Passage from Homer’s Iliad discovered in the abdomen of a Roman-era Egyptian mummy
A passage from Homer’s Iliad has been discovered inside the abdomen of a Roman-era Egyptian mummy
A snippet of text from Homer’s famous epic recounting the siege of Troy was apparently placed inside this body as part of the mummification process
It’s not unheard of for someone to love a book so much that they ask to be buried with a copy of it. But a mummy entombed in an Egyptian necropolis takes that sentiment to the extreme.
Researchers discovered the mummy at a funerary complex located south of Cairo, in Al Bahnasa, the modern-day location of the ancient Greco-Roman city of Oxyrhynchus, during an excavation in late 2025. Upon examination, the team revealed a sheet of papyrus inside the mummy’s abdomen that contained text from the Iliad, the ancient Greek poet Homer’s epic account of the siege of Troy.
The passage is from Book II of the epic poem, in which Homer cataloged the Greek ships that came to do battle with Troy after Helen, the queen of Sparta and a daughter of Zeus, was taken there by Paris, the son of the king of Troy.
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The researchers previously found scrolls in some of the other mummies interred inside three limestone chambers at Al Bahnasa, all of which date to the era of Roman rule over Egypt, which began in 30 B.C.E. and ended around C.E. 640. The newly examined mummy’s tomb dates to about 1,600 years ago, according to the researchers. None of the scrolls discovered inside other mummies at the site, however, contained any references to the Iliad, which would have already been considered a literary classic at that time.
A papyrus containing a snippet of the Iliad that was found in an Egyptian mummy.
“This is not the first time we have found Greek papyri, bundled, sealed, and incorporated into the mummification process, but until now, their content was mainly magical,” said Ignasi-Xavier Adiego, a professor of classical, Romance and Semitic languages at the University of Barcelona in a statement. Others contained ritualistic content.
“It is worth noting that, since the late 19th century, a huge number of papyri have been discovered at Oxyrhynchus, including Greek literary texts of great importance, but the real novelty is finding a literary papyrus in a funerary context,” he added.
The excavation was part of the University of Barcelona’s Oxyrhynchus Archaeological Mission, which launched in 1992.
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