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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 30487

Letter to her mother Theonis about oil, figs, purple dye and clothing TM 30487Hermopolites (?)spätes III

The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 2 records across 2 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →

A private letter from a woman living away from home to her mother Theonis and brother Askl[…]. She sends oil bought for 600 drachmas, dried figs and purple dye for making tunics and cloaks, and asks for clothing and linen to be sent to her and for news of what others delivered. Late 3rd century AD, probably from the Hermopolite nome.

In English machine translation

[Fragment A, recto, centre] To my lady mother Theonis and to my lord brother Askl[…], greeting. Before all else I pray that you are in good health before the gods with whom I am staying as a guest […] of brother Pasion […] I have sent you a basket of oil, having bought it for 600 drachmas, for I have heard that oil is dear where you are; and a small basket containing dried figs too. You will give 150 of them to my brother Cornelianus. And two ounces of Berenikian purple, so that, if you think fit, you may make the tunics and two cloaks (maphortia). My dalmatic […] let it be […] for you. Send me my raven-black cloak and my mantle, and shake out my other garment carefully so that it does not rot. I will send you money if you send me in return the linen cloths you made for me. Let me know also what you received from Dioskorion and from Isidoros and from Kastor also called Polydeukes, the former […], so that I may know. Receive everything that I send up to you […] [Fragment B] […] until […] in full health […] and we too are well. Greet warmly my most esteemed lord father Silvanus with his whole household and […] and his wife […] and […] [Fragment A, recto, margin] I pray for your health for many years, prospering and […] and to each the letters bound together […] [Fragment A, verso] To my lady mother Theonis

The writer is a woman (feminine participle 'having'); 'father' Silvanus is probably a respectful title rather than a blood relation. The maphortion was a cloak or veil worn over the head and shoulders, and the dalmatic a wide-sleeved tunic.

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 Theonis). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.

DDbDP-text Full record →

p.oxy.20.2273

Papyri.info — DDbDP (Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri) — text · spätes III · Hermopolites (?)

[FrA,r,ctr] τῇ κυρίᾳ μου μητρὶ Θεωνίδι καὶ τῷ κυρίῳ μου ἀδελφῷ Ἀσκλη[…]χαίρειν. πρό γε πάντων εὔχομαι ὑμᾶς ὑγιαίνειν παρὰ τοῖς ἐπιξενοῦμαι θεοῖς[…]ηθην τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ Πασίωνος …[…] διεπεμψάμην ὑμῖν καψάκιον ἐλαίου ἠγορακὼς δραχμῶν ἑξακοσίων ἀκήκοα γὰρ ὡς πολλοῦ ἐστιν παρʼ ὑμῖν τὸ ἔλ…