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One text, 2 sources · Trismegistos-Text 39130

Polite letter accompanying a shipment of hydromel TM 39130unbekannt

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 →

Fragment of a courteous letter in which the writer reports sending four jars (knidia) of hydromel, asks that they be received undamaged, and requests news of the recipient's health and any orders. It belongs to the Apollonos Ano archive of late antique Egypt.

In English machine translation

[... lines lost ...] your [...] whether for going down or for going up [...] So I have sent you four knidia of hydromel [...] I ask you to order that these be received undamaged [...] to write to me about your God-pleasing health and about the things you command [...] as I am ready to fulfil as is due all that is commanded of me by you. I greet the all-honoured footsteps of my God-honoured master [...]

Hydromel is a drink of honey and water, sometimes fermented like mead; a knidion was a type of jar. Greeting 'the footsteps' of a superior is a deferential formula of late antique letters.

Working translation of the DDbDP edition, made with Claude Opus 5.5 from the edition and the catalogue records shown below (catalogued as Politesses et envoi d’hydromel). 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.apoll.71

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

[… ? lines lost …] ὑμῶν τησ…τ[…] εἴτε εἰς τὸ κατελθεῖν κάτω εἴτε εἰς τὸ ἀνελθεῖν ο[…] τέσσερα οὖν κνίδια ὑδρομήλλου ἔστειλα ὑμῖν[…]παρακαλῶ ὑμᾶς κελεῦσαι ταῦτα δέχεσθαι ἀλωβήτως […]γράψαι μοι τὰ περὶ τῆς θεαρέστου ὑμῶν ὑγιείας καὶ περὶ ὧν κελεύετε[…] ἑτοίμῳ ὄντι πάντα τὰ κελευόμε…