Manetho

Manetho (/ˈmænɪθoʊ/; Koinē Greek: Μανέθων Manéthōn, gen.: Μανέθωνος, fl. 290–260 BCE^[1]) was an Egyptian priest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom who lived in the early third century BCE, at the very beginning of the Hellenistic period. Little is certain about his life. He is known today as the author of a history of Egypt in Greek called the Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt) written during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter or Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BCE). None of Manetho’s texts have survived; they are lost literary works, they are known primarily from later references. Parts of Aegyptiaca, or versions of it, were alluded to in Josephus’s treatise Against Apion (c. 95 CE) and in works by the Christian historians Julius Africanus (c.160–c.240), Eusebius (c. 260 – 339), and George Syncellus (d. 810).^[2][3]

Excerpt from Manetho, with an English translation by W.G. Waddell, page ix. London, W. Heinemann, 1940. Robarts Collection, University of Toronto. From [Archive].

The surviving text of the Aegyptiaca continues to be a crucial resource for understanding ancient Egyptian history more than two millennia since its composition. Until the decipherment of Ancient Egyptian scripts in the early 19th century CE, Manetho's work, surviving as fragments cited or quoted by later authors, was a primary source on those scripts. The text remains important in Egyptology.^[4]

Works attributed to Manetho

Eight works have been attributed to Manetho: (1) Aegyptiaca; (2) The Book of Sothis; (3) The Sacred Book; (4) An Epitome of Physical Doctrines; (5) On Festivals; (6) On Ancient Ritual and Religion; (7) On the Making of Kyphi [a kind of incense]; and (8) Criticisms of Herodotus. Some of these have been considered "ghost" titles.^[4][5]

Of these eight, modern scholars agree that: the historical Manetho is the author of Aegyptia; that Manetho cannot be the author of Sothis; and that the Criticisms is likely a part of the larger Aegypticia and not written as a separate work.^[4]

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.^[3][6]

The earliest attestations of his name, all in Greek, come from three sources: an inscription found in Carthage; the Hibeh papyrus; and Josephus. The name that he called himself in Greek was likely Manethôn.^[7]

Historical context

Statue of a priest of Osiris, Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, 1st century CE. Le Grand Palais exhibition.

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.^[6] In Egypt, diadochos Ptolemy I Soter founded the Ptolemaic Kingdom in 305 BCE.^[8] 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.^[9] 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.^[10]

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).^[7][9]

Significance of Manetho's work

The Aegyptiaca (Αἰγυπτιακά, Aigyptiaka), (or "History of Egypt") was a chronological history divided into three volumes; it may have been written as a response to Herodotus' Histories. It is a foundational text for understanding the history of ancient Egypt, particularly its chronology. It provided a structure for understanding the very long history, and was 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.^[11]

Manetho coined the term "dynasty" (using the Greek word dynasteia); his conception was not based on bloodlines—as we understand the term "dynasty" 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.^[12]

Two English translations of the fragments of Manetho's Aegyptiaca have been published: one by William Gillan Waddell in 1940, and another by Gerald P. Verbrugghe and John Moore Wickersham in 2001.^[13]

The Aegyptiaca survives in two forms: in excerpts and in an epitome. The excerpts were preserved by Josephus; these include some likely altered by later apologists seeking to align Jewish or Christian history with Egyptian tradition. ^[11] Josephus’ Contra Apionem references Apion's identitcally-titled work, ca. first century CE, as well as the much older work of Manetho, possibly conflating the two, leading to substantial scholarly work to identify Manetho's original text in Josephus.^{[citation needed]}

An early epitome—likely not by Manetho—summarized his dynastic lists with brief notes on major kings and events. Christian chronographers, notably Africanus and Eusebius, preserved this version to compare Biblical and "Oriental" chronologies. Africanus (c. 217–221 AD) retained more accuracy; Eusebius (to 326 AD) introduced changes. Around 800 AD, George Syncellus used these sources in his universal history Ekloge Chronographias, aiming to date the Incarnation to an Anno Mundi of 5500 (see "Byzantine calendar"). He drew on Africanus, Eusebius, and corrupted versions of works including the falsely-attributed Book of Sothis.^[11]

The Aegyptiaca

Contents

Volume One

Dynasties I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI

Modern chronology: Early Dynastic, Old Kingdom, First Intermediate, and early Middle Kingdom periods (c. 3100 - 1991 BCE)

Volume One of Manetho's Aegyptiaca presented a mythical "proto-history"^[a] of Egypt that began with divine rulers and concluded in an origin myth. He then began his human history, which in the first book covered about 1,110. Starting at the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Menes, he then progressed through the rulers of Dynasties I through XI.^[14]

Manetho portrayed Dynasties I-VI as a time of unity and innovation, especially in writing and monumental building. He emphasized that a continuous line of pharaohs ruled over a unified Egypt; in modern chronology Dynasties I and II are considered the Early Dynastic and III-VI the Old Kingdom periods.^[14]

Manetho next described a break in the unified royal lineage and a less clear succession of rulers, which he designated Dynasties VII-X and the early part of XI; these "dynasties" were in fact competing factional claimants. Modern historians call this tumultuous era the First Intermediate period.^[14]

Volume One concluded with the re-establishment of unified rule under the latter part of Dynasty XI, which marks the beginning of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt in modern chronology. Manetho intended to show Egypt's history as rooted in a unified kingdom ruled by a continuous succession of divinely-sanctioned dynasties.^[14]

Volume Two

Dynasties XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX

Modern Chronology: Middle Kingdom, Second Intermediate, beginning of New Kingdom periods (c. 1991 - 1189 BCE)

Volume Two spanned around 800 years of Egypt's history. It covered Dynasties XII through XIX. The stability established during the latter half of Dynasty XI continued into XII; this is the Middle Kingdom period in modern chronology.^[14]

