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Monday, April 18, 2005

Paging Brother William of Baskerville

The previously unknown texts, read for the first time last week, include parts of a long-lost tragedy - the Epigonoi ("Progeny") by the 5th-century BC Greek playwright Sophocles; part of a lost novel by the 2nd-century Greek writer Lucian; unknown material by Euripides; mythological poetry by the 1st-century BC Greek poet Parthenios; work by the 7th-century BC poet Hesiod; and an epic poem by Archilochos, a 7th-century successor of Homer, describing events leading up to the Trojan War. Additional material from Hesiod, Euripides and Sophocles almost certainly await discovery.

— from Decoded at last: the 'classical holy grail' that may rewrite the history of the world, in The Independent

The stuff about this potentially representing 'a second renaissance', I'm gonna pass on, for now. But this is pretty damned incredible, make no mistake.