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The papyrus fragment contains three lines from Book 20 of the epic that don’t appear in the modern text.
The subway trek to the Upper East Side is slightly easier than Odysseus’s journey across the Mediterranean, provided the 6 train is running. For those who prevail, their reward will be plentiful: A 2,300-year-old papyrus fragment containing parts of Homer’s Odyssey is now on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The institution announced this week that the object would emerge from its long retirement on August 5. The fragment is now on public view at the museum in Gallery 162.
In a video accompanying The Met’s announcement, Séan Hemingway, curator in charge of Greek and Roman art, described the papyrus as “the earliest preserved fragment of Homer’s Odyssey that we have today.”
