Others must have shared my surprise at reading the two articles on this subject in the Classical Quarterly , one by Mr. P. H. Ling, writing ‘in the light of our present knowledge,’ and one by Professor H. J. Rose. Among the Hibeh Papyri is a fragment of an anthology which hereabouts contains quotations from Tragedy and Epicharmus. It gives four verses, the last of which was rightly identified by the editors Grenfell and Hunt. Of the lemma only a spot (...) of ink on a loose fibre remains. (shrink)

This famous iambic line is described—alike by commentators on the New Testament and by writers on the Greek drama—as a quotation in the first place from the lost Thaïs of Menander, and it is further stated that it was there borrowed from some play of Euripides no longer extant. In view of the revival of interest in Euripides during recent years, it seems worth while to examine the line in detail, and to see whether, in the light of our present (...) knowledge, any further information can be extracted as to its precise source. (shrink)