Manetho and the History of Egypt Autor(Es)
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Manetho and the History of Egypt Autor(es): Araújo, Luís Manuel de Edições Afrontamento; CITCEM - Centro de Investigação Transdisciplinar «Cultura, Espaço e Memória»; Centro de Estudos Publicado por: Clássicos e Humanísticos; Alexandria University; Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra URL persistente: URI:http://hdl.handle.net/10316.2/36178 DOI: DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14195/978-989-26-0966-9_13 Accessed : 6-Oct-2021 19:01:23 A navegação consulta e descarregamento dos títulos inseridos nas Bibliotecas Digitais UC Digitalis, UC Pombalina e UC Impactum, pressupõem a aceitação plena e sem reservas dos Termos e Condições de Uso destas Bibliotecas Digitais, disponíveis em https://digitalis.uc.pt/pt-pt/termos. Conforme exposto nos referidos Termos e Condições de Uso, o descarregamento de títulos de acesso restrito requer uma licença válida de autorização devendo o utilizador aceder ao(s) documento(s) a partir de um endereço de IP da instituição detentora da supramencionada licença. Ao utilizador é apenas permitido o descarregamento para uso pessoal, pelo que o emprego do(s) título(s) descarregado(s) para outro fim, designadamente comercial, carece de autorização do respetivo autor ou editor da obra. Na medida em que todas as obras da UC Digitalis se encontram protegidas pelo Código do Direito de Autor e Direitos Conexos e demais legislação aplicável, toda a cópia, parcial ou total, deste documento, nos casos em que é legalmente admitida, deverá conter ou fazer-se acompanhar por este aviso. pombalina.uc.pt digitalis.uc.pt Alexandria endures in our imagination as the first model of cultural interaction – of cosmopolitanism, to use both classical and contemporary terminology – and as the cultural and intellectual capital of the ancient world. The intermingling of races and beliefs, and the exchange of m t a ideas, undoubtedly produced the knowledge that modern h l u scholarship still celebrates. e e l t This book is a testimony that the values embodied by x l i e a c Alexandria and its Library continue to inspire noble g u n minded scholars whose pursuit for knowledge transcends a l c d t boundaries and time. The breadth and scope of the papers y u presented do credit to the spirit of Alexandria – its r o r multiculturalism, and its passion for science and e a f l a scholarship. The book in our hands confirm that the i s multiculturalism of the Ancient World, rippling out from a m Alexandria to extend throughout the Hellenistic period d i and beyond, is as valid now as it was then – perhaps more n alexandrea alexandrea a so today, when globalization has given a new meaning to a ad aegyptVm ad aegyptVm e n the internationalism envisioned by Alexander the Great g alexandrea the legacy of the legacy of t centuries ago. Now, with the “clash of civilizations” y i q dominating our discourse, it is pertinent to remember the multiculturalism multiculturalism p u ad aegyptVm lesson Alexandrea ad Aegyptum taught us: that the in antiquity in antiquity t i V interaction between cultures can only lead to the t y m the legacy of betterment of the human condition and carry us to heights unimagined. multiculturalism Ismail Serageldin ROGÉRIO SOUSA ROGÉRIO SOUSA Librarian of Alexandria MARIA DO CÉU FIALHO MARIA DO CÉU FIALHO in antiquity MONA HAGGAG MONA HAGGAG NUNO SIMÕES RODRIGUES NUNO SIMÕES RODRIGUES The excellent contributions gathered in this book M R M N O U O A ROGÉRIO SOUSA dedicated to the city of books, Alexandria, are G N R N É O I A undoubtedly traced along the lines of Amr and John’s A R MARIA DO CÉU FIALHO S H I D I O dialogue. Intolerance, which is borne almost always out of A M O G MONA HAGGAG S Õ ignorance, threatens continuously the peaceful meeting O C G E É U A S NUNO SIMÕES RODRIGUES and coexistence of peoples and cultures nowadays. U S G R A F O Alexandria, its people and books remind us that the search I D A L R for dialogue, the reflection on the forms of unity in H I G O diversity are at the same time our greatest heritage and the U E most dramatically pressing agenda. S Gabriele Cornelli University of Brasilia ISBN 978-972-36-1336-0 CITCEM 9 7 8 9 7 2 3 6 1 3 3 6 0 y y manetho and the history of egypt luís manuel de Araújo University of Lisbon. Centro de História (University of Lisbon). Abstract: Under the royal commission by Ptolemy II, Manetho – an Egyptian priest in the temple of Re in Heliopolis – wrote in Greek a history of Egypt (Aegyptiaca) . This original text has been lost but its quotations by posterior authors such as Flavius Josephus (1st century), Julius Africanus (2nd-3rd centuries), Eusebius of Caesarea (3rd-4th cen - turies) and George Syncellus (8th century) help us to