An ancient tablet engraved with 13 verses of the Odyssey has been unearthed in southern Greece in what is possibly the earliest-recorded trace of the epic poem, the culture ministry said Tuesday.
The clay slab is believed to date back to the third century, during the Roman era.
"If this date is confirmed, the tablet could be the oldest written record of Homer's work ever discovered" in Greece, a ministry statement said.
The extract, taken from book 14, describes the return of Ulysses to his home island of Ithaca.
The tablet was discovered after three years of surface excavations by the Greek Archaeological Services in cooperation with the German Institute of Archaeology.
It was found close to the remains of the Temple of Zeus at the cradle of the Olympic Games in western Peloponnese.
First composed orally around the 8th century BC, the epic -- which is attributed to ancient Greek author Homer -- was later transcribed during the Christian era onto parchment of which only a few fragments have been discovered in Egypt.
baatezu on July 10th, 2018 at 20:15 UTC »
Here is the picture you are looking for. And another
Message_From_Mars on July 10th, 2018 at 19:03 UTC »
IN OTHER BREAKING NEWS:
The oldest known surviving copy of Homer's Odyssey located in a rural small town in Vermont, has also just been discovered today.
A yellowing "Penguin Edition", it is believed to have been published in 1965, and was discovered while Ms Grace Owens of 51 Old Oak Country Side Road was cleaning out the guess bedroom at her house, in anticipation of the arrival of her sister, Mary Beth Robinson, of Maryland.
"If this date is confirmed, the book could be the oldest written record of Homer's work ever discovered" in this town, proclaimed the excited Town Mayor, Burt Wilconsin.
cerberdoodle on July 10th, 2018 at 17:19 UTC »
This is a badly written article with misleading and false information. And to make matters worse, a bunch of news outlets are rapidly paraphrase-publishing the same story with the same problems. Not the least problem is the question of whether this is the "earliest-recorded trace of the epic poem." Here, for example, is an excerpt of the Odyssey from the 3d century BCE, which is 600 years earlier than the tablet in question. Also, the articles are saying that we only have a few scraps of Homer from antiquity. In fact, we have more manuscripts of Homer than any other ancient work apart from the Bible.