DISCOVERY: Egyptian mummy has part of the 'Iliad' in its abdomen!

Did you ever read Homer's "The Iliad" and wonder if you should eat it? :) Well, not really, but a copy of it was found in the stomach of an Egyptian mummy as the ancient man was being buried. Today's blog explains that finding and what is thought to have happened.

(Image: Archaeologists found a papyrus inside a mummy that has Greek text from the "Iliad" on it. (Image credit: Professor Ignasi-Xavier Adiego) 

ABOUT THE "ILIAD" - Homer's Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem focusing on the rage of the warrior Achilles during a few weeks in the tenth year of the Trojan War. It chronicles the conflict between Greek forces and Troy, exploring themes of honor, mortality, and the brutality of war, concluding with Hector's funeral. The Iliad was likely first written down around the mid-6th century BCE (circa 550 BCE) in Athens, having existed for centuries prior as an oral tradition. While the poem was likely composed between the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, the first fixed, written text is associated with the Athenian tyrant Peisistratus.

Egyptian mummy has part of the 'Iliad' in its abdomen, archaeologists discover

LIVE SCIENCE Owen Jarus published April 22, 2026 

A papyrus that contains part of Homer's "Iliad" has been discovered inside the abdomen of a mummy in Egypt. Other mummies at the cemetery had gold tongues.

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a Roman-era mummy with a copy of Homer's epic poem the "Iliad" inside its abdomen ‪—‬ a unique find that archaeologists are calling "exceptional."

Written on papyrus in Greek, the text records part of Book 2 of the "Iliad," which details the legendary Trojan War. The text found in the mummy lists the ships used against the city of Troy, according to a statement from the University of Barcelona. It would have been placed within the abdomen during the embalming ritual.

The mummy, which dates to a time when the Romans controlled Egypt, was found at a tomb within a cemetery in the modern-day town of Al-Bahnasa in Egypt, which was known as Oxyrhynchus in ancient times. The Romans controlled Egypt starting in 30 B.C., after Cleopatra died by suicide, until A.D. 641, when the Rashidun Caliphate took control of Egypt.

The site of Oxyrhynchus has been excavated off and on for well over a century. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, archaeologists found around 500,000 fragments of papyri at the site.

The newly discovered "papyrus was placed on the abdomen to protect [the] deceased in the afterlife," Esther Pons Mellado, co-director of the archaeological mission in Oxyrhynchus, told Live Science in an email.

Pons Mellado and Maite Mascort, who is also a co-director of the mission, explained that during the time the Romans controlled Egypt, it was common for papyri to be put inside mummies, in the chest or abdomen. However, it's unclear why ancient Egyptians thought papyri would help protect the deceased, Pons and Mascort said.

Archaeologists found a papyrus inside a mummy that has Greek text from the "Iliad" on it.  Remarkably, this is the first time a copy of Homer's "Iliad" has been found inside a mummy.