11. Calendars & Almanacs

Context:For a list of the 12 month names of the Old Babylonian calendar, see MS 2781.

Binding: Barking, Essex, 1998, blue cloth gilt folding case by Aquarius.

Context:Other tablets with Gods' names, are MSS 2200/318, 2200/321, 2200/332 and 2422.

Commentary: This is clearly the beginning of the list, since Enlil, god of the town of Nippur, was the practical head of the pantheon at this time.

The Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian religions had thousands of gods, hence extensive lists to keep track of them.

No other copy of this particular list is so far known.

Commentary: There are similarities to the Greek myth of Persephone who was abdicted to the underworld by Hades, and released to see her mother, Demeter. The text also has parallels to the passion and resurrection in the Gospels.

See also MS 5283 with the story of Orpheus and Euridice.

Binding: Barking, Essex, 1998, blue quarter morocco gilt folding case by Aquarius.

Commentary: All incantation texts begin with an outline of some complaint, physical or psychic, experienced by somebody. There is then a magical part that usually has the priest going off to "consult" with Inanna or another god. Finally the text ends with the gods' revealed advice for action which will lead to the resolution of the problem. The incantation texts used by the priest were something he knew and would probably be the same in each case; so this rite was an unwritten part of all incantation texts. The present text is this rite, possibly written down to assist novice priests. The text is possibly unique.

Commentary: This is the best preserved of only 6 such incantation amulet tablets known. The magic is related to the Maqlu type, but part of the text here seems to be new. Ea or Enki, was the god of the fresh water, creation, destinies, and was especially associated with wisdom, magic and incantations. He was one of the 3 supreme male gods, together with An and Enlil. Shamash or Utu, was the sun god and god of justice, truth and right. Asarluhi, son of Enki, city god of Kuara near Eridu, also used as an alternative name for Marduk in incantations and prayers.

Context: 3 more papyrus scrolls of the same period, together with their wood statuettes, are in the Egyptian Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Provenance: 1. Mathias Komor, New York (1978); 2. Sotheby's 11.7.1988:41.

Commentary: Among the earliest "book-boxes" extant, about 1500 years older than any book-box or binding in private ownership, cf. the 4th c. leather binding, MS 1804/1.

See also MS 1638, Book of dead, Egypt, 15th c. BC

See also MS 125, Book of dead, Egypt, 325-30

Context: This is the longest Etruscan mirror inscription known. For other Etruscan inscriptions, see MSS 565/1 and 564.

Provenance: 1. Silvio Salvino Collection, Switzerland (ca. 1965-2000); 2. Pars Antiques, London.

Commentary:So far this seems to be the only contemporary example of Etruscan literature recorded, and where the text is illustrated in addition. This records a part of Greek mythology that is not yet fully known, adding some new information.
Icarius was the hero of the Attic town of Icaria who had a daughter, Erigone. He had been taught by Dionysos to make wine and the Bacchalian rites, and he loaded a wagon with wine skins, called his faithful dog Maera, and set off to spread the word about wine. He gave wine to some sheperds who got drunk, and who believed Icarius had tried to poison them. They beat him to death with clubs and buried him under a tree. Erigone looked everywhere for her father, and was finally led to him by Maera, who howled over his grave. Distracted with grief, she hanged herself from the tree over the grave. The dog also killed itself by jumping into a well. Dionysos was angered and sent a plague over the land, and the Athenian maidens, in a fit of madness, hanged themselves from trees. Dionysos honored them by placing Icarius in the sky as the constellation Boetes, Erigone as Virgo, and Maera as the Dog Star.
The unique text of the present mirror resisted all attempts to be read, until Mel Copeland succeeded. He is hereby credited with both the reading and the information of the mythological context, for an extensive discussion of the mirror and the mythology. Published: Mel Copeland, Etruscan phrases, Schøyen mirror MS 565/2, "Icarius", at http://www.maravot.com/Schoyen_mirror.Ikarius.html

Provenance: 1. Antiquity dealer, Cairo (1969); 2. Dr. Anton Fackelmann Sr., Wien, Austria, MS 36 (-1986); 3. Anton Fackelmann Jr., Steyr, Austria (1986-1998).

