A Study in Relationships

Thirty years ago, when I was a young assistant lecturer in the Uni versity of London, I was privileged to take part in one of the most excit ing projects that have ever been available to classicists *. The papyrus of Menander's Dyskolos had just been discovered, and Victor Martin was entrusted with the task of producing the first edition. Before publishing it, he was kind enough to send a diplomatic transcription of the papyrus to London, so that a seminar there was able to work on the problems of word-division, textual errors and part-assignments. Those of us who worked on the papyrus transcript shared the rare excitement of being among the very first people to read a complete play of Menander since antiquity. I still vividly remember one thrilling moment when we were reading through Sostratos' monologue in the third act, where he descri bes his hard work in the fields by Gorgias' side trying to break up the rock-solid soil with his ?txeXXa under a broiling sun, and we had come to line 536, which contained a textual corruption: Gorgias was looking at the text ran, stretching up and bending down, just like.... Just like what? The papyrus had TaxT)?,a)vaei|xe, with the words undivided as usual, but appearing to yield the participle xt]X,(dv with ?ei, always casting a spell, which was total nonsense. The truth suddenly struck me: a and et had simply been transposed; Menander had really written ta KX]k<bveia, (just like) the swing-beams of a shadoof. It scanned, made perfect sense; I was able to persuade the members of the seminar that it was correct ? my first emendation. Unfortunately for me, Victor

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