This inscription was carved on the base of an obelisk at Philai, which is now at Kingston Lacy; OGIS 137 and 138 are on the same monument, but they were painted rather than carved. There is also a separate hieroglyphic inscription on the obelisk; see AET_8.16. The translation is by W.J Bankes (1825), with a few alterations.
To king Ptolemaios and queen Kleopatra, the sister, 20 and queen Kleopatra, the wife, Beneficent gods, the priests of the great goddess Isis in Abaton and Philai, greeting. Since those frequenting Philai, as strategoi, and overseers {epistatai}, and governors of Thebes {thebarchs}, and royal scribes, and superintendents of the police, and all other officials and constituted authorities, and the rest who are in office, compel us to make contributions to them against our will, and out of this it results that the temple has deteriorated, and that we are in danger of not having what is appointed 30 for the sacrifices and libations to be made for you and your children; we request of you, great Gods as you are, if it shall seem good, to order Noumenios your kinsman and secretary for correspondence to write to Lochos your kinsman and strategos of the Thebaid, not to trouble us in these things, nor to suffer any other to do the same, and to give us the necessary decrees to that effect, and in them to permit us to set up a monument on which we may inscribe your kindness to us upon these points, that your favour may be perpetuated upon it to all time; 40 when this shall be done, we and the temple of Isis shall hold ourselves obliged. Farewell.
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