ANCIENT EGYPT:  
Its History and Culture

Manetho, The Historian

Manetho and Other Sources for The History of Ancient Egypt

    
   Manetho, a priest in the temple at Heliopolis, , lived during the reign of Ptolemy I.  He wrote an account of the dynasties of Egypt entitled Egyptian History or sometimes known as Nobles About Egypt.  Manetho gave the basic chronoly that we use today.  He divided Egypt into dynasties (families) of which 30 are recognized by modern scholars.  He begins with the unification of Egypt and brings it down to Nectanebo II (343 CE)  Later historians added two additional dynasties.--the 31st Persian Dynasty and 32nd Macedonian Dynasty.  Scholars do not have Manetho's original work.  Ancient scholars many of whose works have survived regarded Manetho as the authority on ancient Egypt and used his material to construct their own histories of the period.  Manetho's work was used by Josephus in his Jewish antiquities  and Contra Apionem;  Sextus Julius Africanus used the work in the Chronicle;  Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea added information in the early 4th century.  Every writer took what they wanted for their own reasons so that what we have is fragments of the writing of Manetho.

    Manetho used temple records, official papyrus histories, and the hieroglyphic writing on the temple=tomb walls.   He added popular stores about earlier kings.

The Pharaoh  I List of Old Kingdom Pharaohs I 
The Priesthood I Architecture I The Tomb I Mummies

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Last update, March 29, 2004
© Jean H. Braden, 2004
email:  jebraden@nvcc.edu

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