Henry Lawson
1892 · Australia · A short story of a woman in a bush hut with her four children while her husband is away droving. First printed in 1892.
She is used to being left alone. She once lived like this for eighteen months. As a girl she built the usual castles in the air; but all her girlish hopes and aspirations have long been dead.
“The Drover's Wife”, in While the Billy Boils (1896)
More from Henry Lawson · #loneliness
In the same thread
Isias Ἰσιάς
168 BC · Ptolemaic Egypt · To her husband Hephaestion, who had withdrawn into the temple of Sarapis at Memphis. At the end she says his mother too is taking it hard and asks him to come back, and adds: “Take care of yourself.”
But that you have not come home, when all the others who were shut in there have come, displeases me; for I have steered myself and your child through such a time, and have been driven to the last extremity by the price of grain …
ἐπὶ δὲ τῶι μὴ παραγίνεσθαί σε [π]ά[ντ]ων τῶν ἐκεῖ ἀπειλημμένων παραγεγο[νό]των ἀηδίζομαι ἕνεκα τοῦ ἐκ τοῦ τούτου καιροῦ ἐμαυτήν τε καὶ τὸ παιδίο[ν σ]ου διακεκυβερνηκυῖα καὶ εἰς πᾶν τι ἐληλυθυῖα διὰ τὴν τοῦ σίτου τιμὴν …
London Papyri I 42 (P.Lond. I 42 = UPZ I 59)
Serenus Σερῆνος
2nd century · Oxyrhynchus, Roman Egypt · To his wife Isidora, who had left home. From 12 Phaophi to 12 Hathyr is exactly one month. The letter ends: “Tell me whether you are coming or not.” The spelling is as written.
I want you to know that ever since you left me I have been in mourning, weeping at night and lamenting by day. Since we bathed together on the 12th of Phaophi I have not bathed or anointed myself until the 12th of Hathyr. And you sent me letters that could move a stone; that is how your words have shaken me.
γινόσκειν σε θέλω ἀφʼ ὡς ἐκξῆλθες ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ πένθος ἡγούμην νυκτὸς κλέων ἡμὲρας δὲ πενθω. ιβ Φαῶφι ἀφʼ ὅτε ἐλουσάμην μετʼ ἐσοῦ οὐκ ἐλουσάμην οὐκ ἤλιμε μέχρει ιβ Ἁθύρ, καὶ ἔπεμσάς μυ ἐπιστολὰς δυναμενου λίθον σαλεῦσε, οὕτως ὑ λόγυ σου καικίνηκάν με.
Oxyrhynchus Papyri III 528 (P.Oxy. III 528)
Hilarion Ἱλαρίων
1 BC · Oxyrhynchus, Roman Egypt · From Hilarion, away working in Alexandria, to his wife Alis at home. In the same letter he tells her, if she bears a child, to keep it if it is a boy and to cast it out if it is a girl. Exposing new-born babies was not rare at the time.
You told Aphrodisias, “Do not forget me.” How can I forget you? So I ask you not to worry.
εἴρηκας δὲ Ἀφροδισιάτι ὅτι μή με ἐπιλάθῃς· πῶς δύναμαί σε ἐπιλαθεῖν; ἐρωτῶ σε οὖν ἵνα μὴ ἀγωνιάσῃς.
Oxyrhynchus Papyri IV 744 (P.Oxy. IV 744)
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us