Hecataeus of Abdera
Encyclopedia
Hecataeus of Abdera
(or of Teos
) was a Greek historian
and sceptic philosopher who flourished in the 4th century BC.
(ix.61) relates that he was a student of Pyrrho
, along with Eurylochus
, Timon the Phliasian
, Nausiphanes
of Teos and others, and includes him among the "Pyrrhoneans". Diodorus Siculus
(i.46.8) tells us that Hecataeus visited Thebes
in the times of Ptolemy I Soter
, and composed a history of Egypt. Diodorus supplies the comment that many additional Greeks went to and wrote about Egypt in the same period. The Suda
gives him the nickname, 'critic grammarian' and says that he lived in the time of the successors
to Alexander.
No complete works of Hecataeus have survived to our time, and our knowledge of his writing exists only in fragments located in various ancient Greek and Latin authors' works, primarily in Diodorus Siculus
, whose ethnography
of Egypt (Bibliotheca historica
, Book I) represents by far the largest amount. Diodorus mostly paraphrases Hecataeus, thus it is difficult to extract Hecataeus' actual writings (see Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller
's Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum).
Hecataeus wrote the work Aegyptiaca or On the Egyptians (the same title of Manetho
's later work), both suggestions are based on known titles of other ethnographic works, an account of Egypt’s customs, beliefs and geography, and the single largest fragment from this lost work
is held to be Diodorus' account of the Ramesseum
, tomb of Osymandyas (i.47-50).
Diodorus (ii.47.1-2) and Apollonius of Rhodes
tell of another work by Hecataeus, On the Hyperboreans. Additional information on the Hyperboreans can be found in Strabo
and Pliny the Elder
, who might have gotten their information from Hecataeus.
Though no name of a philosophical work by him is known, according to the Suda
, the 10th century Byzantine
encyclopedia, he wrote a treatise on the poetry of Hesiod
and Homer
, but nothing of them has survived. The Suda lists no other work by Hecataeus, also not a historical account of Egypt.
Regarding his authorship of a work on the Jews (utilized by Josephus
in Contra Apionem), it is conjectured that portions of the Aegyptiaca were revised by a Hellenistic Jew from his point of view and published as a special work.
It is also widely held that the Aegyptiaca, edited by Hellenistic Jews and used by Josephus in his work Contra Apionem, is actually the work written by Manetho and not "Hecataeus of Abdera.
See Manetho
and "Judeophobia" by Peter Schafer, Professor of Judaic Studies, Princeton. Published by Harvard University Press.
Abdera, Thrace
Abdera was a city-state on the coast of Thrace 17 km east-northeast of the mouth of the Nestos, and almost opposite Thasos. The site now lies in the Xanthi peripheral unit of modern Greece. The municipality of Abdera, or Ávdira , has 18,573 inhabitants...
(or of Teos
Teos
Teos or Teo was a maritime city of Ionia, on a peninsula between Chytrium and Myonnesus, colonized by Orchomenian Minyans, Ionians, and Boeotians. The city is situated on a low hilly narrow strip of land connecting two larger areas of land . Teos ranked among twelve cities comprising the Ionian...
) was a Greek historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and sceptic philosopher who flourished in the 4th century BC.
Biography
Diogenes LaertiusDiogenes Laertius
Diogenes Laertius was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is known about his life, but his surviving Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is one of the principal surviving sources for the history of Greek philosophy.-Life:Nothing is definitively known about his life...
(ix.61) relates that he was a student of Pyrrho
Pyrrho
Pyrrho , a Greek philosopher of classical antiquity, is credited as being the first Skeptic philosopher and the inspiration for the school known as Pyrrhonism, founded by Aenesidemus in the 1st century BC.- Life :Pyrrho was from Elis, on the Ionian Sea...
, along with Eurylochus
Eurylochus
In Greek mythology, Eurylochus, or Eurýlokhos appears in Homer's Odyssey as second-in-command of Odysseus' ship during the return to Ithaca after the Trojan War. He was also a relative of Odysseus through marriage...
, Timon the Phliasian
Timon (philosopher)
Timon of Phlius was a Greek skeptic philosopher, a pupil of Pyrrho, and a celebrated writer of satirical poems called Silloi . He was born in Phlius, moved to Megara, and then he returned home and married. He next went to Elis with his wife, and heard Pyrrho, whose tenets he adopted...
