The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part 38

central horizontal may be made in a half circle, and placed high; υ often has a shallow upper bowl, and can be confused with τ. There are serifs on the feet of vertical strokes, and a left-pointing foot to the base of ρ. Comparison with 246, 2654, P. Lond. 354 suggests allocation to the early first century after Christ, but the end of the 1st century B.C. could not be excluded. The scribe writes iota adscript (in error at B i 18?), but no punctuation or lectional signs. The only ‘dramatic’ notation is given by marginal paragraphos a horizontal line indicating a change in speaker, usually coupled with a space in the line. There are no dicola double dots used as punctuation, no names of characters. The surface of the papyrus is rubbed and it is not always easy to read letters or recognize paragraphoi. Not all those expected can be identified. Two oblique lines in the left margin of B col. ii may possibly be query marks or checking-strokes. The scribe makes itacistic phonetic spelling resulting from vowel sound changes errors.

Mr. Lobel first identified the play through the occurrence of fr. 1 Ἔμβαρος Embarus (B ii 6), Dr. Rea subsequently located fr. 2 in B i 17–18. The only names of characters occurring in the text are Syrus and Chaereas (B iii 17, if the articulation is correct).

Fr. A is independent of the rest. Fr. B is composite. Separate pieces give the ends of lines of col. i and the beginning of ii, the joins being confirmed by fibre continuations and shared letters. The two halves of col. ii are anchored by equidistance of lines, fibre continuations, a very probable shared restoration in v. 16, and a probable shared υ in v. 15; and col. iii is placed by the same means. The detached fr. placed at the head of B col. ii seems to continue fibres of i, has a similar top margin, and if it is part of col. ii (cf. παντοδα[π] all-assorted) can only be placed there. The position of frs. C and D is unknown.

B ii and iii (from ii 5 certainly) are trochaic tetrameters. B i is in iambic trimeters (17–18 = Phasma fr. 2), and therefore the change to tetrameters occurred at the top or in the opening lines of B ii. A is in trimeters.

In fr. A a man and his wife (φιλ’ ἀνέρ dear husband, 11) discuss a delicate and intimate matter, the festival at which a girl was raped by a man, and presumably bore a child whose paternity is in question. It is not certain that only two characters play the scene, and that the wife is confessing to her husband, but that could be its tenor.¹ E. W. Handley suggests that someone may be instructing a husband how he is to question his wife on her past, and forecasting how the dialogue will go (esp. 5, 7).

In B i a cook speaks (17–18, perhaps also 4, 8, 9), a slave Syrus is involved and cursed; and from the interchanges we learn that someone ‘had a slight touch of melancholia’, is now better, and that someone (the same person?) is to ‘marry again’ (a second marriage, or a marriage which had been put off is now on again).

In col. ii a slave reports to his master (τροφίμε foster-master, 11) on a scene taking place indoors, which it seems that he had spied out. The man spied on, apparently a rival lover (cf. 10, 15), is shamming madness (6, 8, 12). His fit takes the form of kissing a girl all over her face (12–14). The master, who suspects he is being gulled, goes indoors to his sister