The Pastophorion Revisited: Owners and Users of ‘Priests' Houses’ in Ptolemaic Pathyris and Elsewhere in Egypt *

Abstract

This article draws on legal texts written in demotic Egyptian and in Greek to investigate the ownership and use of the pastophoria (Egyptian s.wt (n ḥ.t-nṯr), ‘places (of the temple)’) of ancient Egyptian temple complexes. The focus is on the pastophoria of the temple of Hathor in Pathyris in Upper Egypt during the Ptolemaic period. The Pathyrite evidence is compared with that provided by documents from other Egyptian sites. The relationship between the temple functionary known as the pastophoros (Egyptian wn(?)) and the pastophorion is examined.