, Nausiphanes
Nausiphanes
Nausiphanes , a native of Teos, was attached to the philosophy of Democritus, and was a pupil of Pyrrho. He had a large number of pupils, and was particularly famous as a rhetorician. Epicurus was at one time one of his hearers, but was unsatisfied with him, and apparently abused him in his writings...
of Teos and others, and includes him among the "Pyrrhoneans". Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
(i.46.8) tells us that Hecataeus visited Thebes
Thebes, Egypt
Thebes is the Greek name for a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile within the modern city of Luxor. The Theban Necropolis is situated nearby on the west bank of the Nile.-History:...
in the times of Ptolemy I Soter
Ptolemy I Soter
Ptolemy I Soter I , also known as Ptolemy Lagides, c. 367 BC – c. 283 BC, was a Macedonian general under Alexander the Great, who became ruler of Egypt and founder of both the Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Ptolemaic Dynasty...
, and composed a history of Egypt. Diodorus supplies the comment that many additional Greeks went to and wrote about Egypt in the same period. The Suda
Suda
The Suda or Souda is a massive 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Suidas. It is an encyclopedic lexicon, written in Greek, with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often...
gives him the nickname, 'critic grammarian' and says that he lived in the time of the successors
Partition of Triparadisus
The Partition of Triparadisus was a power-sharing agreement passed at Triparadisus in 321 BCE between the generals of Alexander the Great, in which they named a new regent and established the repartition of their satrapies...
to Alexander.
No complete works of Hecataeus have survived to our time, and our knowledge of his writing exists only in fragments located in various ancient Greek and Latin authors' works, primarily in Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
, whose ethnography
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
of Egypt (Bibliotheca historica
Bibliotheca historica
Bibliotheca historica , is a work of universal history by Diodorus Siculus. It consisted of forty books, which were divided into three sections. The first six books are geographical in theme, and describe the history and culture of Egypt , of Mesopotamia, India, Scythia, and Arabia , of North...
, Book I) represents by far the largest amount. Diodorus mostly paraphrases Hecataeus, thus it is difficult to extract Hecataeus' actual writings (see Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller
Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller
Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller is best known for his still-useful Didot editions of fragmentary Greek authors, especially the monumental five-volume Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum , which is not yet completely superseded by the series Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker begun by Felix...
's Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum).
Hecataeus wrote the work Aegyptiaca or On the Egyptians (the same title of Manetho
Manetho
Manetho was an Egyptian historian and priest from Sebennytos who lived during the Ptolemaic era, approximately during the 3rd century BC. Manetho wrote the Aegyptiaca...
's later work), both suggestions are based on known titles of other ethnographic works, an account of Egypt’s customs, beliefs and geography, and the single largest fragment from this lost work
Lost work
A lost work is a document or literary work produced some time in the past of which no surviving copies are known to exist. Works may be lost to history either through the destruction of the original manuscript, or through the non-survival of any copies of the work. Deliberate destruction of works...
is held to be Diodorus' account of the Ramesseum
Ramesseum
The Ramesseum is the memorial temple of Pharaoh Ramesses II . It is located in the Theban necropolis in Upper Egypt, across the River Nile from the modern city of Luxor...
, tomb of Osymandyas (i.47-50).
Diodorus (ii.47.1-2) and Apollonius of Rhodes
Apollonius of Rhodes
Apollonius Rhodius, also known as Apollonius of Rhodes , early 3rd century BCE – after 246 BCE, was a poet, and a librarian at the Library of Alexandria...
tell of another work by Hecataeus, On the Hyperboreans. Additional information on the Hyperboreans can be found in Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
and Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
, who might have gotten their information from Hecataeus.
Though no name of a philosophical work by him is known, according to the Suda
Suda
The Suda or Souda is a massive 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Suidas. It is an encyclopedic lexicon, written in Greek, with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often...
, the 10th century Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
encyclopedia, he wrote a treatise on the poetry of Hesiod
Hesiod
Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
and Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
, but nothing of them has survived. The Suda lists no other work by Hecataeus, also not a historical account of Egypt.
Regarding his authorship of a work on the Jews (utilized by Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...
in Contra Apionem), it is conjectured that portions of the Aegyptiaca were revised by a Hellenistic Jew from his point of view and published as a special work.
It is also widely held that the Aegyptiaca, edited by Hellenistic Jews and used by Josephus in his work Contra Apionem, is actually the work written by Manetho and not "Hecataeus of Abdera.
See Manetho
Manetho
Manetho was an Egyptian historian and priest from Sebennytos who lived during the Ptolemaic era, approximately during the 3rd century BC. Manetho wrote the Aegyptiaca...
and "Judeophobia" by Peter Schafer, Professor of Judaic Studies, Princeton. Published by Harvard University Press.
Sources
- "The Messenger of God in Hecataeus of Abdera", Francis R. Walton, Harvard Theological ReviewHarvard Theological ReviewHarvard Theological Review is a journal of theology, published by Harvard Divinity School. It was founded in 1908.-External links:* * * * at the Internet Archive...
, Vol. 48, #4 (Oct., 1955), p. 255-257. - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, edited by William Smith (1890)