OPES – Oslo Papyri Electronic System

Background and Physical Properties

Material:

Papyrus

Connections:

–

Size:

17 x 8.3 cm.

Lines:

24

Publication side:

Recto, the Verso is blank

Palaeographic description:

The body of the letter is written in a single, clear, almost literary hand (lines 1-22), the second hand (lines 23-24) writes very cursively.

State of preservation:

Left part missing.

Content

Date:

Ist/IInd century A.D.

Origin:

Alexandria?, province of Egypt

Language:

Greek

Genre:

Documentary

Author:

–

Title / Type of text:

Private letter

Content:

Letter from a son(?) to his father. The contents are rather obscure owing to the lacunose state of the letter.

Subjects:

Letter Travel Clothing?

Named people:

Sarapis, god Leon?

Named places:

Neilos

English translation:

... to his father. Greetings! Give me notice (whether I should abandon my own occupations ?) ... sail down the river or to await your arrival ... sail farther up the river. Please give me also notice ... or to give it ... (I want you) to know that the (monolinoi?) have gone missing (in the) warehouse (?) situated in Neilou (polis?) (when) I and (NN) were there ... has asked you (wishing ?) [Two and a half lines practically illegible]. ... accomplishing (all things necessary ?) in relation to the business. I pray on your behalf every day (to lord) Sarapis. Greet Leon? and all your beloved ones (by name ?) ... from the farmers ...2nd hand: Two lines in very cursive handwriting; meaning not intelligible.

Provenance:

Unknown place, province of Egypt

Acquisition:

Purchased 1923 through British Museum, cf. the reports and the list written by H.I.Bell

Acquisition year:

–

Editions

• Eitrem S-Amundsen L, P.Oslo III, 1936, 151
  ▾ Corrections:

  • Geraci G, Aegyptus 51 (1971) p. 175 + n. 4 (origin)

Further Literature

Discussions

• Arzt-Grabner, P. (2023). Letters and Letter Writing. Brill Schöningh. On private letter subscriptions in a second hand as evidence for the sender's own handwriting, compared with supposedly autographed passages in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians 6:11 and to Philemon 19; see pp. 177-178.