Oxyrhynchus (Papyrus 2105) -- Origin: Egypt.Provenance: Egypt. Purchased with a lot comprising Papyri 2103-2239 from Bernard Pyne Grenfell (b. 1869, d. 1926) in May 1920. (London: British Museum 1933)
Posted on 08/18/2018 10:37:29 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
A certain Valerius and a certain Athanasius lived during the 5th century AD in Egypt. 1500 years ago, the certain Valerius wrote a letter to Athanasius in Ancient Greek.
The letter contained insults and threats of lashing and burning.
A fragment of the letter, written on a Papyrus was translated by scientists.
"You trickster, you traitor, you son of a b**** ..." Valerius writes to Athanasius.
However, the reason why Valerius was fuming so much remains unknown as the rest of the papyrus is missing.
An x-rated papyrus? 'Valerius to Athanasius: You trickster, you traitor, you son of a b**** ...'
This 1500-year old letter comes from Oxyrhynchus (Papyrus 2105). The rest is missing so we don't know why Valerius was fuming so much.
Only a 70-215mm fragment of the papyrus has been saved and has been displayed in British Library in the British Museum.
(Excerpt) Read more at keeptalkinggreece.com ...
Oxyrhynchus (Papyrus 2105) -- Origin: Egypt.Provenance: Egypt. Purchased with a lot comprising Papyri 2103-2239 from Bernard Pyne Grenfell (b. 1869, d. 1926) in May 1920. (London: British Museum 1933)
Expensive effort to insult someone. Papyrus wasn’t cheap.
“...Expensive effort...”
He was pissed off... Anger has a deep wallet...
Most people wrote their correspondence on ostraca (broken pieces of pottery) then found someone who was heading in the right general direction to carry the message to their distant beloved or whomever. Probably this Oxyrhynchus papyrus heap came from the Byzantine era version of the NSA. :^)
Koine.
Hmm...one of those lines translates as “Ash Alert”. Is this the first FR post?
He was writing about the first democrat politician.
We had to start somewhere.
“...then found someone who was heading in the right general direction to carry the message...”
And thus was born the subpoena delivery!!!!!!!!!
Cleopatra VII, better known as Cleopatra (heh), wrote ‘ginesthoi’ on a proclamation, and I’d make a wild guess that the surviving papyrus fragment contains the only sample we have of the handwriting of, well, pretty much any famous ancient person. Maybe someone here has some other ideas about that, love to hear about it.
Make It So! Sayeth Cleopatra
Archaeology, Volume 54 Number 1 | January/February 2001 | Angela M. H. Schuster
Posted on 06/21/2016 6:35:29 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3442476/posts
(graphic link appears to be broken in that topic, here’s a search link)
http://www.google.com/search?q=ginesthoi&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&tbm=isch
The truth is, the original messages were written on complete pots, which are pretty heavy after ya lug 'em for 2000 miles -- delivery consisted of the carrier smashing it over the head of the addressee. Plus, the use of 6.6 foot street addresses is very recent.
“...which are pretty heavy after ya lug ‘em for 2000 miles...”
That’s why they had REALLY large lawyers back then...
Not just the first one, as it turns out..
I had to go to the Attic to look that up.
They had to watch out for Grammar Romans.
Which reminds me, did ancient Greek have apostrophes?
When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff. -- Cicero
Apostrophes sounds like a good solid Greek name, so, probably lots of 'em. :^)
That’s what I figured: their contemporary version of Greek, not Attic.
LOL — true.
‘Apostrophes’ sounds like the name of a classical Greek hero.
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