poetry, not only by Ionians, but also by foreigners such as the Boeotian Hesiod . Ionic would become
145-419: A quotation of the philosopher Parmenides . The text of the papyrus contains a mix of Ancient Greek dialects . It is written mainly in a mixture of Attic and Ionic Greek; however it also contains a few Doric forms. In some instances, the same word appears in different dialectal forms throughout the text, such as cμικρό- and μικρό ; ὄντα and ἐόντα ; νιν for μιν etc. The full surviving text
174-624: A series of migrations, to establish their colonies on the coast of Asia Minor and the islands of the Cyclades, around the beginning of the Protogeometric period (1075/1050 BC). Between the 11th and 9th century BC, the Ionians continued to spread around those areas. The linguistic affinity of Attic and Ionic is evident in several unique features, like the early loss of /w/, or the merger of /ā/ and /ē/, as seen in both dialects. By
203-736: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ionic Greek Ionic or Ionian Greek ( Ancient Greek : Ἰωνική , romanized : Iōnikḗ ) was a subdialect of the Eastern or Attic –Ionic dialect group of Ancient Greek . The Ionic group traditionally comprises three dialectal varieties that were spoken in Euboea (West Ionic), the northern Cyclades (Central Ionic), and from c. 1000 BC onward in Asiatic Ionia (East Ionic), where Ionian colonists from Athens founded their cities. Ionic
232-533: Is a commentary on a hexameter poem ascribed to Orpheus , which was used in the mystery cult of Dionysus by the 'Orphic initiators'. Fragments of the poem are quoted, followed by interpretations by the main author of the text, who tries to show that the poem does not mean what it literally says. The poem begins with the words "Close the doors, you uninitiated", a famous admonition to secrecy, also quoted by Plato . The interpreter claims that this shows that Orpheus wrote his poem as an allegory. The theogony described in
261-479: Is located where a necropolis was discovered, part of a cemetery of the ancient city of Lete . Valuable artifacts were uncovered at this site, including the Derveni papyrus and Derveni krater . 40°43′13″N 22°58′17.2″E / 40.72028°N 22.971444°E / 40.72028; 22.971444 This article about a location in ancient Macedonia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Central Macedonia location article
290-617: Is registered in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register and noted as the oldest known European book. According to UNESCO: The Derveni Papyrus is of immense importance not only for the study of Greek religion and philosophy, which is the basis for the western philosophical thought, but also because it serves as a proof of the early dating of the Orphic poems offering a distinctive version of Presocratic philosophers . The text of
319-442: Is strange and riddling to people, though [Orpheus] did not intend to tell contentious riddles but rather great things in riddles. In fact he is speaking mystically, and from the very first word all the way to the last. As he also makes clear in the well recognized verse: for, having ordered them to "put doors to their ears," he says that he is not legislating for the many [but addressing himself to those] who are pure in hearing … and in
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#1732765894600348-608: The Black Sea , and the western Mediterranean, including Magna Graecia in Sicily and Italy . The Ionic dialect is generally divided into two major time periods, Old Ionic (or Old Ionian) and New Ionic (or New Ionian). The transition between the two is not clearly defined, but 600 BC is a good approximation. The works of Homer ( The Iliad , The Odyssey , and the Homeric Hymns ) and of Hesiod were written in
377-580: The Lucianic or Pseudo-Lucianic On the Syrian Goddess . Ionic acquired prestige among Greek speakers because of its association with the language used by both Homer and Herodotus and the close linguistic relationship with the Attic dialect as spoken in Athens. This was further enhanced by the writing reform implemented in Athens in 403 BC, whereby the old Attic alphabet was replaced by
406-608: The Ionic alphabet, as used by the city of Miletus . This alphabet eventually became the standard Greek alphabet, its use becoming uniform during the Koine era. It was also the alphabet used in the Christian Gospels and the book of Acts . On the basis of inscriptions, three subdialects of Ionic may be discerned: 1. Western Ionic, the dialect of Euboea and parts of Attica , like Oropos ; 2. Central or Cycladic Ionic,
435-401: The Orphic theogony, will lead to the birth of Demeter . Zeus would then have raped Demeter, who would have given birth to Persephone , who marries Dionysus. However, this part of the story must have continued in a second roll which is now lost. The interpreter of the poem argues that Orpheus did not intend any of these stories in a literal sense, but they are allegorical in nature. This poem
464-521: The Papyrus, which is the first book of western tradition, has a global significance, since it reflects universal human values: the need to explain the world, the desire to belong to a human society with known rules and the agony to confront the end of life. Derveni, Thessaloniki Derveni ( Greek : Δερβένι ) is a location between Efkarpia and Lagyna , approximately ten kilometers north-east of Thessaloniki . At Derveni an archeological site
493-739: The conventional dialect used for specific poetical and literary genres. Ιt was used by many authors, regardless of their origin; like the Dorian Tyrtaeus , composing elegies in a form of Ionic. This ability of poets to switch between dialects would eventually temper regional differences, while contributing to the awareness of the Greekness that all dialects had in common. The poet Archilochus wrote in late Old Ionic. The most famous New Ionic authors are Anacreon , Theognis , Herodotus , Hippocrates , and, in Roman times, Aretaeus , Arrian , and
