MAN'ETHO (Lat., from Gk. Mcii,E96v, Mane then). The most important of all classical writ ers who have treated the history of ancient Egypt. He is said to have been a native of Sebennytus in the Delta, a high priest (of Heli opolis or Sebennytus). and scribe of the temples of Egypt; i.e. a president or secretary of the priestly assemblies. He appears as representa tive of the Egyptian priesthood and Egyptian learning under Ptolemy I., Soter, when he and the Athenian priest Timotheus were the only scholars able to identify as Serapis the statue of an unknown god brought from Sinope to Alek andria. It is certain that Manetho's principal work, the Egyptian History, was written, how ever, under Ptolemy 11. Philadelphus, as it con tains a reference to the Arsinoite nome (i.e. the Fayum), and must therefore be later than D.C. 273. the date of the marriage of Ptolemy II. with his sister Arsinoe. This history, in three books, has become famous, for it was the only work in Creek based on a full knowledge of the Egyptian sources. A more doubtful tradition states that Ptolemy II, himself selected Manetho as the Egyptian scholar who possessed the most profound Greek scholarship. and ordered him to write the history of the country. Slanetho un doubtedly possessed as much knowledge of Egyp tian history as could be expected of any Egyp tian priest, and he followed chiefly the native sources, inserting occasional polemics against the errors of Herodotus and others. Neverthe less, his work is marred by the introduction of some mythological Greek names and other mat ters.
Slanetho's work does not seem to have been much read outside of Egypt, though it played an important part in the controversy between Josepbus and Apion, near the end of the first cen tury A.D. Later, the Christian chronographers made considerable use of it in arranging the biblical chronology, but it is questionable if they had the complete work. Thus we have only a few passages of the history quoted in Josephus, and the chronological tables in Julius Africanus and Eose1ms. both tallies preserved only in the work of George Syncellus of Byzantium (A.n.
79" • . and in the so-called Execrpta Ilarbari (in Latin 1. The,c extract; have come down to us in such a mutilated form that it is Very diffi cult to form an opinion of the value of the orig inal book. The earlier Egyptologists overrated the importance of this authority, and lately it has been treated With the greatest skepticism. Not only have the names and dates been corrupted to a large extent, hut Manetho undoubtedly did not possess sufficient sources of information to make his hook absolutely reliable. Nevertheless, we still retain his division of Egyptian history into thirty dynasties from Menes (before whom the fabulous reigns of gods, demigods, and manes are enumerated) to Alexander, although this division is recognized to be merely conventional in more than one case. The old discussion, as to whether the dynasties of Manetho were all consecutive or whether some were contempo raneous, has been settled in favor of the second theory, although it applies only to a few eases (e.g. Dynasties fifteen to seventeen). The Sothiac cycle of 1460 years (at the end of which the short civil year of the Egyptians and the correct astronomical or Julian calendar again coincided), followed by Manetho in his chrono logical arrangement, has been of little use to mod ern scholars, owing to the fragmentary condition of the extracts. It is often possible to correct the errors of Nanetho by the aid of the monu ments. Consult: Boekh, Manctko (Berlin. 1845) ; Unger, ehronologic des Manctho. (Berlin, 1867) ; handy- editions of the text in Bunsen, Egypt's Place in rnirersal History, translation, vol. i. (London, 1848-67) ; and in C. Mfiller (ed.). His torici Hrirei ilinores (2 vols., Leipzig, 1870-71). Nanetho is said to have also written: A Com pendiuin of Natural Science; Concerning Feasts; Ha. the Preparation of Kyphi (Le. aromatic frank incense). Whether these works were spurious, as is undoubtedly the A potelesmata, an astronomical work of the Christian time, cannot he deter mined; another `Nanethonian' book, the Sothis (i.e. dog star), is clearly spurious, as it is dedi cated to the Emperor Augustus.