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Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt) and the Sacred Book

Αἰγυπτιακά

Known · Probablein Alexandria?Conjecturedvery likely class

I · The entry, in his form

In the table of History

Conjecturedvery likely class

fl. c. 280 BCE. An Egyptian priest of Sebennytos in the Delta who wrote the Aegyptiaca, the history of Egypt in Greek whose thirty dynasties are still used. Plutarch makes him an adviser on the cult of Sarapis.

Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt) and the Sacred Book

Αἰγυπτιακά

Opening words not preserved.

Length: not counted

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives in fragments

Survives in excerpts and epitomes in Josephus, Julius Africanus, Eusebius and George Syncellus. The 'Book of Sothis' under his name is spurious.

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Probable

Written in Alexandria.

In the cupboard: written at Alexandria by a scholar or court writer a source places there.

Read it today

Waddell, Manetho (with Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos) (public-domain Loeb scan, PDF) · a translation · link checked 31 Oct 2026
Josephus, Against Apion 1.73-105 (Manetho on the Hyksos) · original and translation · link checked 31 Oct 2026

III · In the show

Greek-Egyptian Synthesis & Hellenistic Context, episode 21, at 47 minutes 18 secondsTranscriptGreek-Egyptian synthesis: Heka and Hecate, Greek habits of equating gods, and the seafaring curiosity the speaker sets against talk of 'appropriation'.Known: attested
Egypt, Greece & the Birth of Hermeticism, episode 21, at 1 hour 3 minutes 12 secondsTranscriptEgypt, Greece and the birth of Hermeticism under Greek rule.Known: attested
Egyptian mysteries, Mithraism, and Zosimos, episode 4, at 37 minutes 34 secondsTranscriptRoman Egypt after the Ptolemies, set against the older Egyptian mysteries.Known: attested

+ 9 more

Hermes Trismegistus: Historical vs Mythic Figure, episode 21, at 46 minutes 35 secondsTranscript“the combination of Thoth and Hermes and this um thrice magnified, thrice greatest um epitet and it happens when Hellenism uh comes after the Alexandrian conquest”The Ptolemaic dating is right in outline: a Demotic triple 'great' for Thoth is attested in the 2nd century BCE (the archive of Hor of Sebennytos).Known: attested
Egyptian mysteries, Mithraism, and Zosimos, episode 4, at 38 minutes 8 secondsTranscript“He conquered the Persians and by extension took Egypt.”Arrian, Anabasis 3.1.1–2: the Persian satrap Mazaces surrendered Egypt without a fight.Known: attested
Hellenistic Roots of Western Esotericism, episode 24, at 1 hour 4 minutes 40 secondsTranscript“they take over the TMIC dynasty” (intended: Ptolemies)'TMIC' is the caption's rendering of 'Ptolemaic'. The speaker is citing Chris Brennan's Hellenistic Astrology (2017) on the period's limits.Known: attested
Greek New Testament and Aramaic context, episode 1, at 3 minutes 51 secondsTranscript“it was a product of this Hellenistic syncretism in Alexandria primarily right after Alexander the Great and under Roman rule”Known: attested
Correction
What was said
Coptic and the Greek of the New Testament were a product of Hellenistic syncretism in Alexandria.
What the sources say
Coptic, Egyptian written in Greek letters, becomes a literary language from the 3rd century CE; no New Testament book is known to have been written in Alexandria.
Path: Foundations of Hermeticism, station 1Meet Thrice-Greatest Hermes. The fusion of Thoth and Hermes placed in 'the Hellenistic Egypt that followed Alexander's conquest'.Known: attested
Hermeticism · Chronology: Thoth becomes Hermes Trismegistus'In Greek-speaking Egypt the scribe-god Thoth is assimilated to Hermes.'Known: attested
Astrology · Chronology: The Hellenistic synthesis'In Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt the Babylonian zodiac meets Egyptian decans and Greek geometry.'Known: attested
Alchemy · Chronology: Greco-Egyptian foundationsGreco-Egyptian foundations: metallurgy, dyeing, temple symbolism.Known: attested
Symbolism · Chronology: Horapollo's HieroglyphicaHorapollo's Hieroglyphica 'preserves real, if late and garbled, knowledge of Ptolemaic temple signs'. Horapollo the grammarian taught in Alexandria in the later 5th century.Known: attested

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references (3)

Josephus, Against Apion 1.73-105, 227-287
Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris 28
George Syncellus, Chronography

Modern scholarship (3)

W. G. Waddell (ed. and trans.), Manetho, Loeb Classical Library 350 (Cambridge, MA, 1940) (opens in a new tab)
G. P. Verbrugghe and J. M. Wickersham, Berossos and Manetho, Introduced and Translated (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996).
J. Dillery, