Odyssey - Text History

Text History

  • The Athenian tyrant Peisistratos, who ruled between 546 and 527 BC, is believed to have established a Commission of Editors of Homer to edit the text of the poems and remove any errors and interpolations, thus establishing a canonical text.
  • The earliest papyrus fragments date back to the 3rd century BC.
  • The oldest complete manuscript is the Laurentianus from the 10th or 11th century.
  • The editio princeps of both the Iliad and the Odyssey is by Demetrius Chalcondyles in Florence, most likely from 1488.

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