The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #167430 Message #4039441
Posted By: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
14-Mar-20 - 05:19 AM
Thread Name: Maritime work song in general
Subject: RE: Maritime work song in general
See Hugill above: Oxyrhynchus Papyri (c.300AD)
Mudcat search draws a blank. Not much to go on:
Graeco-Egyptian Literary Papyri
Scroll #1383 – Sailor's Song (Late third century.)
“This interesting little poem, a prayer to the Rhodian winds for a calm voyage, apparently complete, is closely parallel to 425*, a brief invitation to sailors to compare the sea and the Nile, written in the second or third century...”
*Poetical Fragments:
Scroll #425 – No title – “...a short extract from some lyric poem copied out as a school exercise.”
Conchy note: Greek chorus has more phrases & tropes for 'enhorting the cohort' than the Eskimos do for 'it's cold outside.' In a later century the poet would be invoking St. Elmo.