One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 22585
Deed of divorce of the gravedigger Psennesis TM 22585Oasis MagnaDez. 299 - Jan. 300
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 →
A deed of divorce in which Psennesis son of Pios, a gravedigger, releases his wife, apparently also of a gravedigger family, renouncing any claims and allowing her to remarry. It was written in the Great Oasis in the month Tybi of the regnal year corresponding to December 299 to January 300 AD, with Aurelius Isokrates signing for the illiterate husband.
In English machine translation
[… lines lost …]
[…]
[to …], female gravedigger (?), from the same place, greetings.
Since […]
[…]
[…]
[…]
to us […]
[…]
[…]
as from the […]
to have happened and […]
reconciliation (?) […]. Therefore I, the aforementioned Psennesis, acknowledge […]
[…] and that I have no claim against you from
now for all time, but that you are permitted
to depart in whatever way you wish
and to marry whomever you wish, and it shall not be permitted to me to proceed against you or bring a charge
against you concerning another marriage or concerning the bridal gift
or concerning anything else whatsoever, because
I am so persuaded.
This deed of separation, written in duplicate, shall be valid
and secure as if deposited in a public archive, and having been asked the formal question I gave my assent.
Year 16 and year 15 of our lords
Diocletian and Maximian Augusti
and year 8 of our lords
Constantius and Maximian, the most illustrious Caesars,
Tybi […].
I, Psennesis son of Pios, gravedigger,
have made this deed of separation on all the terms it contains,
and having been asked the formal question I gave my assent. I, Aurelius Isokrates, wrote on his behalf, having been asked.
The beginning, with the wife's name and the reasons for the divorce, is largely lost; her description as a female gravedigger rests on restoration. The document is called an apozyge, a formal deed of separation.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Deed of divorce). 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.nekr.24
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