Commentary: The text is the song of Patroklos, inkluding Zevs, Hera, Apollon, Athena, and others of the gods from the Greek Pantheon. Homer is represented in The Schøyen Collection by MS 112/33, The Iliad XV:511-515, ca. 100, MS 112/57, The Iliad II:195-197, 2nd c., MS 112/80, The Iliad XI: 1-5, 2nd c. (the earliest witness to the text and not otherwise extant on papyrus); MS 2628, The Iliad XVI:2-15. 32-37, 40-43, 47-61, 75-91, 1st c. BC-1st c. AD; MS 5094, Homer: The Iliad XVII:637-644, 679-685, + 1 extra and 1 new line (earliest witness to text); MS 5069, The Odyssey XII: 9 - 14; 17 - 28; 41 - 46, late 3rd -2nd c. BC (earliest witness to text); and MS 2629, The Odyssey XI: 509-603, ca. 1st c.

Published: Papyrologica Florentina, vol. XXXV. Rosario Pintaudi: Papyri Graecae Schøyen. Firenze, Edizioni Gonnelli, 2005 (Manuscripts in The Schøyen Collection V: Greek papyri, vol. I), pp. 9-14.

Exhibited: Bibelmuseum, Münster, 1986 - 2002.

Context: The 4 fragments were used as pastedown in a leather binding. Part of the leather adheres to fragment 3. Fragments 1 and 2 origins from a late classical codex. Fragment 3 is uninscribed, but has offsets of Bacchae 1032-4, and 725-30. Fragment 4 has 1 line of a commentary in Greek cursive, and offsets of Bacchae 1069-71.

Provenance: 1. Mohammed Sha'ar, Cairo; 2. Issa Marogi Collection, Jerusalem (ca. 1955-ca. 1990); 3. Heirs of Marogi family, Jerusalem (-1993); 4. Fayez Barakat, Los Angeles. California, March 1994.

Commentary: Bacchae (The women of Bacchus, or Dionysus) was Euripides' (485-406 BC) last play, written 408-606 BC for king Archelaos of Macedonia. It is the only preserved Greek Dionysian cult drama. Dionysus, god of wine and ecstasy, was son of Zeus and Semele, daughter of Cadmus, king of Thebes. Euripides' drama was about the introduction into Greece of a new religion, different from the cult of the traditional 12 Olympian gods. Nevertheless Dionysius' name has been found on linear B tablets, indicating his name and cult might be Minoan or Mycenaean in origin. Apart from the present papyrus, only 7 papyri of Bacchae survive.

Published: Papyrologica Florentina, vol. XXXV. Rosario Pintaudi: Papyri Graecae Schøyen. Firenze, Edizioni Gonnelli, 2005 (Manuscripts in The Schøyen Collection V: Greek papyri, vol. I), pp. 29-32.

Context: The collection of the renowned papyrologist Prof. Atiyah consisted of more than 677 papyri, mainly originating in Middle Egypt, including Oxyrhynchus and Fayum. The first part of 140 papyri (H.P. Kraus cat. 105(1961)), is now in Yale, Beinecke Library, while 242 Greek papyri is MS 244 and 295 Coptic papyri is MS 245 in The Schøyen Collection, see also MS 108.

Provenance: 1. Aziz Suryal Atiyah, Utah, USA ( - ca. 1960); 2. H. P. Kraus, New York, USA, (ca. 1960 - ); 3. Richard Linenthal Collection, London.

Commentary: Apart from this MS, no documents or scriptures seem to be extant on Mithra. Scholars have been able to analyze the cult based on fragmentary references, short stone inscriptions, bas-reliefs and sculptures. Mithra was an ancient Indo-Aryan god of the Persians and Indians, identified with the sun, cattle, agriculture, war, truth and immortality. Introduced into the Roman Empire in the 1st c. BC, Mithraism became the most popular and widespread of the foreign religions adopted by the Romans. It lasted until Christianity was adopted by Constantine the Great in 311.

Binding: Firenze, late 19th c., paper wrappers in 4 volumes, stitched. Cloth fall-down-back box, gilt-lettered red morocco spine strip.

Context: The whereabouts of the Aenid which originally followed this MS, is unknown. For other mss of Georgics see MS 61 of 11th c. and MS 1395 of 12th c.

Provenance: 1. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Firenze (1771); 3. Grand duke Leopold I, Toscana (1771-); 3. Bernard Breslauer, New York (-2005); 4. Christie's New York 27.6.2005: 1170.

