Durant la préparation de ce volume, nous avons appris l’existence d’un nouveau fragment du codex Bodmer de Ménandre. Le professeur William H. Willis, de Duke University, a bien voulu en réserver la primeur au présent volume, ce dont nous lui sommes vivement reconnaissants. On le constatera : le fragment qu’il livre au public vient apporter un complément à l’une des parties les plus mutilées de notre document.

A new fragment of the Bodmer Aspis

In 1967 Reinhold Merkelbach published as « Wartetexte 2 » a fragment of a papyrus codex leaf (P. Köln, inv. 904) bearing on each face parts of 16 lines which he recognized as deriving from the end of a comedy celebrating a double bethrothal¹. Soon afterwards, the fragment was restored by Colin Austin to its proper place in Acts IV and V of Menander, Aspis, 482-497 and 520-535 ², a section of the broken final surviving leaf 31 (originally the penultimate leaf) of the thirdcentury P. Bodmer XXVI ³. Now, directly adjoining the Cologne fragment, a new fragment has come to light among the Robinson Papyri at Duke University (P. Rob., inv. 38). It adds from three to eight letters to the beginnings of lines 487-498 preserved on the Cologne fragment and two to eight letters preceding the line-ends of 525-535.

The new fragment was found in the collection of the noted archaeologist David Moore Robinson among the several dozen texts he had acquired in 1955 from a dealer other than those who purveyed papyri to the Bodmer and Cologne collections. Altogether seven literary texts in this group have been found to join fragments of the same texts in Cologne. In order that the fragments of Aspis might be rejoined, the Robinson fragment has been transferred to the Cologne collection on indefinite loan.

Except for the confirmation of a few conjectures and the invalidation of other reasonable ones, our gain from the added words and letters is small. At 488 ἀποφαίνειν is proved right rather than ἀποφέρειν. The subject of ϰελεύης (489) is second-person singular, not third, so that ὅσ’ ἂν must be read, not ὃς ἂν. While σεσωϰώς’ ει is a welcome addition to 493, πολλον remains obscure : whether πολλὸν or πολλῶν, πολλ’ ὃv (the reading of most editions) seems ruled out. διαπέφευγε (496) and εύτυχῶς (497) clarify Kleostratos’ hope for Daos’ escape.

At the beginning of Act V the chief gains are the vocative Χαιρέα at 528 (replacing the widely accepted oath νὴ τὸν ῾Hρακλέα), which may prove evidential for the assignment of speakers. Since Chaireas is addressed directly, he presumably cannot be the speaker of 526-529 (unless antilabe is hidden in lacuna), but is the likely speaker of 530. If so, a third character (generally thought to be Daos) spoke 520-525, since he cannot be Chairestratos, Chaireas nor Kleostratos. The ὡς Κλεόστρατος of 530 suggests that he is not present on stage ; in any case ἀρτίως ὡς lays σῶς to rest¹. Chairestratos is then the likely speaker of 526-529 and therefore of 521-522. If so, Chaireas or Daos speaks 533-536, and the οὑτοσί at 536 may well be Smikrines. τ’ ἀσπάσαι at 533 and ]αλαλῶν at 535 may give rise to further emendation.

In the text that follows, the readings preserved on the Robinson papyrus are underlined and attached to the affected lines of the Cologne fragment.

Text

recto (→)

1	__υ.[ ]….[	482
	__λαμβαν[
	τὸ μὲν ἐγγυᾶν [
	ἴσως τοιούτου π[– – –	485
5	ὑμῖν γενομεν[
	πολλῶν σεπ[…]υρο[
	ἕτοιμος ἀποφαίνει[ν488
	ὅσ’ ἂν ϰελεύης πρα[489
	__ἐναντίον σου ταυται[	490
	\Κλεόστρατος/491
10	ὧ φιλτάτη γῆ χαῖρ[ε
	προσεύχομαί σοι μ[
	πολλον σεσ[[ο]]\ω/κώς‧ εἰ [μέν493
	πάρειμι τὴν σωτηρ[ίαν
	ὁρῶ δεομένην τὴν [	495
15	εἰ δ’ αὗ διαπέφευγε[ν496
	ὁ Δᾶ[ο]ς εὐτυχῶς απ[
	νομίσαιμ’ ἐμ’αυτὸ[ν498

verso (↑)

1	].[
	]ν παρείλϰυσεν	520
	γί]νεται διπλοῦς {ό} γάμος
	] ἑαυτοῦ θυγατέρα
5	] τὴν άδελφὴν πάλιν
	]··[··] τὴν δὲ πᾶσαν οὐσίαν
	]ν τ[αῦ]τα πάντα ἕξει πέρας :	525
	]αν που περιπατεῖ τὸν γείτονα526
	]ηρον οὑτοσί γε, νὴ {τον} Δία527
10	] Χαιρέα, πρόσελθέ μοι
	]. πάντα, νὴ τὸν ‘Ήλιον :
	]τιν ἀρτίως ὡς Κλεόστρατος :	530
	]ν μὲν οὗν ὤμην ἐγώ531
	]φεις εἷτα ποῦ ’στιν : ἐνθαδὶ
15	]τ’ ἀσπάσαι φίλον λαβὼν
	]ανεις⸱ προσέρχεται
	]αλαλῶν εὐωχίαν535	535
	]εξων δῆλός ἐστιν οὑτοσί·