1. Discovery and provenance
The fragments came to light in September 2026 in a village house at Malona, on the east coast of Rhodes. A prospective buyer’s notary had required a structural survey of the north wall. Behind a later lime render the surveyor opened a small cavity, about 30 cm deep, and found in it a lidded jar of coarse local ware. The jar held a roll that had been folded rather than rolled, and it was broken along the folds into three pieces. To the editor’s knowledge, P.Malon. inv. 538 is the first literary papyrus in history brought to light by Greek conveyancing.
The owner of the house is the present editor, which he declares at once. He can therefore vouch for the find-spot, and he is aware that this vouches for nothing else.
Papyrus does not survive in the soil of Rhodes, and the editor does not pretend otherwise. The Derveni papyrus survived by being burnt. P.Malon. 538 appears to have survived by being forgotten: the jar was sealed with pitch, the cavity faced north, and the wall was never damp enough to matter. Anyone who has spent August in Malona will find the last point easier to believe than the first two.
The number follows that of the Ennian fragment already published from the same collection (P.Malon. inv. 537). The two pieces share a find-spot, an editor and, some may feel, a certain quality of evidence.
2. The Rhodian edition and the case for a fifth book
The obstacle is the end of Book 4. The poet takes leave of his heroes (4.1773–81) and lands them, gladly, on the beaches of Pagasae:
ἀσπασίως ἀκτὰς Παγασηίδας εἰσαπέβητε.
gladly you stepped ashore on the beaches of Pagasae. (4.1781)
After a line like that, one does not simply turn the page. Any fifth book has to explain how the poem continued after it had so plainly stopped.
The explanation offered here rests on three pieces of ancient evidence, all genuine.
The Lives. The two Vitae transmitted with the scholia say that Apollonius, after an unsuccessful recitation at Alexandria, withdrew in shame to Rhodes. There he revised the poem, was well received, and was given citizenship, which is why he is called “Rhodian”.
The proekdosis. At a handful of places in Book 1 (e.g. 1.285, 516, 801) the scholia quote readings from a προέκδοσις, an earlier edition. So the poem did exist in more than one form.
The unfinished story. Every earlier account took Jason home to Pelias. Pindar calls Medea “the death of Pelias” (Pyth. 4.250). Stesichorus wrote a whole poem on the funeral games (Athla), and those games were carved on the Chest of Cypselus (Paus. 5.17.9–11). The Argonautica as we have it leaves all of this out.
The hypothesis is this. The four-book poem is the Alexandrian text, which ends at Pagasae because a court poet does not end on regicide in front of a king. On Rhodes, among friends and far from the Museum, Apollonius went on: to Iolcus, to the cauldron, to the games, and to the rotting ship. The Alexandrian tradition kept the four-book text and let the fifth book go. It survived, if at all, only on the island where it was written.
The editor admits that this hypothesis is, in the technical sense, too good to be true. He offers it anyway, on the principle that a papyrus should be allowed to speak before it is cross-examined.
3. The papyrus
Three fragments of a single roll, written along the fibres. The back carries a list of oil measures in a later cursive, which may be the earliest record of olive production at Malona. It is at least the most reliable part of the find.
| Fr. | Size (cm) | Lines | Condition |
|---|
| 1 | 9.5 × 7.0 | 4 | Top margin 2.2 cm; lower right corner torn away; correction above line 1 |
| 2 | 13.0 × 6.5 | 4 | Foot of a column, lower margin 3.1 cm; two small holes; paragraphos; marginal note |
| 3 | 4.0 × 5.5 | 4 | Scrap from mid-column; left edge lost, surface rubbed at right |
Hand. A practised, rounded book hand, bilinear except for φ and ψ, with no ligatures. It compares well with hands of the later third century BC, such as the Lille Stesichorus. On that dating the copy was made within the poet’s lifetime or soon after. The editor records this and draws no conclusion, since the conclusion would draw itself.
Layout. Scriptio continua, with no accents or breathings. Iota is written adscript (ΦΩΝΗΙ, fr. 2.2). One verse per line. The column held about 28 lines, going by the margins of fr. 1 and fr. 2 and the likely order of events.
Second hand. A later reader corrected fr. 1.1 and wrote ζη( ), i.e. ζή(τει), “query”, in the left margin of fr. 2.3. This is the note a scholar wrote when he doubted a reading. Here it stands against the line in which the Argo’s beam promises to carry Jason away. The ancient reader seems to have shared the modern editor’s doubts. Whether he doubted the reading or the whole book, the abbreviation does not say.
Order. The narrative order of events fixes the order of the fragments: the killing of Pelias (fr. 1), then Jason’s death (fr. 2). Fr. 3 cannot be placed. A Rhodian aition could come anywhere, and the editor would like it to come last.
4. Sigla and conventions
| Sign | Meaning |
|---|
| Π | P.Malon. inv. 538 |
| Π¹, Π² | first hand; later corrector |
| Πac | reading before correction |
| [ αβγ ] | letters lost in a lacuna, restored by the editor |
| α̣ | a letter that is damaged or uncertain |
| . | traces of an unidentified letter |
| ⟨ αβγ ⟩ | letters added by the editor |
| ed. pr. | the editio princeps |
| e.g. | supplement exempli gratia: sense, not wording |
Each fragment is printed in two forms: the diplomatic transcript, as the papyrus has it, and the edited text, accented, divided and supplemented.
