A Hexameter Poem from the Sinai Palimpsest

translated by Attila Egyed and Leonóra Rácz, with Introduction and Notes by Attila Egyed

Abstract

In 2021, Giulia Rossetto discovered previously erased palimpsest texts on the pages of a codex held at the Monastery of Saint Catherine on the Sinai Peninsula. Among them is a Greek hexameter poem of approximately 89 lines, legible on both sides of two folios and two fragments. The text narrates episodes from the childhood of Dionysus—some previously unknown, others attested in variant forms. The poem shares several thematic and conceptual features with the late antique Orphic Hymns as well as with the Orphic Rhapsodies, which circulated in the imperial period and are known mainly through Neoplatonic quotations. A Hungarian translation of the newly recovered text is provided here for the first time. The accompanying introduction outlines the poem’s possible literary context, addresses questions concerning its textual tradition and genre, and considers interpretive challenges related to the reconstruction and reading of this unique palimpsest material..