Some Things Never Change

Isias to her brother Hephaistion¹ [greeting]. [1]

If you are well and other things are going right, it would accord with the prayer which I make continually to the gods. I myself and the child and all the household are in good health and think of you always. When I received your letter from Horos, in which you announce that you are in katoche in the Serapeum at Memphis, for the news that you are well I straightway thanked the gods, but about your not coming home, when all the others who had been secluded there have come, I am ill-pleased, because after having piloted myself and your child through such bad times and been driven to every extremity owing to the price of wheat, I thought that now at least, with you at home, I should enjoy some respite, whereas you have not even thought of coming home nor given any regard to our circumstances, remembering how I was in want of everything while you were still here, not to mention this long lapse of time and these critical days, during which you have sent us nothing. As, moreover, Horos who delivered the letter has brought news of your having been released from detention, I am thoroughly ill-pleased. Notwithstanding, as your mother also is annoyed, for her sake as well as for mine please return to the city, if nothing more pressing holds you back. You will do me a favor by taking care of your bodily health.

Farewell. Year 2, Epeiph 30.

Prof. John Muir (a retired Lecturer at King's College London) interprets the letter as being representative of Hephaistion's avoidance of "the cares of family life" [2]. Muir also suggests that Hephaistion likely went to Memphis to seek a cure of some kind (the Serapeum is a temple to Serapis, devised as a unifying Graeco-Egyptian god).



[1] Bagnall, Roger S., and Peter Derow, eds. The Hellenistic Period: historical sources in translation. John Wiley & Sons, 2008. p 281.

[2] Muir, John. Life and letters in the ancient Greek world. Routledge, 2008. p 49.

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1. her husband

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A video of some Harvard doctoral students discussing the letter (led by Dr. Laura Nasrallah of Harvard Divinity School):