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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 33190

Letter to a 'father' about rejected garments and a liturgy TM 33190unbekanntIV

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 →

Fragmentary end of a private letter, addressed to a 'lord father', about deliveries of cloaks, 52 mantles and tunics, some of which were rejected after being bought by the addressee and a certain Theotimos. The writer complains that the addressee neglected to buy the goods while in Alexandria, mentions a liturgy (compulsory public service), and closes with a farewell. It dates to the 4th century AD.

In English machine translation

[...] [...] about this, and we have not yet learned the outcome or the result of the matter. For about all the cloaks (chlamydes) and the 52 mantles (pallia) we were relieved of worry, because I was (there) until the whole of them was received; and as for the tunics (sticharia), some of them were rejected, those which you and Theotimos purchased in my absence. So let the inquiry be about the rejection and not about what you know. And I realized that you do not care about us, from the fact that you neglected, for so long a time in Alexandria, to purchase the goods, or because you knew that he is handing me over [...] concerning the [...] of the liturgy, I should go away so that not [...] my father [...] you informed me about the health of those of my household. I pray for your health for many years, my lord father.

The garments (chlamydes, pallia, sticharia) may have been delivered as a requisition of clothing, a common liturgical obligation at this period. 'Father' may be a term of respect rather than kinship.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Letter). 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.lond.5.1659

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

[… ? lines lost …] ημε[…]…ι περὶ τούτου καὶ οὔπω ἔγνωμεν τὴν ἀπόθεσιν ἢ τὴν ἔκβασιν τοῦ πράγματος. περὶ γὰρ ὅλων τῶν χλαμύδων καὶ τῶν πεντήκοντα δύο παλλίων ἠμεριμνήσαμεν ὅτι οἵως ἐγενόμην ἕως τὸ ὅλον τούτων ὑποδέχθη, καὶ περὶ τῶν στιχαρίων ἀπεβλήθησάν τινα ἐξ αὐτῶν ὧν τὴν συνωνὴ…