Main description (English)

This article consists of two parts. The first part is a new edition of P.Mil. Vogl. III 123, a set of encomia to mythological heroes from the 3rd century BCE, with extensive commentary. Included in the new edition are a previously untranscribed fragment of the Milan papyrus (now attached) and a newly-found unpublished fragment from the Yale collection (P.CtYBR inv. 4573), which can also be joined directly to the known papyrus. The second part describes, analyses, and contextualises the Milan papyrus as an important witness for rhetorical education in Hellenistic Egypt. I reinforce the established view that the papyrus was used in an educational context with new linguistic arguments, and demonstrate that P.Mil. Vogl. III 123 offers a rare insight into the function of the encomium in the education, culture, and politics of the Hellenistic period.