The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-04-06
REGENT FINDS OF PAPYRI.

Valuable Fragments of Classical Liter
 ature and Interesting Documents Re covered
 It' would seem that Egypt is deter mined to Yindicate to her utmost eXten
 her title of the land of letters, Whi decipherers and explorers are restoring
 to us the history and civilization of tn,
 most remote ages, and giving to tn,
 chronicles of the Pharaolls a restorative
 enlargement far beyond our widest ex
 pectatlons, other laborers are restoring
 to us the later chapters of her history
 when the line of the Pharaohs had sue ] cumbed to the conquering Greek ant 1 Roman The second installment oi
 Greco-Roman papyri, from the explora.
 tions at Ben Hesa, the ancient Oxyrhyn-
 GUS, carried out by Messrs. Hunt and
 Grenfell, is rich in historical material. | It is indeed an astonishing revelation of the literary activity in classic times l in Egypt that some hundreds of manu- ! scripts have been obtained from the
 ruins of small provincial town in the Thebiad. From this little town come | classic fragmentsgof all the best known
 authors-Homer Euripides, Thucydides,
 Plato Xenophon and an unknown work
 of Aristophanes. If this wealth of lit-
 erature was found in a minor center
 such as Oxyrhyncus, what might we
 have hoped for had the treasures of AL exandria been preserved? The vast
 number of papyr, both literary and off,
 cial, discovered during recent years in
 Middle Egypt and the Fayoum are
 alone proof of the treasures destroyed
 by the fanaticism of Omar.
 The series of papyri now published do not contain such treasures as 'The Lo-
 gia of Jesus," or the new poem of Sappho, but we have charming frag- ment of comedy of Menander of which little more than the name was extant until now It Is called "Perikeiromene," or the Cropped Lady" and relates to the story of soldier who in a drunken fit cut off the locks of his mistress. The small fragment of the last act is so pleasing that it is to be hoped that more will be found. For historical purposes, one of the most important fragments recovered is list of victors from B. c. 4SO-46S and 456-44S. The period embrac- ed is rich one in literature and art, and the new list will enable us to at tain greater accuracy in fixing the dates of writing of the Olympian odes of Pin dar and BacchyHdes.. and of the sculp tors Polycletusa Myron and others.
 If the find is important in the addi- tions it affords ito our knowledge of classical times it Is still more important in the insight it affords into the inner T IL. po Nn,si- cd covered by these documents-name- ly, the first centuries before and after the Christian Era-was one of great of- ficial activity, and thus the number of legal documents Is great, and the af- fairs of many, families can be traced with minute accuracy. There is most series of documents relating to the domestic affairs of certain Tryphon a weaver of Oxyrhyncus. Born in the year 8 A. D., he married woman named Demetrons, but the union lasted but short time, for in about 34-35 A. b. we find him presenting a petition thus, worded to the courts; 'I married Demetrons, the daughter of and for my part l provided for my wife in manner that exceeded my resources. But she became dissatis- fled with our union, and finally left the house, carrying off property belonging to me" He demands her punishment and the return of his property. The real source of the trouble was the mother n-law," as in modern cases.
 Having ridded himself of Demetrons, ! the husband takes new wife, but, as a | of caution, only on trial for | period apparently of five months. The | new wife. named Saraeus, brings him dowry of forty drachmae of silver. a l robe and pair of gold earrings, and | these or the equivalent value are to be | at the end of the five months if the temporary union is not success sul Soon after marriage trouble ap | pears in the form of the discarded wife, | ler mother and friends, who assault the lew bride, and once more the "affaire Tryphon" is before the courts. Pun shment being meted out, the household s once more in peace.
 From the newly discovered records we ,an trace the history very clearly. The pair lived together in happiness for at ,last twenty three years, and two sons md a daughter were born, the second ;on, Thoonis, in "A A. D., and twelve years later was apprenticed to weaver o learn the trade his fathers eyesight having grown too dim to teach him. All his time the wife of Saraeus had not demanded the dowry which should have ,een returned to her after five months rial, but seven years after there seems 0 have been domestic crisis, though nly of a passing nature, and we find he dowry paid through a firm of local 
 All family life does not appear to have een quite so smooth as that of Try ,hon's household, as the following peti- ion of wife shows: The plaintiff says
 "I, Syra, the daughter of Theon, mar jed sarapion bringing him by cession
 dowry amounting to 200 drachmae of liver AS he was destitute of means l eceived him into my parents house, nd I for my part conducted myself in all respects But Sara ion, having squandered my dowry as e pleased, continually ill-treated and lsulted me, using violence toward me, nd depriving me of the necessaries of fe; finally he deserted me, leaving me l state of Restitution" Although old some eighteen hundred years ago. here Is very modern aspect about the etition of Syra, and it is to be hoped he was well rid of the brute.
 Soma Cf the rriyata letters very