Abstract

In this paper I propose to link [Hesiod] fr. 276 M.-W. with the mythological narrative preserved on PSI 14. 1398, which relates the death of Teiresias. This narrative belong to a work that drew on the lost Melampodia and provides information regarding this Hesiodic poem that had hitherto escaped our notice. Regarding the type of text preserved on PSI 14. 1398, the scanty remnants of the papyrus’ second column, where we read traces of what appears to be κeuqein and dendroκomov, both poetic words, suggest that it must have been a prose text quoting poetry. Possibilities include a text on the history of divination, such as Philochorus peri mantiκnv, which offered a historical overview of famous exponents of the mantic art and included poetic quotations, or alternatively a text that belongs to the commentary genre broadly conceived, perhaps even a text akin to the so-called ‘Homeric anthologies’.