Orestes Papyrus
The Orestes Papyrus is an Ancient Greek musical fragment from the first stasimon of Orestes by Euripides, found in Hermopolis, Egypt, and dated to the third century BCE. It contains lines 338-344 of the stasimon and the musical notation for both the vocals and instruments, extremely rare in surviving Ancient Greek notation. The headword "κατολοφύρομαι" means. Although the fragment dates to the third century BCE, the melody recorded on it may have been written much earlier, although whether or not the melody was composed by Euripides is an open question. It is the best surviving fragment of the play and the musical notation for it.
Discovery
The fragment was discovered in the cartonnage of a mummy in Hermopolis, Egypt in the late 19th century. It was bought by Archduke [Rainer Ferdinand of Austria] among a number of other papyri in 1883, was later discovered in 1890, and was published by papyrologist Karl Wessely in 1892.Text
The full text of the fragment reads as follows:The arrangement of the fragmentary text differs from traditional versions because the words "κατολοφύρομαι, κατολοφύρομαι" come before the sentence "ματέρος αἷμα σᾶς, ὅ σ’ ἀναβακχεύει". Due to this, the lines could instead be read as "ματέρος αἷμα σᾶς, ὅ σ’ ἀναβακχεύει, κατολοφύρομαι, κατολοφύρομαι". This was likely a mistake from the scribe who copied the play.