understand the historiographical work undergone by the ancient Egyptian scholar who, in many ways, paved the way for modern Egyptologists. MANETHO AND THE HISTORY OF EGYPT We owe to the Egyptian priest and scholar Manetho, contemporary of the first Ptole - maic kings, the dynastic periodization of pharaonic Egypt in thirty dynasties, still in use by Egyptologists 1. Manetho was born in Sebennytos (hellenized form of the Egyptian city Teb - neter or Tjebnetjer, or even Tjebnutjer, in Coptic Djemenuti, today Samannud), located at the Central Delta, where the 30th Dynasty began, the last of the long Egyptian history. Sebennytos was also the capital of the 12th province of Lower Egypt. Manetho studied at the renowned temple of Re, in Heliopolis, and collaborated in the introduction of the Sara - pis cult in Alexandria, which intended to merge both Greek and Egyptian beliefs. According to Plutarch, Manetho was an adviser of the king Ptolemy I (305-285 B.C.), the Macedonian 1 WADDELL, 1980: VII-XV; SALES, 2001: 538-539: SHAW, NICHOLSON, 1995: 169; THISSEN, 1980: 1180-1181. 171 alexandrea ad aegyptvm: the legacy of multiculturalism in antiquity founder of the Lagid Dynasty and by request of Ptolemy II himself (285-246 B.C.) he wrote a history of Egypt. Several literary works are ascribed to this scholar from Sebennytos, but only one of them is surely attributed to him: his history of Egypt ( Aegyptiaca ), whose original text has been lost, but from which we have reasonable knowledge thanks to the quotations of pos - terior authors: Flavius Josephus (1st century), and Christian writers such as Julius Africanus (2nd-3rd centuries), Eusebius of Caesarea (3rd-4th centuries) and George Syn - cellus (8th century). Although adopting a proselytist biased perspective, the Jewish writer Flavius Josephus seems to have been able to read the works of Manetho from the original itself. He used Manetho’s text as a source to write his arguments as to prove the ancientness of the Jews, having recorded: I will begin with Egyptian documents. These I cannot indeed set before you in their ancient form; but in Manetho we have a native Egyptian who was manifestly imbued with Greek culture. He wrote in Greek the history of his nation, translated, as he himself tells us, from sacred tablets; and on many points of the Egyptian history he convicts Herodotus of having erred through ignorance 2. Flavius Josefus coincides with other pieces of information which attest that Manetho was a Hellenized Egyptian scholar who wrote in Greek his nation’s history, based on the many facts he learned from the «sacred texts». To perform that huge task he would naturally had to be learned in the hieroglyphic writing (certainly seeking information in hieratic and demotic texts), as well as in the Greek language. Sometimes the compilers of Manetho disagree among themselves in the composition of the royal lists and in the comments on the succession – monotonous at times – of kings’ names and facts allegedly occurred in several reigns, as we shall see. On the other hand, the original Manetho’s text only mentioned 30 dynasties, with the 30th Dynasty ending his 3rd book, the last one of his Aegyptiaca , but later on a 31st Dynasty was added, regarding the period of the Second Persian Domination, and then removed upon the arrival of Alexan - der. The truth is that no one knows which material is from the Egyptian writer himself and which belongs to the work of his posterior compilers 3. Flavius Josephus attempted to adjust the manethonian text to his intentions, in order to extolle the history of his people. The ver - sion of Africanus, condensed in five books written during the reign of Heliogabalus (218- -222), apparently derives not directly from Manetho but from a version that appeared soon after the publication of the original text by the Sebennytos historian. Africanus’s purpose 2 WADDELL, 1980: 77-79. 172 MANETHO AND THE HISTORY OF EGYPT was to compare the dense manethonian chronology of the ancient nations of the Near East, particularly the pharaonic civilization, with the biblical chronology. The version from Euse - bius, written in Greek during the reign of Constantine (312-337) is inspired by a Manetho’s version later changed by an Helenized Jewish writer. Finally, around the year 800, the bizan - tine monk George, secretary of the patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople, began to write an extended history of the world since Adam to Diocletian. Among others, there is an Armen - ian version from the 5th century which passed down the Greek text of Eusebius to Latin. MANETHO’S SOURCES Monumental royal lists with the names of kings from ancient Egypt have been pre - served 4. Most of these lists date from the New Kingdom and they were certainly based on older records.