587 THE FIGURE OF A BLIND MAN There is even more striking evidence of an interest in a nearly blind man : In the above-mentioned story of Gemellus this man complains that “ the elders of the village of Karanis of the same division of Herakleides, men without the least scruple, with their habitual violence and arrogance < . . . > me whom they nominated as their colleague” (P.Mich. VI 426.9-11) and gave him the name Horon against his will 15. In this case, the nearly blind person is not excluded, but other citizens force him to accept a pub- lic office. However, everybody seeks to avoid these compulsory services called leitoyrgıa (“ liturgy ”), and that is precisely the aim of this letter 16. ¥ In some cases, the blind person is even so outstanding or dominant, that he is used to designate other persons. A private letter concerning business P.Koeln IV 198 (3rd century AD, unknown provenance) informs its addressee that some wine-vat was sold to the people around Diodoros the blind. In other cases some inhabitants are designated as “son of someone the blind”: P.Mich IV 223 (Karanis, 171-2 AD), P.Mich. IV 224 (Karanis, 172-3 AD), P.Oxy XII 1446 (Oxyrhynchus, 161-210 AD). When we return to our opening question, our answer is: Yes, there is evidence for the conviction that anonymity can also be interpreted as a result of the social exclusion of a blind person. However, the precise sig- nificance of the anonymity has to be determined in the context of the peri- cope. 3. Passivity of the blind Passivity of the excluded person is the complementary attitude to the hostile or disdainful approach of the majority. We can ask again, how characteristic this attitude is of the situation of blind persons in ancient society — were they set apart from the everyday course of events, left in seclusion and had to wait until someone decided to help them, or on the contrary was this attitude something unexpected? When we check the gospels, we realize that the healing stories are not unanimous on this point. On one hand blind men act actively in Matt 9,27 ; 20,30 (21,14); Mark 10,46-47 and Luke 18,35, on the other hand He may take it ironically as a wordplay “ üWron mh orwn ” as can be seen ¥Ω ˜ 15 further in the text, although in his former letters he uses this name. Another such letter is to be found in PSI XII 1243 — for the discussion 16 cf. PESTAMEN, The New Papyrological Primer, 212-213. These duties, called leitoyrgıa, included public unpaid service of a citizen to his community. ¥ Usually these persons possessed some property and worked (often involuntari- ly) for their homeland — which was not the case of Gemellus, who came to Karanis from Antinopolis. See PALME, “The range of documentary texts”, 385.