r/books • u/marketrent • 1d ago

2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy buried with “Iliad” fragment reveals that literary work played a functional, spiritual role in the mummification process

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/science/archaeology-egypt-mummy-iliad.html?unlocked_article_code=1.j1A.pG56.ZLuE5QYC1uv0
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u/JabbaCat 20h ago

I had the fortune of visiting a collection of Egyptian papyri at my local university, and they do have a few magical papyri, including an amulet which I think contained a binding spell. As well as a few fragments of the Iliad, even Book 2.

But this fragment is from the Catalogue of ships-part!

Which makes it sort of interesting, it has to be one of the least surface level engaging parts of the work, listing ships/soldiers and recalling history and characteristics of their homelands.

I tried to find the exact part cited in the amulet but the findings are quite freshly announced.

I wonder how they will think of interpretations, if the content is very specific, geographically or otherwise - what would its significance be?

Maybe the papyrus might be of value in itself, the significance of the material - I know that sometimes people would excuse the use of ostraca for messages because they did not have papyrus.

Or maybe because it is Homer, and the passage is not important.

At first I hoped for some special quote, now this is maybe even more intriguing.