A Fragment of the Iliad Found Inside a Mummy Rethinks How Greeks Were Used in Egyptian Burial Magic
When researchers opened a 2,000‑year‑old sarcophagus and pulled out a piece of Homer, they realized it might have been more charm than story.
Imagine unwrapping a mummy and, instead of the usual amulets or funerary charms, discovering a torn piece of papyrus bearing a line from The Iliad tucked against the body. That’s exactly what archaeologists encountered in a Roman-era tomb in Al Bahnasa, the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus, one of the most important centers of Greco-Roman Egypt.
The burial dates to roughly the third or fourth century CE, a period when Egypt was under Roman rule and Greek language and culture were deeply embedded in daily life. The mummy, discovered by a team from the University of Barcelona, contained a fragment of Homer’s Iliad placed on or within the abdominal area. While papyri have been found inside mummies before, they almost always contain explicitly “magical” or ritual texts. This is the first known case of a canonical Greek literary work being used in this way.
The fragment comes from Book 2 of the Iliad, the famous “Catalogue of Ships,” which lists the Greek forces sailing to Troy. It’s not an obvious funerary text. There are no prayers, no instructions for the afterlife, no direct invocations of protection. It’s a list. And that’s exactly what makes the find so intriguing.
At first glance, it might be tempting to assume the papyrus was simply reused material. After all, recycled papyri were commonly used in mummification. But the context here suggests something more deliberate. The placement on the body, combined with the broader burial practices at the site, points toward at least some level of intention beyond mere convenience.
Excavations at Oxyrhynchus have revealed a blend of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman traditions. Among the burials were individuals with so-called “golden tongues,” small amulets placed in the mouth to ensure the deceased could speak in the afterlife. These finds reflect a hybrid funerary culture, where older Egyptian beliefs merged with newer Greco-Roman influences.
In that context, the presence of a Homeric text doesn’t feel entirely out of place. While the Iliad is not a religious text, it was one of the most culturally significant works in the ancient world. Greek literature carried intellectual and symbolic weight, and it’s possible that this significance extended into ritual or spiritual thinking, even if we don’t fully understand how.
Scholars involved in the excavation, including Ignasi-Xavier Adiego, have emphasized that the real importance of the find lies in its context. Literary papyri are well known from Oxyrhynchus, but finding one incorporated into a burial is something new.
What did it mean to place a passage like the “Catalogue of Ships” with the dead? That remains unclear. Lists and names have long played roles in ritual and symbolic practices across cultures, but there’s no direct evidence that this specific passage was treated as a spell. It may have carried a perceived protective or symbolic value, or it may reflect a more general belief in the power of written words.
The discovery adds another layer to our understanding of Roman Egypt, a world where cultural boundaries were fluid and traditions overlapped. Greek literature, Egyptian funerary customs, and Roman-era practices coexisted, sometimes in ways that still surprise us.
For now, the image of a Homeric text resting inside a mummy remains striking. Not because it gives us clear answers, but because it raises new questions about how ancient people understood the power of words, stories, and the written page.
According to my Greek professor, fragments of Greek and Latin texts have been found wrapped around at least cat mummies quite often. They might have just been using them as scrap paper, the way an American might use wrapping paper covered with Japanese characters, which to him are just funny designs.