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The Weekend Papyrus

Posted: May 15th, 2021, 7:32 am
by Barry Hofstetter
I thought I would start a new thread for these:

Grenfell & Hunt describe this as "badly written and obscurely worded." See what you think. There are certainly some spelling variations...


1 Χαίροις Καλόκαιρε,
2 Κύριλλός σε προσαγο-
3 ρεύω. οὐκ ἤμην ἀπα-
4 θὴς ἀλόγως σε κατα-
5 λείπιν, οὐ γάρ τις λαν-
6 βάνων τοῦ Τῦβι τὸν
7 τόκον δεκαπλοῦν κε-
8 φάλαιον κομείζει. ἀλλὰ
9 ἀναβένω σὺν τῷ ὀρ-
10 χηστῇ· εἰ καὶ μὴ ἀνέ-
11 βενε ἐγὼ τὸν λόγον
12 μου οὐ παρέβενον.
13 εὐτύχει.

Notes:

9) ἀναβένω = ἀναβαίνω
10-11 ἀνέβενε = ἀνέβαινε
12 παρέβενον = παρέβαινον.

Re: The Weekend Papyrus

Posted: May 17th, 2021, 11:27 am
by MAubrey
That's quite an initial greeting there.

I, Kyrillos, greet you.

Re: The Weekend Papyrus

Posted: May 17th, 2021, 11:48 am
by Barry Hofstetter
MAubrey wrote: May 17th, 2021, 11:27 am That's quite an initial greeting there.

I, Kyrillos, greet you.
And notice the use of the optative χαίροις instead of the more usual χαῖρε.

Re: The Weekend Papyrus

Posted: May 20th, 2021, 3:14 pm
by MAubrey
Barry Hofstetter wrote: May 17th, 2021, 11:48 am
MAubrey wrote: May 17th, 2021, 11:27 am That's quite an initial greeting there.

I, Kyrillos, greet you.
And notice the use of the optative χαίροις instead of the more usual χαῖρε.
Yes. Indeed. That's a fun bit. The style of the letter as a whole creates a bit of formal distance between author & recipient.

Re: The Weekend Papyrus

Posted: May 21st, 2021, 10:02 am
by Daniel Semler
Thanx for posting these Barry, I enjoy seeing them. A have a few questions which hopefully might set me right on a few points.

Is καταλείπιν a misspelling for καταλιπεῖν ? I cannot find the writer's spelling in anything I have.
Likewise λανβάνων looks like it should be λαμβάνων, though here I would credit a phonological shift between ν and μ.

The initial greeting I am not 100% clear on either - starts hopefully enough with an optative but I am puzzled by Καλόκαιρε - it would appear to mean something like 'good time' but it appears to be in some sort of vocative morphologically. Regardless - "may you be enjoying a good season" and something similar I guess. I don't have a good handle on greetings - they always sound rather formal to me given how we tend to do things today. Thanx to Mike here also for your comments on this bit.

Is Τυβι the coptic month name ?

I do not follow the bit about the dancer at all. That seems like a non-sequitur (please don't assume I have any Latin) tacked on at the end. Or I've completely misidentified the word.

Thx
D

Re: The Weekend Papyrus

Posted: May 21st, 2021, 10:14 am
by Barry Hofstetter
Daniel Semler wrote: May 21st, 2021, 10:02 am Thanx for posting these Barry, I enjoy seeing them. A have a few questions which hopefully might set me right on a few points.

Is καταλείπιν a misspelling for καταλιπεῖν ? I cannot find the writer's spelling in anything I have.
Likewise λανβάνων looks like it should be λαμβάνων, though here I would credit a phonological shift between ν and μ.

The initial greeting I am not 100% clear on either - starts hopefully enough with an optative but I am puzzled by Καλόκαιρε - it would appear to mean something like 'good time' but it appears to be in some sort of vocative morphologically. Regardless - "may you be enjoying a good season" and something similar I guess. I don't have a good handle on greetings - they always sound rather formal to me given how we tend to do things today. Thanx to Mike here also for your comments on this bit.

Is Τυβι the coptic month name ?

I do not follow the bit about the dancer at all. That seems like a non-sequitur (please don't assume I have any Latin) tacked on at the end. Or I've completely misidentified the word.

Thx
D
It's a proper name, "Greetings Kalokaerus..." You are correct on καταλείπω, such spelling variations are common in the Papyri, the same with λαμβάνω. As for Tubi I don't know, I was hoping someone else would nail that one down. As for the dancer, your guess would be as good as anyone's. It's the "hearing one side of a telephone conversation" principle. What we overhear may not make complete sense to us, but it does to the two people talking.

Re: The Weekend Papyrus

Posted: May 21st, 2021, 10:35 am
by Daniel Semler
Barry Hofstetter wrote: May 21st, 2021, 10:14 am
Daniel Semler wrote: May 21st, 2021, 10:02 am Thanx for posting these Barry, I enjoy seeing them. A have a few questions which hopefully might set me right on a few points.

Is καταλείπιν a misspelling for καταλιπεῖν ? I cannot find the writer's spelling in anything I have.
Likewise λανβάνων looks like it should be λαμβάνων, though here I would credit a phonological shift between ν and μ.

The initial greeting I am not 100% clear on either - starts hopefully enough with an optative but I am puzzled by Καλόκαιρε - it would appear to mean something like 'good time' but it appears to be in some sort of vocative morphologically. Regardless - "may you be enjoying a good season" and something similar I guess. I don't have a good handle on greetings - they always sound rather formal to me given how we tend to do things today. Thanx to Mike here also for your comments on this bit.

Is Τυβι the coptic month name ?

I do not follow the bit about the dancer at all. That seems like a non-sequitur (please don't assume I have any Latin) tacked on at the end. Or I've completely misidentified the word.

Thx
D
It's a proper name, "Greetings Kalokaerus..." You are correct on καταλείπω, such spelling variations are common in the Papyri, the same with λαμβάνω. As for Tubi I don't know, I was hoping someone else would nail that one down. As for the dancer, your guess would be as good as anyone's. It's the "hearing one side of a telephone conversation" principle. What we overhear may not make complete sense to us, but it does to the two people talking.
Ah of course, I noticed the vocative form but didn't put two and two together to get four correctly. Thanx for that.

Thx
D