OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

–

Size:

4 x 6 cm.

Lines:

9

Publication side:

Recto, the Verso is blank

Palaeographic description:

–

State of preservation:

Dark brown papyrus. The fragment originates from a papyrus roll (the verso being left blank), not a book. Only nine fragmentary lines are preserved, and the papyrus is torn on all sides.

Content

Date:

IVth century A.D.

Origin:

Unknown place, province of Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Sub-literary

Author:

–

Title / Type of text:

Fragment of palmomancy

Content:

Prognostications to be derived from the involuntary movements of various parts of the body

Subjects:

Palmomancy Prognostication Divination

Named people:

–

Named places:

–

English translation:

To the salesman it means payment (...), to the rich man expenses. If the right cheek twitches, it means an unexpected offence. Make a propitiating sacrifice to Helios. If the left cheek twitches, it means something good. If the right jaw twitches, it means joy and something good.

Provenance:

Oxyrhynchos, Oxyrhynchite nome, province of Egypt

Acquisition:

Purchased from Ali Mahmud, Behnasa, April 5, 1928

Acquisition year:

–

Editions

• Eitrem S-Amundsen L, P.Oslo III, 1936, 76
• Costanza S, Aegyptus 84, 2004, 137-148, picture: p. 149

Further Literature

Catalogues

TM 64447 / DCLP 64477 / M-P3 2111 / LDAB 5702 / Corpus Palmomanticum Graecum 4

Discussions

Kyriakides S, SO 15-16 (1936) 138-139

• Costanza, S., & Papathomas, A. (2023). I trattati divinatori greci e il dinamismo della società tardoantica e bizantina: papiri, epigrafi e fonti letterarie. Verlag Holzhausen.
  • List of palmomancy on papyri; see p. 41.
  • On beneficiaries of divination coming from an upper social stratum (πλουσίῳ l. 2); see p. 90
  • On the prognostication of ὕβρις (l. 4); see p. 142. NB: P.Oslo III 75 = CPG 4, not 5 as indicated in the first reference.
  • On the propitiatory invocation of Helios (l. 5) in the context of a Late Antique transition from a pagan to a Christian belief system; see p. 167.