Commentary: Vergil's (70-19 BC) works survive in hundreds of MSS, headed by the 3 famous codices, Codex Mediceus, Laur. 39.1 of the 5th c., Codex Platinus, Vatican Pal.lat. 1631, written ca. 500, and Codex Romanus, Vatican lat.3867 also written ca. 500. All three written in rustic capitals. Bucolicon (Latin Bucolica or Eclogae) are ten unconnected pastoral poems written in imitation of Theocritus. Georgicon or Georgica (husbandry) is written in hexameter in imitation of Hesiod's Works and Days (see MSS 593 and 5068), but is far more than a practical guide to farming. It ends with the episode of Aristaeus together with the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Aristaeus, son of Apollo and the nymph Cyrene, was a god of various kinds of husbandry including bee-keeping and hunting. Orpheus, a pre-Homeric poet, son of a Muse, married the nymph Eurydice, who died while being pursued by Aristaeus. Orpheus went down to the Underworld to recover her from Persephone or Proserpina, daughter of Zeus and Demeter, snatched away to be queen of the Underworld by Hades, but Orpheus failed. The famous story is also told by Ovid and Claudian, and was given a more hopeful ending in Gluck's opera. For another, and the oldest account of a descent to the Underworld, see MS 3281 from about 1800 BC.

Giuseppe della Santa, scribe of Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. Duke Leopold I of Toscana (1747-1792), Grand duke of Toscana (1765-1790), Holy Roman Emperor, and King of Bohemia and Hungary, Leopold II (1790-92).

See also MS 1720/1, Curse: To the god Mercury Arverius. England, ca. 150-300

Provenance: 1. Excavated in Yorkshire, England; 2. Neil Clayton, Lavenham, Suffolk (- 1993); 3. Jeremy Griffiths, Oxford.

Commentary: Around 50 examples of Thor's Hammer are found widely distributed throughout Scandinavia from 9th to 11th c., with a few examples from England. As amulet it symbolises the god's protection of the wearer. The 2 crosses suggest a Christian owner, and makes it an unusual and interesting example of the birth of Christianity among the Vikings, still clinging to the old heathen god Thor. Thor (Anglo-Saxon Thunor and German Donar) was the son of Odin the Allfather. He was the god of order and chief antagonist of the giants, the demons of chaos. His chief weapon was his shorthandled hammer. His main enemy was the serpent, Jörmundgand, symbol of evil, who surrounded the world. Thor was sometimes equated with Jupiter. Jove's Day became Thor's Day (Thursday). He causes the thunderstorms whenever he uses his hammer or rides his chariot across the heavens.

See also MS 1697, Runic incantation formula. Denmark, ca. 1000

MS in Icelandic on paper, Iceland, 1925, 24 ff. (-3), 17x10 cm, single column, (15x10 cm), 18 lines in cursive script by Pálmi Jósefsson.

Binding: Iceland, 1925, yellow paper covers, stapled, by Bókaverzlun Gudm. Gamalíelssonar, titled Stílabok on front cover, tables on the back.

Provenance: 1. Pálmi Jósefsson, Iceland (1925-); 2. Antikvariat Bragi Kristjónsson, Reykjavik, Bóksöluskrá nr. 94 (Dec. 2005):85.

Provenance: 1. Pálmi Jósefsson, Iceland (1925-); 2. Antikvariat Bragi Kristjónsson, Reykjavik, Bóksöluskrá nr. 94 (Dec. 2005):85.

Commentary: Håvamål (words of the one on high), the words of Odin (Woden/Wotan) the father of gods. It includes the account of his theft of the precious poetry, called the sacred mead which he brought to the gods. It also includes the account how Odin acquired wisdom by hanging nine nights on the World Tree and by sacrificing one of his eyes. He was pierced by a spear, he was a sacrifice to himself, being nearly dead he received the wisdom that belongs only to the dead, as well as the ability to write runes. Odin was the god of the dead and of war. Those who fell in battle came to Valhalla, and would live in bliss there until Ragnarok (Judgement day, Götterdämmerung) when they would join Odin in his final fight against Fenrisulven, a monstrous wolf.

See also MS 2128, Snorre Sturlason: Sagas of the Norse Kings. Norway, 1711-1720

See also MS 4517, Caius Julius Caesar: Commentarii de bello gallico. Italy, 3rd quarter 15th c. References to German religion compared to Gallic

Context: Another Maya vase with a similar dancer, see www.mayavase.com, # 774. A Mayan Codex vase of ca. 900, see MS 693.

Provenance: 1. Unidentified temple, North Eastern Honduras; 2. Bruce Ferrini, Akron, Ohio.

Commentary: The main figure, a "comic dancer", in net suit with jaguar headdress, is being accompanied by musicians. The attendant with black-painted face is scattering droplets of blood from his left hand. The second attendant holds two rattles. The third attendant is playing a rasca, a segmented musical instrument that is scraped with a shell to make a rhythmic sound. Cf. Justin Kerr: "The Popol Vuh as an instrument of power".

Published: Justin Kerr: The Maya Vase Book, Vol. 4, p. 600.

See also MS 693, Burial text, Guatemala, ca. 900

Other American Indians' religions, see Collection 4.8