I'm always on the lookout for cool little books that could help me in building my skill with Hellenistic Greek. Recently I ran across a reference to a book called A Greek Papyrus Reader by Edgar J. Goodspeed and Ernest Cadman Colwell. I found a used copy on AbeBooks at a decent price, so I got it.

It is a small book (just over 100 pages) but in those 100 pages there are 82 papyri (all sorts) transcribed with short introductions and notes on vocabulary. There is a decent short glossary in the back of the book as well.

It's a very cool little book, a nice complement to Wikgren's A Hellenistic Greek Reader. Here's one example from the papyrus reader that is actually quite relevant for my current situation:

P.Oxy.524, ii A.D.

Ἐρωτᾷ σε Διονύσιος δειπνῆ-
σαι εἰς τοὺς γάμους τῶν τέκνων
ἑαυτοῦ ἐν τῇ Ἰσχυρίωνος αὔριον,
ἥτις ἐστὶν λ ἀπὸ ὥρας θ

What does it say? Well ... it is an invitation to a wedding dinner. Since I'm in the midst of working out details for my own wedding rehearsal dinner, it seemed appropriate. Here's the translation, from Grenfell & Hunt's Oxyrhychus Papyrus volume III, p. 261:

Dionysius invites you to dine with him on the occasion of the marriage of his children at the house of Ischyrion tomorrow, the 30th, at 9 (?) o'clock.

I had it all worked out except for "Ischyrion" (names confound me at this point) and the hour.

However, both the papyrus reader and the P.Oxy translation note that ὥρας θ has the meaning of "the usual hour (about 3 PM)". So ... take that for what you will. Also, the papyrus reader notes that the invitiation was sent out the day before the dinner and comments, "It would be a brave hostess, indeed, to-day, who would expect to secure any acceptances on such short notice." (Goodspeed and Colwell, 2).

All in all, it is a cool little book. Hopefully I'll have the discipline to work through it a bit.