Tense variation in Ptolemaic papyri: towards a grammar of the epistolary dialogue

This study investigates, through a qualitative approach, the distribution of finite verb forms expressing the absolute time within a small corpus of Ptolemaic private papyrus letters, particularly focusing on the use of the present, perfect and aorist indicatives. Since sender and recipient do not share the same chrono-topic coordinates, compared to other forms of discourse, the epistolary communication, which is time-delayed and mediated by letters, offers an interesting perspective on the use of those tenses that are anchored to the moment of utterance. As a result, the sender’s point of view may shift from his/her own present (i.e. the moment of the encoding) to the receiver’s (i.e. the moment of the decoding), alternatively assumed as reference points for the statement. Scholars report similar cases in letters only for the past tenses (accordingly labelled as epistolary), through which – unexpectedly – sometimes the senders describe events occurring at the moment of writing. However, our survey highlights a number of inconsistencies in the anchoring of the verb not only in the past tenses, but also in the primary stems here under examination. In conclusion, the notion of epistolary tense – traditionally restricted to past tenses – may therefore represent a heuristic tool enabling a better understanding of the category of grammatical tense in letters.