Excerpt fromManetho, with an English translation by W.G. Waddell, p. ix.
The remaining fragments of theAegyptiaca continue to be a singular resource for delineatingEgyptian chronology, more than two millennia since its composition. Until thedecipherment of Ancient Egyptian scripts in the early 19th century CE, Manetho's fragments were an essential source for understanding Egyptian history. His work remains of unique importance inEgyptology.[2][3]
Some of these have been considered "ghost" titles.[further explanation needed] Of these eight, modern scholars agree that: thehistorical Manetho is the author ofAegyptiaca; that Manetho cannot be the author ofSothis; and that theCriticisms is likely a part of the largerAegypticia and not written as a separate work.[4]
No likeness of Manetho exists. This is a bust of aNeokoros, a senior official in thetemple cult ofSerapis (aHellenistic appropriation ofOsiris andApis) fromRoman Egypt, 230-240 CE, over three centuries after Manetho lived. The circlet with the seven-rayedsun disk in the hair identifies his position. Manetho was an authority on the temple cult of Serapis. Marble.Altes Museum, Berlin.
Scholars agree that "Manetho" is a Greektranscription of an Egyptian name, however there is no consensus on the original. Some speculate that it is atheophoric name invoking either the godThoth or the goddessNeith, e.g. "Truth of Thoth", "Beloved of Neith", or similar. Another proposal is "I have seen the great god". Others propose anoccupational name based on EgyptianMyinyu-heter ("Shepherd" or "Groom"). In Latin sources he is calledManethon,Manethos,Manethonus, andManetos.[6][7]
The earliest attestations of his name, all in Greek, come from three sources: aninscription found inCarthage; theHibehpapyrus; and the writings ofJosephus. The name that he called himself in Greek was likelyManethôn.[8]
Statue of a priest ofOsiris, 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 theMacedonian GreekDiadochi (successors) ofAlexander the Great (d. 323 BCE)fought each other for control of the new empire, a struggle finally ending in partition.[9] In Egypt,diadochosPtolemy I Soter founded the Ptolemaic Kingdom in 305 BCE. Reigning for nearly three centuries, thePtolemies were the final and longest-liveddynasty of ancient Egypt beforeRoman conquest in 30 BCE. They introduced theHellenistic religion, a uniquesyncretism betweenGreek and Egyptian religions and cultures.[10] Manetho wroteAegyptiaca 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.[11]
Most of the ancient witnesses group Manetho together with theMesopotamian writerBerossus and treat the pair as similar in intent. Those who preserved the bulk of their writing are largely the same (Josephus,Africanus,Eusebius, andSyncellus). Both wrote in Greek at about the same time, and adopted the historiographical approach of the Greek writersHerodotus andHesiod who preceded them. Both used chronological royalgenealogies andregnal lists (also called "king-lists") as the structure for the narratives, and extended their histories far into a mythic past ororigin myth—in Manetho's case asyncretized one. Modern historians consider Berossus and Manetho to have been rough contemporaries.[citation needed]
All of Manetho's original works are lost. What remains are purported excerpts,epitomes (summaries), andallusions as transmitted in the writings of later authors. These pieces of transmitted text are called "literary fragments"; and scholars have indexed individual fragments with numbers, as in "Fragment 1", "Fragment 2", etc.
Two English translations of the fragments of Manetho have been published: one byWilliam Gillan Waddell (1884 – 1945) in 1940, and another by Gerald P. Verbrugghe and John Moore Wickersham in 2001.
Waddell's 1940 translation grouped fragments based on the preserving author and attempted to arrange them according to Manetho's original dynastic structure. His numbering followed this organizational principle.
Verbrugghe and Wickersham's work is informed by scholarship published after Waddell, particularly that of the Germanclassicist andphilologistFelix Jacoby (1876 – 1959).
