One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 19468
Letter of a woman to Hermaios about household affairs and wine prices TM 19468Hermopolitesca. 117
The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 3 records across 2 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →
Fragmentary letter from a woman to her 'brother' Hermaios, apparently in the circle of the strategos Apollonios, about managing household affairs, the high price of wine (3 staters) and hopes of buying cheaply after a good harvest. She reports that Epaphroditos is diligent and that Apollonios brought cleaned cloaks from Alexandria.
In English machine translation
[1]
[…]
[2]
[…] to you […]
receive in turn the greater part (?); for if […] we have wine jars […] If
it were possible for me to run about attending to the management of our affairs,
I would not have hesitated; but nevertheless, being a woman as I am, I apply all diligence. Epaphroditos up to now does nothing more negligently, but stays faithfully with us and with all your affairs.
[3]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…] through […]
[…] he told me by letter […] it is already […] And you too will write
[…] so that he may recognize that you have been zealous in everything. At present wine is at a very high price and is up to 3 staters, for which
reason nobody is reluctant to sell an estate.
But if the god permits an abundant flow
to come next year, perhaps because of the coming cheapness of the produce the landowners will lose heart, and because of this we shall be able to buy cheaply as you desire. I am persuaded
about the concern which you had about the
[4]
[…]
[…] you to steal in (?)
and to strike them off (?). Your cloaks, cleaned,
Apollonios your brother brought from Alexandria. I think it right
that you be a friend to all, just as you were to those from the nome,
so that with friendship and without offence we may part from them
for the good. Farewell, brother.
Pauni 3.
'Brother' may be a term of affection rather than kinship; the writer is probably from the family of Apollonios (perhaps his mother Eudaimonis). The 'flow' (rhysis) is likely the Nile flood or the vintage yield.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Brief an Hermaios, den Bruder des Apollonios). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.
p.giss.apoll.24
[1] [… ? lines lost …] [2] [… ? lines lost …] […]ο[…]σοι δέξαι αὖ τὸ πλείω· ἐὰν γὰρ λ[…]ε ἡμῖν οἰνάρια ἔχουσι […] εἰ δυνατόν μοι ἦν διατρέχειν πρὸς τὴν οἰκονομίαν τῶν ἡμετέρων, οὐκ ἂν ὠκνήκειν, ἀλλʼ ὅμως ὡς εἰμὶ γυνὴ πᾶσαν σπουδὴν περιτίθεμαι. Ἐπαφρόδειτος ἕως τούτου οὐδὲν ἀμελέσ…