Tiny Odyssey fragment unearthed in Dutch university library

A Greek-literature fragment from Homer’s Odyssey, dated to about AD 300 and measuring roughly 2.6 by 3 inches, was found in Utrecht University Library among old Egyptian and Greco-Roman texts. Discovered by Mark de Kreij (Radboud University), the parchment likely originated from a pocket edition produced in Egypt’s Fayum and contains Book 12 lines describing Helios’ cattle incident. The fragment is one of about 30 similar pieces known and may have survived because it lay in the middle of the pocket edition, shielded by surrounding pages. The find will be documented in a forthcoming book on Utrecht’s collection; earlier this year, archaeologists also reported Iliad fragments from Egypt.