The same ancient text or artifact as recorded by 3 records across 3 independent projects, recognised as one entity by its TM-Text identifier. View on Trismegistos →
A short letter from Menas, a secretary, to his master, a deputy landowner of illustris rank, asking that Pambechis and his companions from the village of Seryphis be left free for two days to finish their grape harvest and deliver the wine owed to the estate. Once that is done, Menas says, he can return to his master. It dates from the 6th or 7th century AD and comes from Oxyrhynchus.
The 'landlord's flow' (geouchike rhysis) is the share of new wine or must due to the great estate; the antigeouchos was the landowner's deputy, possibly a man named Victor known from a related letter. The sense of 'release' (endounai) is uncertain.
Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Letter from Menas to a Landlord’s Agent). It has not been reviewed by a papyrologist: check the edition before citing. Restorations follow the edition; […] marks lost text and (?) an uncertain reading.
Cf. P.Oxy. XVI 1844. A request that certain persons should be allowed two days to complete their vintage, and so enable the writer to return. The addressee is not named, but, since he is described as antigeouchos, may well be Victor.
[r] † παρακαλῶ τὸν ἐμὸν ἀγαθὸν δεσπότην ἐὰν ἐστι δυνατὸν κελεῦσαι ἐνδοῦναι τὸν Παμβήχιον καὶ τοὺς ἑταίρους αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ Σερύφεως τὴν σήμερον καὶ τὴν αὔριον ἕως οὗ πληρώσουσιν τὴν γεουχικὴν ῥύσιν αὐτῶν, ἐπειδὴ σήμερον ἤρξαντο τρυγεῖν τὴν ἄμπελον αὐτῶν. πολλὴν γὰρ ῥύσιν παρέχουσιν. ἀλ…
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