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Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · papyrus

p.lond.6.1915 ca. 330 - 340Herakleopolites bzw. Kynopolites

Letter from Herieous to Paieous seeking aid for an indebted brother. A Christian (probably Melitian) letter from Herieous to the priest Paieous asking the brethren to collect money for Pamonthes, a former wine merchant ruined by debts imposed by local magistrates, whose creditors sold his property and seized his young children into slavery. It dates to about AD 330-340 from the Herakleopolite or Kynopolite nome. machine translation

Source of record: Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

The same text in other collections

Linked by Trismegistos ID TM 16853. Each record below describes this same artifact or text from a different angle.

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1 · Greek · Greek

Transcription

[r,ctr] […]ἀδελφῷ Παιηοῦτι Ἑριηοῦς ἐν κυρίῳ χαίρειν. τοῖς ἐν[…]ηφθονει συμφορᾷ παραπεσοῦσιν βοηθεῖν παραγγέλλεται ἡμῖν ὁ θεῖος λόγος πᾶσι, μάλιστα τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς ἡμῶν. ἐπειδὴ οὖν ὁ ἀδελφὸς ἡμῶν Παμώνθεις περιστάσεσι οὐ ταῖς τυχούσαις παραπεσὼν αἴσχιστα πέπονθεν ὑπὸ ἀνθρώπων ἀνελεημόνων καὶ ἀθέων ὥστε ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν ἀναγκασθῆναι τῆς μακαρίας ἐλπίδος ἡμῶν ἀποστερηθῆναι, ὅθεν ἐδέησεν ἡμᾶς ἐπιθεῖναι διʼ αὐτὰ ταῦτα τὰ γράμματα πρὸς τὴν ἀδελφότητα ὑμῶν, δηλώσαντας τὴν τούτου πᾶσαν πρᾶξιν, ἵνα καὶ ὑμεῖς γνοντες συμβάλλεσθε αὐτῷ μεμνημένοι τοῦ μακαρίου ἀποστόλου λέγοντος τοὺς ἀσθενοῦντας μὴ παρορᾶν οὐ μόνον ἐν τῇ πίστει ἀλλα καὶ ἐν ταῖς κοσμικαῖς πράξεσι. οὗτος γὰρ ὁ ἀδελφὸς ἡμῶν ἔτυχέν ποτε οἰνοπράτης καὶ ἐπὶ πολὺ ἐνοχληθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν ἐν τῇ αὐτοῦ πατρίδι ἀρχόντων παρὰ τὴν δύναμιν αὐτοῦ εἰσπράττεσθαι καὶ ἐκ τούτου ὄγκον ἀργυρίου δανεισάμενος καὶ ταῦτα ἀπαιτηθεὶς καὶ μὴ δυνάμενος ἀπαντᾶν πρὸς τὰ χρεωστούμενα ἠναγκάσθη ὑπὸ τῶν δανειστῶν πάντα τὰ ἑαυτοῦ ἄχρι καὶ τῶν ἱματίων τῶν τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην αὐτοῦ περισκεπασμένων πωλῆσαι· καὶ τούτων πραθέντων μόγις τὴν ἡμίσειαν τῶν ἀργυρίων δεδύνηται περιποιῆσαι τοῖς δανεισταῖς, οἵτινες οἱ ἀνελεήμονες ἐκεῖνοι καὶ ἄθεοι ἀπέσπασαν τὰ πάντα τὰ ἑαυτοῦ τέκνα νήπια κομιδῇ. ὅθεν ἐπιτείνομεν πρὸς ὑμᾶς ταυτηνὶ τὴν ἐπιστολήν, ἀξιοῦντες ὑμᾶς συμβαλέσθαι αὐτῷ εἰς ὃ ἐὰν δύνασθε δοῦναι ἵνα παρʼ αὐτῶν αὐτὰ ἀπολάβῃ [r,ms] […]εσθαι υἱοὶ τοῦ οὐρανίου πατρὸς ἡμῶν. [v] […] ἡ ἐμὴ ατ…ν……π……ρουχε…ραν σου […]…ων πάνυ αὐτῷ βοήθησον ἐπειδὴ μάλιστα […]…νβη ὁ ἀδελφὸς ὅτι ἥρπασαν τὰ τέκνα αὐτοῦ εἰς δουλείαν. μὴ οὖν ἀμέλησον τὸ […]… καὶ παντὶ τρόπῳ. ⲉⲣⲟ… ⲡⲟⲩⲁϩ ⲛⲉⲡⲧⲱⲟⲩ […] ⲡⲟⲩⲁϩ ⲛⲉⲡⲧⲱⲟⲩ ἀπόδος Παιηοῦτι πρεσβυτέρῳ παρὰ Ἑριηοῦτος ἀδελφοῦ.

Translations (1)

EN AI · machine translation from the DDbDP edition (Claude Opus 5.5)
[…] to his brother Paieous, Herieous, greetings in the Lord. Those who have fallen into […] misfortune, the divine word commands all of us to help, especially our brothers. Since, then, our brother Pamonthes, having fallen into no ordinary difficulties, has suffered most shamefully at the hands of pitiless and godless men, so that, so to speak, he has been forced to be deprived of our blessed hope, it was therefore necessary for us to send this very letter to your brotherhood, making known his whole situation, so that you too, knowing it, may contribute to him, remembering the blessed apostle who says not to overlook the weak, not only in the faith but also in worldly affairs. For this brother of ours was once a wine merchant, and having been much harassed by the magistrates of his home town to pay beyond his means, and having on that account borrowed a mass of money, and being asked for repayment and unable to meet his debts, he was forced by his creditors to sell everything he had, even the clothes covering his nakedness; and when these were sold he was barely able to raise half of the money for the creditors, who, those pitiless and godless men, carried off all his children, quite infants. Therefore we send this letter to you, asking you to contribute to him whatever you can give, so that he may get them back from them […] [margin] […] sons of our heavenly Father. [verso] […] my […] your […] […] help him very much, especially since […] the brother, because they seized his children into slavery. So do not neglect the […] and in every way. (Coptic) […] the command of the gods (?) […] the command of the gods (?) Address: Deliver to Paieous, priest, from Herieous, his brother.

Cross-references (3)

Similar inscriptions · by content embedding

About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text.
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
  • Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
  • Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.
  • Inherited across the Trismegistos spine — a Trismegistos ID names one ancient text, and papyrology splits that text's description across databases: the edition in one, the date and provenance in another, the physical papyrus in a third. Fields tagged via … on this page were read from a sibling record under the same TM number, not asserted by Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text.