Ptolemaeus son of Glaucias

Ptolemaeus son of Glaucias (Ancient Greek: Πτολεμαῖος Γλαυκίου Μακεδών, romanized: Ptolemaios Glaukiou Makedon,^[1] fl. 2nd century BC)^[2] 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 Apollonius, are known thanks to the survival of an extensive archive of papyri belonging to the katochoi of the temple.^[3]

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

Katoche

A petition (transcription and translation) written by Ptolemaeus to Ptolemy VI Philometor and Cleopatra II.

A Ptolemaic soldier from a stele dated 2nd century BC, the time of Apollonius' brief military service

Ptolemaeus was born in approximately 200 BC. He was the eldest of four sons of a certain Glaucias, a Macedonian lot-holder at the village of Psichis in the Heracleopolite nome.^[3][4] 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. In the summer of 158 BC, Ptolemaeus was joined by his adolescent brother Apollonius, who learned to read and write before joining the Ptolemaic army and later becoming a police informant.^[5][6][7]

Ptolemaeus had custody of three Egyptian girls who lived in asylia in the temple: the twins Thages and Thaous and their probable sister Tathemis. According to several petitions written by Ptolemaeus in their defense, the twins' mother and her Greek lover had sought to kill the twins' father, a friend of Ptolemaeus. 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.^[6] Due to his katoche, Ptolemaeus relied on an agent, Harmais, and two therapeutae, Diphilos and Nikanor, who were able to leave the temple area unlike the katochoi.^[5]

Ptolemaeus wrote numerous petitions to various officials during his katoche, including Ptolemy VI Philometor and Cleopatra II. He often appealed to the strategos of his nome, 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.^[8] He also recorded his dreams and those of the twins, which were regarded as having prophetic significance.^[4]

The archive abruptly ends in 152 BC, Ptolemaeus' twentieth year in katoche, so it is unclear how much longer Ptolemaeus remained in katoche, and whether he was ever released from it.^[4]

See also

• Horos son of Nechoutes
• Dryton and Apollonia archive
• Zenon of Kaunos