522-807: The dialect of the Cycladic Islands ; 3. Eastern Ionic, the dialect of Samos , Chios , and the west coast of Asia Minor . Eastern Ionic stands apart from both other dialects because it lost at a very early time the /h/ sound ( psilosis ) ( Herodotos should therefore properly be called Erodotos). The /w/ sound ( digamma ) is also completely absent from Eastern Ionic, but was sometimes retained in Western and Cycladic Ionic. Also pronouns that begin with /hop-/ in Western and Cycladic Ionic (ὅπου where , ὅπως how ), begin with ok- (conventionally written hok-) in Eastern Ionic (ὅκου/ὄκου, ὅκως/ὄκως). Western Ionic differs from Cycladic and Eastern Ionic by
551-415: The end of Archaic Greece and early Classical Greece in the 5th century BC, the central west coast of Asia Minor , along with the islands of Chios and Samos , formed the heartland of Ionia proper. The Ionic dialect was also spoken on islands across the central Aegean and on the large island of Euboea north of Athens. The dialect was soon spread by Ionian colonization to areas in the northern Aegean,
580-504: The end of the 5th century BC, Ionic was supplanted by Attic, which had become the dominant dialect of the Greek world. The Ionic dialect appears to have originally spread from the Greek mainland across the Aegean at the time of the Dorian invasions , around the 11th century BC, during the early Greek Dark Ages . According to tradition, the ancestors of Ionians first set out from Athens, in
609-639: The following verse … The first surviving columns of the text are less well preserved, but talk about occult ritual practices, including sacrifices to the Erinyes (Furies), how to remove daimones that become a problem, and the beliefs of the magi . They include a quotation of the philosopher Heraclitus . Their reconstruction is extremely controversial, since even the order of fragments is disputed. Two different reconstructions have recently been offered, that by Valeria Piano and that by Richard Janko, who notes elsewhere that he has found that these columns also include
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#1732765894600638-478: The ink is black and the background is black too; in addition, it survives in the form of 266 fragments, which are conserved under glass in descending order of size, and has had to be painstakingly reconstructed. Many smaller fragments are still not placed. The papyrus is kept in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki . In total, twenty six columns of text survive today. The main part of the text
667-751: The other Cycladic Islands this distinction was not made, Η and Ε were used there interchangeably. Within Eastern Ionic, Herodotus recognized four subgroups ( Histories , I.142), three of them apparently influenced by a neighbouring language: a. The dialect of Miletus , Myus , and Priene , and their colonies, influenced by Carian ; b. The Ionic of Ephesos , Kolophon , Lebedos , Teos , Klazomenai , and Phokaia , and their colonies, influenced by Lydian ; c. The dialect of Chios and Erythrai and their colonies, influenced by Aeolic Greek; d. The dialect of Samos and its colonies. Differences between these four groups are not clearly visible from inscriptions, probably because inscriptions were usually ordered by
696-420: The papyrus by Valeria Piano and Richard Janko , who developed a new method for taking digital microphotographs of the papyrus, a technique that permitted some of the most difficult passages to be read for the first time. Examples of these images are now in the public domain. A version of Janko's new text is available in an edition by Mirjam Kotwick, while an English edition is in preparation. The Derveni papyrus
725-435: The poem has Nyx (Night) give birth to Uranus (Sky), who becomes the first king. Cronus follows and takes the kingship from Uranus, but he is likewise succeeded by Zeus , whose power over the whole universe is celebrated. Zeus gains his power by hearing oracles from the sanctuary of Nyx, who tells him "all the oracles which afterwards he was to put into effect." At the end of the text, Zeus rapes his mother Rhea , which, in
754-502: The sounds -tt- and -rr- where the other two have -ss- and -rs- (τέτταρες vs. τέσσαρες, four ; θάρρος vs. θάρσος, bravery ). Western Ionic also stands apart by using the form ξένος (xenos, foreigner, guest ), where the other two use ξεῖνος (xeinos). Cycladic Ionic may be further subdivided: Keos , Naxos , and Amorgos retained a difference between two /æ/ sounds, namely original /æ/ (written as Ε), and /æ/ evolved from /ā/ (written as Η); for example ΜΗΤΕΡ = μήτηρ < μάτηρ, mother . On
783-476: The top parts of the charred papyrus scroll and fragments from ashes atop the slabs of the tomb; the bottom parts had burned away in the funeral pyre. The scroll was carefully unrolled and the fragments joined together, thus forming 26 columns of text. It survived in the humid Greek soil, which is unfavorable to the conservation of papyri, because it was carbonized (hence dried) in the nobleman's funeral pyre. However, this has made it extremely difficult to read, since
812-631: Was not officially published for forty-four years after its discovery (though three partial editions were issued). A team of experts was assembled in 2005 led by A. L. Pierris of the Institute for Philosophical studies and Dirk Obbink , director of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri project at the University of Oxford , with the help of modern multispectral imaging techniques by Roger MacFarlane and Gene Ware of Brigham Young University , to attempt
841-473: Was the base of several literary language forms of the Archaic and Classical periods, both in poetry and prose. The works of Homer and Hesiod are among the most popular poetic works that were written in a literary form of the Ionic dialect, known as Epic or Homeric Greek . The oldest Greek prose , including that of Heraclitus , Herodotus , Democritus , and Hippocrates , was also written in Ionic. By
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