This volume contains an introduction and edition of the bilingual family
archive of Dryton, his wife Apollonia alias Senmonthis and their
offspring. The Cretan officer Dryton, son of Pamphilos, served in the
Ptolemaic army of the second century B.C. A son was born out of his
first marriage. When he was about 40 years old, Dryton entered a second
marriage with an Egyptian girl Apollonia alias Senmonthis, a daughter of
a fellow soldier. Dryton went to live in the small town of Pathyris,
south of Thebes. The couple had five daughters. The family's archive
contains a diversity of Greek and Demotic texts written on papyrus and
ostraka, reflecting Greek and Egyptian traditions. The archive is
important for research on multicultural societies.
In the Upper Egyptian town Pathyris nearly twenty bilingual family
archives have been found, dating to the second and first centuries BCE.
They contain different types of documents, but contracts play an
important role. Most of the Greek contracts were written by notaries
(agoranomoi), whose native language was Egyptian. This study
describes the language contact situation in Hellenistic Egypt in general
and in Pathyris in particular. Notarial offices and scribal families in
Upper Egypt are also discussed.
- ISBN13 9789065699015
- Publish Date 1 January 2002
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country BE
- Imprint Kon Acad Wetenschappen Letteren
- Format Paperback
- Pages 462
- Language English