With Dynasties XIII and XIV, however, came a return to internal strife and with it, a less-clear succession of rulers. Manetho wrote that Dynasties XV-XVII marked the arrival and rule of foreign rulers that he called the Hyksos.^[14]

Manetho then told of the expulsion of the foreign rulers and the re-establishment of unified Egyptian rule. The era of imperial expansion and grandeur during Dynasties XVIII and XIX corresponds to the New Kingdom, and brought the second volume of Manetho's history to its close.^[14]

Volume Three

Dynasties XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX, XXX, XXXI (contested)

Modern chronology: end of New Kingdom, Third Intermediate, and Late periods (c. 1189 – 332 BCE)

Volume Three of Manetho's Aegyptiaca covered nearly 860 years, and its time period is the most historically attested of the three books. It told of Dynasties XX-XXX (or XXXI); this included both Kushite (XXV) rulers and a native "renaissance" (XXVI). Persian conquest interrupted native rule (XXVII). Three more native dynasties followed, then more Persian rulers of XXXI, and finally the Macedonians.

Though its authenticity is debated, Manetho's inclusion of Dynasty XXXI aligns with his aim to document the totality of ruling powers since unification under the first pharaoh Menes some 2,700 years before his own time; his comprehensive history included foreign rulers. It serves as the last complete dynasty before what was, for Manetho, the very beginning of Dynasty XXXII: the Ptolemies.^[15]

Sources and methodologies

It is impossible to identify the specific sources that Manetho used to compose his history. As an Egyptian high priest, he would have had access to records including hieroglyphic tablets, wall reliefs, inscriptions, and temple archives in the form of papyrii. He had read Herodotus in Greek and would have been well-versed in the other Greek sources available to him. It should be assumed that his sources included folk legends and non-historical traditions. Waddell named five well-known Egyptian artifacts as indicative of the kinds of monuments and records that Manetho may have consulted: the Palermo Stone (2338 BCE); the Abydos King List (ca. 1570-1069 BCE); the Karnak King List (ca. 1450 BCE); the Turin King List (1245 BCE); and the Saqqara Tablet (1189-1077 BCE).^[16]

Transmission and reception of the Aegyptiaca

What fragments of Aegyptiaca did survive became contested by different advocates of Egyptian, Jewish, and Greek histories in the following centuries. These contests took the form of polemics, with each author claiming his own civilization as the world's oldest.^{[citation needed]}

The earliest attestation to Manetho is that of Contra Apionem ("Against Apion") by Flavius Josephus, nearly four centuries after Aegyptiaca was composed. Even here, it is clear that Josephus did not have the originals, and constructed a polemic against Manetho without them. Avaris and Osarseph are both mentioned twice (1.78, 86–87; 238, 250). Apion 1.95–97 is merely a list of kings with no narratives until 1.98, while running across two of Manetho's dynasties without mention (dynasties eighteen and nineteen).^{[citation needed]}

Contemporaneously or perhaps after Josephus wrote, an epitome of Manetho's work must have been circulated. This would have involved preserving the outlines of his dynasties and a few details deemed significant. For the first ruler of the first dynasty, Menes, we learn that "he was snatched and killed by a hippopotamus". The extent to which the epitome preserved Manetho's original writing is unclear, so caution must be exercised. Nevertheless, the epitome was preserved by Sextus Julius Africanus and Eusebius of Caesarea. Because Africanus predates Eusebius, his version is usually considered more reliable, but there is no assurance that this is the case. Eusebius in turn was preserved by Jerome in his Latin translation, an Armenian translation, and by George Syncellus. Syncellus recognized the similarities between Eusebius and Africanus, so he placed them side by side in his work, Ecloga Chronographica.^{[citation needed]}

Africanus, Syncellus, and the Latin and Armenian translations of Eusebius are what remains of the epitome of Manetho. Other significant fragments include Malalas's Chronographia and the Excerpta Latina Barbari, a poor translation of a Greek chronology.^{[citation needed]}

In 1845, German classicist August Böckh published his treatise Manetho und die Hundssternperiode, Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Pharaonen "Manetho and the Sothic Period, A Contribution to the History of the Pharaohs".

Manetho and Berossos

Most of the ancient witnesses group Manetho together with the Mesopotamian writer Berossus, and treat the pair as similar in intent, and it is not a coincidence that those who preserved the bulk of their writing are largely the same (Josephus, Africanus, Eusebius, and Syncellus). Certainly, both wrote in Greek at about the same time, and both adopted the historiographical approach of the Greek writers Herodotus and Hesiod, who preceded them. While the subjects of their history are different, the form is similar, using chronological royal genealogies as the structure for the narratives. Both extend their histories far into the mythic past, to give the deities rule over the earliest ancestral histories.^{[citation needed]}

Modern historians consider Berossus and Manetho rough contemporaries.

Legacy

Manetho's legacy is apparent in the way Egyptologists divide the dynasties of the Egyptian kings. The French explorer and Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion reportedly held a copy of Manetho's lists in one hand as he attempted to decipher the hieroglyphs he encountered.^{[citation needed]} Scholars today will often render names in both the modern transcription and Manetho's version; in some cases Manetho's names are preferred. Today, his division of royal genealogies into dynasties or houses is used near-universally.

Waddell quoted August Böckh as an epigraph to his Manetho of 1940: ^[17]

"Never has there arisen a more complicated problem than that of Manetho."

— Böckh, Manetho und die Hundssternperiode, 1845, p. 10

See also

• Ancient Egypt portal

• Berossus
• Cory’s Ancient Fragments
• List of lists of ancient kings
• Ptolemaic dynasty

Notes

1. This entirely mythical construction should in no way be confused with the modern conception of prehistoric Egypt.