A researcher discovered a rare fragment of Homer's Odyssey in a Dutch library, hidden among ancient Egyptian texts

A fragment from Homer’s Odyssey, approximately 1,700 years old, has been discovered in a collection of ancient Egyptian texts held by the University Library in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The parchment, found by researcher Mark de Kreij, a specialist in Greek literature at Radboud University, probably comes from a codex produced in Egypt around 300 AD.

The piece of parchment measures approximately 6.6 by 7.7 centimetres and contains verses from Book XII of the epic. The fragment describes the moment when Helios learns that Odysseus’s men have killed and eaten his sacred cattle. The god asks Zeus to punish them, and Zeus destroys the crew’s ship, sparing only Odysseus.

Mark de Kreij identified the fragment in 2024 while studying early Christian manuscripts acquired by the university in the mid-20th century. According to researchers, only approximately 30 similar fragments have been discovered so far. It is not known how the parchment came to be in the Dutch collection. A complete study of the manuscripts is due to be published in a book dedicated to the Egyptian and Greco-Roman texts in the university’s collection.