Cool Finds

A Researcher Studying in a Dutch Library Was Amazed to Discover a Scrap of Parchment From a 1,700-Year-Old Copy of ‘The Odyssey’

The handwritten fragment contains Greek verses from Book 12 of Homer’s epic, in which King Odysseus recounts the fate of his doomed crew

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

September 21, 2026 10:15 a.m.

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In the stacks of a library in the Netherlands, one researcher has discovered a positively epic scrap of torn parchment. 

Handwritten in Greek, the three-inch piece of paper contains verses from a fourth-century copy of The Odyssey—the ancient epic poem that stole the silver screen this summer. Attributed to Homer and written around 700 B.C.E., The Odyssey chronicles the ten-year homeward journey of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the Trojan War. 

The fragment was hidden among a collection of early Christian manuscripts from Egypt, stored within the library of Utrecht University. According to a statement, the school had purchased the cache, which belonged to a German scholar, in the mid-20th century. Most of the texts had been written in Coptic—an Egyptian script that includes Greek letters—but some were in Greek.

Within these Greek texts, Mark de Kreij, an expert in Greek language and literature at nearby Radboud University, found a “damaged and discolored fragment with very small, neat letters,” per the statement. He recognized it as an excerpt from The Odyssey—specifically, Book 12. 

“There are so many boring parts in The Odyssey,” de Kreij tells RTV Utrecht, per a translation by Live Science. “This happens to be a really fun passage.”

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In Book 12, Odysseus recounts an episode that took place on the island of Thrinacia, home to a cattle herd belonging to the sun god Helios. Odysseus and his crew dock there for what they expect to be a short rest, but storms force them to stay for a month—without adequate supplies. Despite Odysseus’ warnings, the starving Greeks eventually slaughter and eat Helios’ sacred cows. The sun god is furious. 

The verses on the discovered fragment, according to the university’s statement, “describe the moment Helios finds out what Odysseus’ companions have done.” In the next lines of Homer’s epic, Odysseus recounts how the sky god Zeus avenges Helios by sending a storm to destroy Odysseus’ ship and kill his crew. It’s a turning point in the king’s tale: when he becomes a homecoming party of one.

The fragment was found alone, but it was once part of what would have been “a pocket edition of the complete Odyssey (about the size of a Kindle),” owned by someone living in Egypt’s Fayoum Oasis around 300 C.E., per the statement. 

Portions of The Odyssey that are this old are rare: Only about 30 pieces have been found that date to the third or fourth century. The oldest copy of the epic in book form is dubbed the “Manchester Odyssey,” after its current home, the University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library. It was inscribed in Egypt in the third century—around the same time as the slip of parchment discovered in Utrecht.

“Encountering something that old, it’s very hard to not have some kind of an emotional reaction,” Jeremy Penner, a curator at the John Rylands Library, told the BBC’s Ewan Gawne in July, after showing the Manchester text to actors in the Odyssey film. “There were some mind-blowing moments for people realizing that this document is almost 2,000 years old and, of course, the poem is 1,000 years older than that.” 

De Kreij was at the Utrecht University Library to work on a project: studying and publishing the ancient manuscripts of its special collections. Most of these texts, like the Odyssey fragment, are from Egypt’s Greco-Roman period—when the country was controlled by Classical powers, such as Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire. Many of the manuscripts will appear in de Kreij’s forthcoming book, Hieratic, Demotic, Greek and Coptic Texts in the Utrecht University Collection, per the statement. 

“I have the best job in the world,” de Kreij tells RTV Utrecht, per a translation by CBS News. “I am a treasure hunter. Every day you find something nice. This is one of them.” 

Sonja Anderson is a daily correspondent for Smithsonian magazine who covers art, archaeology and culture, from newly discovered artifacts to the latest art heists.