Jacoby'sFragments of the Greek Historians (Ger:Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker), commonly abbreviated as "FGrHist" or "FGrH", is a reference work that compiles extant citations, excerpts, and epitomes of otherwiselost works by ancient historians written in Greek. Jacoby's section on Manetho (FGrHist 609)[citation needed] established a highly influential system for classifying and numbering the fragments.
Verbrugghe and Wickersham's decision to base their work on Jacoby's system reflects a desire to align with the prevailing scholarly consensus in the field. Jacoby's work is known for its meticulousness and comprehensive approach to fragment collection and analysis. As Jacoby's work was in German and not immediately accessible in English translation at the time that Verbrugghe and Wickersham were working, their translation and commentary proved invaluable for English-speaking scholars.[13]
Manetho'sAegyptiaca chronicles the history of Egypt from a mythical epoch of divine rulers, through the unification ofUpper and Lower Egypt byMenes (c. 3100 BCE in modern dating) and the subsequent thirty (or thirty-one)dynasties, culminating in the establishment of thePtolemaic 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 theHyksos,Kushites, andAchaemenids), and the restoration of Egyptian power. Manetho aimed to present a comprehensive and continuous history of Egypt under divinely-sanctioned rulers, including foreign ones.[15][16]
Manetho coined the term "dynasty" (Greek: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 thecapital) or genealogical. After each discontinuity came a new dynasty.[7]
Arguably his most important legacy, Manetho's division of Egyptian rulers into thirty (or sometimes thirty-one)dynasties—despite its imperfections and the passage of millennia—still serves as the fundamental chronological backbone forEgyptology. Indeed, since Syncellus, his method of dynastic arrangement remains the foundational structure for all presentations of Pharaonic Egypt.[17][18]
Manetho's decision to write hisAegyptiaca in Greek—thelingua 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 fromclassical andlate antiquity to themodern era to encounter Egypt's deep past. This history would have otherwise been largely inaccessible until the decipherment of ancient Egyptian scripts.[21][22]
Manetho, an educated Egyptian who wrote for an audience of foreigners, is even today a singular guide to his civilization's profoundly ancient history. As the author of a complete and systematic work by a native Egyptian, Manetho's perspective held an inherent authority. His viewpoint still offers unparalleled insights into how Egyptians themselves conceived of their own past and their place in a changing world.[23][24]
Despite the fragmented and imperfect transmission of hisAegyptiaca, Manetho established a foundational chronology for thinking and writing about Egyptian history that endures to this day. For centuries, Manetho's fragments and summaries were the primary textual sources for understanding the sequence of Egyptian rulers. They provided a framework, however flawed, upon which early Egyptological scholarship was built.Jean-François Champollion relied on Manetho'sking-lists as a cross-reference in his pioneering translations of ancient Egyptian scripts.[25][26]
— (2002). Adler, William; Tuffin, Paul (eds.).The Chronography of George Synkellos: a Byzantine Chronicle of Universal History from the Creation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Iversen, Erik (1993) [First edition 1961].The Myth of Egypt and Its Hieroglyphs in European Tradition. Princeton University Press.ISBN978-0-691-02124-9.
Herodotus (1921).The Histories. Translated by A. D. Godley. Cambridge; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd.
Leahy, A., ed. (1990).Libya and Egypt: c. 1300–750 BC. London: SOAS Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies and the Society for Libyan Studies.
Redford, Donald B. (1986a). "The Name Manetho". In Lesko, Leonard H. (ed.).Egyptological Studies in Honor of Richard A. Parker Presented on the Occasion of His 78th Birthday, December 10, 1983. Hannover and London: University Press of New England. pp. 118–121.
Redford, Donald B. (1986).Pharaonic king-lists, annals, and day-books: a contribution to the study of the Egyptian sense of history. Mississauga: Benben.
Thompson, Dorothy J. (2012).Memphis Under the Ptolemies: Second Edition. NED-New edition (2nd ed.). Princeton University Press.doi:10.2307/j.ctv1n9dknx.
