Ptolemaios son of Glaukias

A chapel at the Serapeum of Saqqara, like the one in which Ptolemaios lived in katoche for 20 years

Ptolemaios son of Glaukias (Ancient Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Γλαυκίου Μακεδών, romanized: Ptolemaios Glaukiou Makedon, c. 200 BC – after 152 BC) was a katochos (an unclear word roughly translatable as hermit) who lived in the Temple of Astarte in the Serapeum at Memphis, Egypt for 20 years. Many details about his life and associates, such as his younger brother Apollonios and the two twins under his care, are known thanks to the survival of an extensive archive of papyri belonging to the katochoi of the temple.

Katoche

A petition written by Ptolemaios to Ptolemy VI Philometor and Cleopatra II. A transcription and translation of it can be read here
A Ptolemaic soldier from a stele dated 2nd century BC

Ptolemaios was likely born before 200 BC, as he mentions having grey hairs in 159 BC. He was the eldest of four sons of a certain Glaukias, a Macedonian lot-holder at the village of Psichis in the Heracleopolite nome, with his brothers being Hippalos, Sarapion and Apollonios. Around October 172 BC, he moved to the Serapeum of Memphis as a katochos in the Temple of Astarte, after being commanded to do so by Serapis in a dream or prophecy. The meaning of katochos is unclear, but it entailed a strict restriction against leaving the temple. Glaukias was killed at Psichis in 164 BC, possibly by rebels.

From February to September 158 BC, Ptolemaios was briefly joined in katoche by his adolescent brother Apollonios, whom he taught to read and write in Greek and Egyptian. Apollonios' misspellings in Greek reveal that he spoke it with an Egyptian accent, indicating that his first language was Egyptian. Unlike Ptolemaios, Apollonios was fiery and rebellious, as demonstrated by his conflict with a local shopkeeper's sons. He held unconventional views on the gods that at times bordered on atheism, in sharp contrast with his deeply religious brother. On 3 October 158 BC, Ptolemaios successfully appealed to Ptolemy VI Philometor to have Apollonios enrolled the Ptolemaic army. However, as Apollonios' position there was seemingly unpaid, he supplemented his income by becoming a police informant.

Ptolemaios also had custody of three Egyptian girls who lived in asylia in the temple: the twins Thages and Thaous (also known as Tawê and Taous) and their probable sister Tathemis. According to several petitions written by Ptolemaios in their defense, the twins' mother Nephoris left their father, who was a friend of Ptolemaios, and went to live with a Greek soldier in Memphis named Philippos. She then ordered Philippos to kill the twins' father with a knife. Their father fled from the attack but died soon afterwards from the injuries. Their mother took possession of his property, forcing the twins to flee to the temple. There they performed the sacred funerary rites of the Apis bull, for which a pair of twins was ritually necessary to play the roles of Isis and Nephthys. As priestesses, they were entitled to an allowance (syntaxis) of oil and bread, but this was swindled by their half-brother Pakhrates. With Ptolemaios' help, the twins successfully sued Nephoris and Pakhrates, and had their stolen property returned to them.

Ptolemaios earned a modest living by trading in textiles and in a type of porridge (Greek: ἀθήρα), as well as by managing finances for third parties. He often had to sell his possessions (and, on one occasion, a cow) to make ends meet. During the last two years spanned by the archive, he received a meagre allowance of 100 drachmae per month from the temple authorities. He relied on an Egyptian agent and fellow katochos, Harmais, and on two therapeutae, Diphilos and Nikanor, who were able to leave the temple area unlike the katochoi. Much of his income was spent on those whom he was responsible for, especially the twins, about whom he seemed to constantly worry. Ptolemaios was constantly working and reworking his accounts, and was seemingly so obsessed with numbers and totals that he often dreamed about them.

Ptolemaios wrote numerous petitions to various officials during his katoche, including Ptolemy VI Philometor and Cleopatra II. He frequently appealed to his local nomarch, Dionysios, about injustices and crimes committed against him, including an occasion on which he claimed to have been nearly murdered by temple workers for being Greek. Ptolemaios, Apollonios and the twins also recorded their dreams, which were regarded as having prophetic significance.

The archive abruptly ends on 20 September 152 BC, during Ptolemaios' twentieth year in katoche. It is unclear how much longer Ptolemaios remained in katoche, and whether he was ever released from it.

The twins Taous and Tawe, and their half-brother Pachrates, appear in a main quest in the 2017 video game Assassin's Creed Origins.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "upz.1.10 = HGV UPZ 1 10 = Trismegistos 3401 = p.lond.1.45, p35". Papyri.info (in Ancient Greek). Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  2. ↑ "Archives". Trismegistos.
  3. 1 2 Bagnall & Derow 2003, p. 278 "Ptolemaios son of Glaukias, the eldest of four sons of a Macedonian military settler who died in an Egyptian rebellion in 164, is the central figure. Ptolemaios, born perhaps around 200, began in 172/1, a period of some twenty years spent entirely within the precinct of the sanctuary in a state called in katoche."
  4. 1 2 Szpakowska 2006, p. 190
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Bevan 1927
  6. ↑ Thompson 2012, p. 207
  7. ↑ Einaudi 1948
  8. ↑ Szpakowska 2006, p. 191
  9. ↑ Szpakowska 2006, p. 192
  10. ↑ Ray 2012 "Another person important in their lives is Ptolemaios' brother Apollonios, a volatile adolescent with an ambiguous attitude towards the beliefs of his relative. Sometimes Apollonios seems a model of piety, at other times he rejects the gods in a way that seems utterly modern. Apollonios had the gift of making enemies among the Egyptians who peopled the area of the Serapeum."
  11. 1 2 3 "Reviews". Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists (49): 37–42. Retrieved 23 February 2022. After their father died, Ptolemaios' adolescent brother Apollonios came to the Sarapieion, too, and quickly learned to write there. Ptolemaios started a textile business, taking care also of the clothing needs of the temple, at least for some time. In that way, he earned a modest living. Apollonios, however, after his adolescent years, was a recluse only for a short time, and Ptolemaios arranged, through petitions to the king, that he was taken to the army in Memphis. Apollonios earned more than his brother there, but he did not last long as a soldier, and later on he became an informer of the police.
  12. 1 2 Clarysse & Vandorpe 2006, p. 1–11
  13. ↑ Vierros 2020, p. 39–74
  14. ↑ Szpakowska 2006, p. 193
  15. 1 2 Szpakowska 2006, p. 194
  16. ↑ Szpakowska 2006, p. 191
  17. ↑ Thompson 2012, p. 209
  18. ↑ Szpakowska 2006, p. 196
  19. ↑ S. Bagnall, Roger; Derow, Peter (August 2003). "VIII". The Hellenistic Period: Historical Sources in Translation. Wiley. ISBN 9781405101325. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. some of them holding stones in their hands, others sticks, and tried to force their way in, so that with this opportunity they might plunder the temple and kill me because I am a Greek, attacking me in concerted fashion.
  20. ↑ "Egyptian Texts : Dreams in the Serapeum". attalus.org. Retrieved 7 July 2026.

Sources