Katolophyromai

Musical fragment from the first stasimon of Orestes by Euripides (lines 338–344, Vienna Papyrus G 2315)

Katolophyromai (Greek: κατολοφύρομαι), is the headword in a musical fragment from the first stasimon of Orestes by Euripides (lines 338–344, Vienna Papyrus G 2315). It means "I cry, lament so much." In 1892, among a number of papyri from Hermopolis, Egypt, in the collection of Archduke Rainer Ferdinand of Austria, a fragment was discovered and published[1] by the papyrologist Karl Wessely, containing a mutilated passage with musical notation. Although Vienna Papyrus G 2315 dates to the third century B.C., the melody recorded on it may have been written much earlier.[2]

  1. ^ Mitteilungen aus der Sammlung der Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer vol. 5 part 3
  2. ^ Thomas J. Mathiesen (1999) places it about 125 years after the death of Euripides. Cambridge University Press (1928) in the Augustan age.