Manetho

Name

Scholars agree that "Manetho" is a Greek transcription of an Egyptian name; however, there is no consensus on the original. Some speculate that it is a theophoric name invoking either the god Thoth or the goddess Neith, e.g. "Truth of Thoth", "Beloved of Neith", or similar. Another proposal is "I have seen the great god". Others propose an occupational name based on Egyptian Myinyu-heter ("Shepherd" or "Groom"). In Latin sources he is called Manethon, Manethos, Manethonus, and Manetos.

The earliest attestations of his name, all in Greek, come from three sources: an inscription found in Carthage; the Hibeh papyrus; and the writings of Josephus. The name that he called himself in Greek was likely Manethôn.

Historical context

Manetho lived and worked at the very beginning of the new Hellenistic order in Egypt, when the Macedonian Greek Diadochi (successors) of Alexander the Great (d. 323 BCE) fought each other for control of the new empire, a struggle finally ending in partition. In Egypt, diadochos Ptolemy I Soter founded the Ptolemaic Kingdom in 305 BCE. Reigning for nearly three centuries, the Ptolemies were the final and longest-lived dynasty of ancient Egypt before Roman conquest in 30 BCE. They introduced the Hellenistic religion, a unique syncretism between Greek and Egyptian religions and cultures. Manetho wrote Aegyptiaca in order to preserve the history of his homeland for posterity and—as evidenced by his having written it in Greek—for its new foreign rulers.

Manetho originated in Sebennytos and was likely a priest of the solar deity Ra at Heliopolis. He was an authority on the temple cult of Serapis (a Hellenistic appropriation of Osiris and Apis).

Most of the ancient witnesses group Manetho together with the Mesopotamian writer Berossus and treat the pair as similar in intent. Those who preserved the bulk of their writing are largely the same (Josephus, Africanus, Eusebius, and Syncellus). Both wrote in Greek at about the same time, and adopted the historiographical approach of the Greek writers Herodotus and Hesiod who preceded them. Both used chronological royal genealogies and regnal lists (also called "king-lists") as the structure for the narratives, and extended their histories far into a mythic past or origin myth—in Manetho's case a syncretized one. Modern historians consider Berossus and Manetho to have been rough contemporaries.

The fragments of Manetho

All of Manetho's original works are lost. What remains are purported excerpts, epitomes, and allusions as transmitted in the writings of later authors.

Two English translations of Manetho's fragments have been published: one by William Gillan Waddell (1884–1945) in 1940, and another by Gerald P. Verbrugghe and John Moore Wickersham in 2001.

The Aegyptiaca

The Aegyptiaca (Αἰγυπτιακά, Aigyptiaka), (or "History of Egypt") was a chronological history divided into three papyrus scrolls (Gr: tomoi), or "books" or "volumes"; it may have been written as a response to Herodotus' Histories. It is—or more precisely, its accumulated fragments are—a foundational text for understanding the very long history of ancient Egypt, particularly Egyptian chronology. It or its fragments were for many centuries a primary source on the subject until the decipherment of Ancient Egyptian scripts in the early 19th century CE. The text remains significant in Egyptology.

Manetho's Aegyptiaca chronicles the history of Egypt from a mythical epoch of divine rulers, through the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by Menes (c. 3100 BCE in modern dating) and the subsequent thirty (or thirty-one) dynasties, culminating in the establishment of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in 305 BCE. Key themes included the importance of a unified kingdom, periods of stability and innovation versus internal strife and foreign rule (like the Hyksos, Kushites, and Achaemenids), and the restoration of Egyptian power. Manetho aimed to present a comprehensive and continuous history of Egypt under divinely-sanctioned rulers, including foreign ones.

Manetho's legacy

Manetho's unique legacy rests on the singular importance of his Aegyptiaca.

The dynastic framework

Manetho coined the term "dynasty" (Greek: dynasteia); his conception was not based on bloodlines as the term "dynasty" is understood today, but rather as groupings of monarchs punctuated by discontinuities, either geographical (e.g., moving the capital) or genealogical. After each discontinuity came a new dynasty.

Arguably his most important legacy, Manetho's division of Egyptian rulers into thirty (or sometimes thirty-one) dynasties still serves as the fundamental chronological backbone for Egyptology.

Written in Greek

Use of Egyptian hieroglyphic and demotic writing began to disappear in the third century CE, and with it went the knowledge to read these scripts. The temple-based priesthoods died out and Egypt was gradually converted to Christianity, and because Egyptian Christians wrote in the Greek-derived Coptic alphabet, it came to supplant demotic. The last hieroglyphic text was written by priests at the Temple of Isis at Philae in 394 CE, and the last known demotic text was inscribed there in 452 CE.

Manetho's decision to write his Aegyptiaca in Greek—the lingua franca of his day—rather than Egyptian ensured that the text remained accessible even after the knowledge of Egyptian scripts was lost, and enabled scholars from classical and late antiquity to the modern era to encounter Egypt's deep past. This history would have otherwise been largely inaccessible until the decipherment of ancient Egyptian scripts.

A native Egyptian perspective

Manetho’s accounts of his civilisation stand out due to being a complete and systematic work by a native and educated Egyptian, who wrote for an audience of foreigners. His viewpoint therefore offers a rare insight into how Egyptians themselves conceived of their own past and their place in a changing world.

Anti-Jewish Charges

In his Aegyptiaca, Manetho also made statements against the Jews which survive in Josephus' work Against Apion. Possibly in response to the glorification of exodus of the Jews from Egypt, he described it not as a miraculous escape but the expulsion of a leper colony among other polluted groups. According to him, Moses, whom Manetho identified as the renegade priest Osarseph, commanded the Jews not to associate themselves with members outside their community, to subvert Egyptian custom and establish alien rule. Manetho accused the Jews of being misanthropic and derisive of other religions; subsequently, the notion of the rebellious priest leading a revolt of infected outcasts became a fundamental component of antisemitism.

Foundation for later scholarship

For centuries, Manetho's fragments and summaries were the primary textual sources for understanding the sequence of Egyptian rulers. Jean-François Champollion relied on Manetho's king-lists as a cross-reference in his pioneering translations of ancient Egyptian scripts.