Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 229 (P. Oxy. 229 or P. Oxy. II 229) is a fragment of the ''
Phaedo
''Phædo'' or ''Phaedo'' (; el, Φαίδων, ''Phaidōn'' ), also known to ancient readers as ''On The Soul'', is one of the best-known dialogues of Plato's middle period, along with the '' Republic'' and the '' Symposium.'' The philosophica ...
'', a dialogue by
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
, written in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
. It was discovered in
Oxyrhynchus. The manuscript was written on
papyrus
Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...
in the form of a roll. It is dated to the second or third century. Currently it is housed in the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
(Department of Manuscripts, 786) in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.
[P. Oxy. 229]
at the Oxyrhynchus Online
Description
The document was written by an unknown copyist. It contains part of the text of the ''Phaedo'' (109 C, D). The measurements of the fragment are 170 by 49 mm. The text is written in a small cramped
uncial
Uncial is a majuscule Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall. (1996) ''Encyclopedia of the Book''. 2nd edn. New Castle, DE, and London: Oak Knoll Press & The British Library, p. 494. script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th to ...
hand. It uses
breathing and accents. There are two lines at the top in a
cursive hand, which appear to be a heading. It does not have any remarkable textual variations. The occasional corrections were inserted after the writing, possibly by the original scribe.
It was discovered by
Grenfell and
Hunt
Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, e ...
in 1897 in Oxyrhynchus. The text was published by Grenfell and Hunt in 1899.
[
]
See also
* Oxyrhynchus Papyri
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient rubbish dump near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt (, mo ...
* Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 228
* Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 230
References
229
__NOTOC__
Year 229 (Roman numerals, CCXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Cassius (or, less frequentl ...
2nd-century manuscripts
3rd-century manuscripts
British Library collections
Dialogues of Plato
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