The oldest excerpt from Homer's epic poem, Odyssey, unearthed | Books

Archaeologists have unearthed an ancient tablet engraved with 13 verses of the Odyssey in the ancient city of Olympia, in the south of Greece, in what could be the first record of the epic poem, according to the Greek Ministry of Culture. It is thought that this goes back to the third century AD, in the Roman era.

"If this date is confirmed, the tablet could be the oldest written record of Homer's work ever discovered in Greece," said the Ministry of Culture. The excerpt, taken from Book 14, describes the return of Odysseus to his native island of Ithaca

The tablet was discovered after three years of surface excavation by the Greek archaeological services in cooperation with the German Institute of Archeology.

She was found near the remains of the Temple of Zeus on the site of the Olympic Games in the Western Peloponnese

Orally composed in the eighth century BC. AD, the epic poem – attributed to Homer – was transcribed during the Christian era on a parchment of which only a few fragments were discovered in Egypt