Hecataeus ofAbdera or ofTeos (Greek:Ἑκαταῖος ὁ Ἀβδηρίτης;c. 360 BC –c. 290 BC[1]), was a Greekhistorian who flourished in the 4th century BC. Though none of his works survive, his writings are attested by later authors in various fragments, in particular hisAegyptica, a work on the society and culture of the Egyptians, and hisOn the Hyperboreans. He is one of the authors (=FGrHist 264) whose fragments were collected inFelix Jacoby'sFragmente der griechischen Historiker.[2]
Diodorus Siculus tells us that Hecataeus visitedThebes in the times ofPtolemy I Soter and composed a history of Egypt. Diodorus supplies the comment that many additional Greeks went to and wrote about Egypt in the same period.[3] TheSuda gives him the nickname 'critic grammarian' and says that he lived in the time of the successors toAlexander.[4] According toDiogenes Laertius, he was a student ofPyrrho.[5]
No complete works of Hecataeus have survived, and knowledge of his writing exists only in fragments located in various ancient Greek and Latin authors' works, most of which concern religion. Eight fragments are from his book about theHyperboreans, the mythical people of the far north. Six fragments survive from hisAegyptiaca and regardEgyptianphilosophy, priests, gods, sanctuaries,Moses, wine, and which makes mention ofClearchus and thegymnosophists.[6] Hecataeus wrote the workAegyptiaca[7] (c. 320 – 305 BC)[8] orOn the Egyptians (the same title ofManetho's later work),[9] both suggestions are based on known titles of other ethnographic works, an account of Egypt's customs, beliefs and geography, and the single largest fragment from thislost work is held to be Diodorus' account of theRamesseum, tomb ofOsymandyas (i.47-50).[citation needed] According to Montanari, in his work, Egypt is "strongly idealised", depicted as a country "exemplary in its customs and political institutions".[10] His digression on the Jews inAegyptiaca was the first mention of them in Greek literature. It was subsequently paraphrased in Diodorus Siculus 40.3.8.
Diodorus Siculus'ethnography of Egypt (Bibliotheca historica, Book I) represents by far the largest number of fragments. Diodorus mostly paraphrases Hecataeus, thus it is difficult to extract Hecataeus' actual writings (as inKarl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller'sFragmenta Historicorum Graecorum). Diodorus (ii.47.1-2) andApollonius of Rhodes tell of another work by Hecataeus,On the Hyperboreans.[11]Clement of Alexandria (Stromata 5.113) cites a work titled "OnAbraham and the Egyptians". According to Clement, Hecataeus was the source for verses of Sophocles that praisemonotheism and condemnidolatry.[12] The major fragment explicitly attributed to Hecataeus in Jewish and Christian literature is found inJosephus (Apion 1.183-205) in which Josephus argues that learned Greeks (Apion 1.175) andAristotle (Apion 1.176-82) admired the Jews.[12] The work is considered spurious by some;[13] However Pucci Ben Zeev, in surveying scholarship on this matter, finds reasons to grant core elements of authenticity in the absence of clear evidence to the contrary.[14]
According to the 10th centuryByzantine encyclopedia theSuda, Hecataeus wrote a treatise onHomer andHesiod, entitledOn the Poetry of Homer and Hesiod (Περὶ τῆς ποιήσεως Ὁμήρου καὶ Ἡσιόδου);[15] nothing of this work survives, however, and it is mentioned by no other ancient source.[16]
