Ptolemaic mummy stuffings: An intriguing ptolemaic Scholar's text in the yale collection (P.CtYBR 5018)

Abstract

Beinecke papyrus P.CtYBR inv. 5018 consists of a series of well-defined entries, each with three elements: (1) an ordinal number (surviving are "10th" through "15th"); (2) the lemma, no more than a phrase, apparently excerpted from an unknown prose text; (3) literary examples or verbatim quotations, presumably intended to illustrate the content of the lemma. Quoted are a passage from Odyssey 11 and two trimeter lines from an unknown tragedy or tragedies. The contents of the prose text from which the lemmata derive is not clear, but appears to regard poetics or poetic composition.