One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 28341
Letter from a mother to her son Ptolemaios about his education TM 28341OxyrhynchosII - III
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 private letter from a mother to her son Ptolemaios, a student away from home at Oxyrhynchus or nearby. She regrets that his teacher Diogenes has sailed downriver, asks him to find a suitable new teacher with the help of his attendant Eros, and sends family greetings. It dates to the 2nd or 3rd century AD.
In English machine translation
[recto]
[…] do not hesitate to write to me also about whatever you need from here. I was grieved to learn from the daughter of our teacher Diogenes that he had sailed down; for I was free from worry about him, knowing that he would look after you as far as he could. I took care to send and inquire about your health and to learn what you are reading. And he said the sixth book (zeta), and he testified much about your attendant (paidagogos). So then, child, let it be your concern and your attendant's to place you with a suitable teacher.
Your sisters and the children of Theonis, may the evil eye spare them, send you many greetings, and all our household by name. Greet your most honoured attendant Eros.
[…] farewell (?) […] Hathyr 2 (?) […]
[verso]
[…] to Ptolemaios her son.
"To zeta" probably means book 6 (zeta) of Homer's Iliad, which the boy was reading. The paidagogos was a slave or attendant who escorted and supervised a child, distinct from the teacher (kathegetes).
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Letter to Ptolemaeus from his Mother). 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.oxy.6.930
[r] [… ? lines lost …] […]υ μὴ ὄκνει μοι γράφειν καὶ περὶ ὧν ἐὰν χρείαν ἔχῃς ἐντεῦθεν ἐλυπήθην ἐπιγνοῦσα παρὰ τῆς θυγατρὸς τοῦ καθηγητοῦ ἡμῶν Διογένους καταπεπλευκέναι αὐτόν· ἠμερίμνουν γὰρ περὶ αὐτοῦ εἰδυῖα ὅτι κατὰ δύναμιν μέλλει σοι προσέχειν. ἐμέλησε δέ μοι πέμψαι καὶ πυθέσθα…