P L 2329/2388 ⇒ P. P G 1
Papyrus Louvre inv. 7733 (300 – 200 BCE)
This fragmentary papyrus, in a 3rd c. BCE hand, discovered in Egypt in 1869, discusses
optical distortions and illusions and their explanations. The work has been attributed to
D, E and the milieu of E; but indications are too slender for
confidence. A Skeptical author from the circle of Pyrrho has also been suggested. But the
text is not endeavoring to cast doubt, in Skeptical fashion, on our knowledge of things;
rather, it attempts scientific explanations of why we do not always see things accurately. The
phenomena discussed include the apparent motion and apparent lack of motion of objects,
as well as variations in their apparent size and their degree of visibility.
Richard Bett, “Sceptic Optics?” Apeiron 40 (2007) 95–121.
Richard Bett
Papyrus Lund I.7 (200 – 400 CE)
Fragment of an anatomical catechism, on the caecum (tuphlon enteron; cf. -G, Aff.
Ren. 1 [19.646 K.]) and rectum (apeuthusmenon; cf. R E, Anat. 48 [ p. 180 DR]).
M.-H. Marganne, “Un questionnaire d’anatomie,” CE 62 (1987) 189–200.
PTK
Papyrus Michiganensis 3.148 (1st c. CE)
Two columns of an astrological treatise perhaps entitled On Lunar Conjunctions, and perhaps
written ca 160 – 70 BCE (judging from its copious references to pirates). Prognostications
are made on the basis of the conjunctions.
F.E. Robbins in P. Mich. 3 (1936).
PTK
Papyrus Michiganensis 3.149 (100 – 200 CE)
Unknown author of an astrological prose work in Greek of which there survive in the 2nd c.
papyrus substantial fragments, amounting to parts of 22 columns of text. The work is
exceptional within the corpus of Greco-Roman astrological texts for its integration of elem-
ents of contemporary astronomical modeling into its astrological doctrines, which are them-
selves largely non-standard. The most interesting and idiosyncratic passage comes at the
beginning: here the varying apparent speeds of the Sun, Moon, and planets are explained
in terms of their revolving on epicycles, spoken of as spheres. Unlike in P’s
planetary models, but paralleling aspects of P’s obscure discussion (2.68–76), the
planets are said to produce their fastest apparent motion when they are nearest the Earth on
their epicycles. Specific values for the radii of the epicycles are given, expressed in degrees
and minutes such that the radius of the circle bearing the epicycle’s center is 60 ̊. These
radii are made the numerical basis of a scheme of melothesia, and from this scheme in
turn the author derives astrologically significant characterizations of divisions of the zodiac.
A. Aaboe, “On a Greek Qualitative Planetary Model of the Epicyclic Variety,” Centaurus 9 (1963) 1–10;
Neugebauer (1975) 805–808.
Alexander Jones
PAPYRUS MICHIGANENSIS 3.149