Biography Manetona

Maneton – the high priest and secretary of the Egyptian temples at the time of Ptolemy I and II. His name is connected idea of the beginning of the cult of Serapis. He attributed the philosophical, theological and historical, for the most part lost works such as "General Physics" (jusikwn epitomh), "On Holidays" (peri> Eortvn), "On the Antiquity and godliness" (peri arcaismou kai eusebeiaV), "Against Herodotus" (ta proV Hrodotou), and the remaining 6 books astrological writings Apotelesmatika. Especially important for modern science Aiguptiaka or Aiguptiakh istoria; in this work he set out on the Greek past of their country, wanting to meet him on the basis of primary sources, the West, which until then could only know about Egypt from Herodotus and others like him writers. Being a native, having access to the Egyptian literature, having Hellenistic education and at the same time preserving the ancient Egyptian tradition, MS could successfully perform a task. Known, however, labor AM in antiquity did not use, because only survived in extracts of Flavius Josephus and the Christian writer Eusebius and Africanus. First results in his pamphlet against Apion excerpts from stories 15 – 19 dynasties, the latter – a table of dynasties, with a list of the pharaohs, with the years of their reign, and some notes, proving that the tradition of Ptolemaic times on the ancient dynasty relied on folk tales and legends. It is not always possible to reconcile the data with the results of M. egiptologicheskih findings: In addition to the difference between the classical and the Ptolemaic tradition, the names of the Kings distorts both the Greek transcription, and scribes, to the figures should also be treated with caution. For all that, Moscow – the most important of all the authors who have written about pogrecheski Egypt, his scheme of Egyptian history, with some modifications, still serves as the primary. Unfortunately, most excerpts of his work are known only from third-hand – George Sincellus, the Armenian translation of Eusebius and the Excerpta Barbari. Probably used in the original M. Africanus, Eusebius also had on hand of later processing, made with the tendentious purpose. Extracts issued Muller ("Fragmenta Istoricum", II, 511). Wed Bockh, "Manetho und Hundsternperiode" (Berl., 1845); Lepsius, "Chronologie d. Aegypter" (to "Zap. Berl. Aqd.", 405); his own, "Konigsbuch"; Unger, "Chronologie d. Manetho "; Krall," Die Komposition und die Schicksale des Maneth. Geschichtswerkes "(Vienna, 1879); Maspero, in" Recueil de travaux "(17, 66 and 121). The name of M. means: "Beloved god Thoth."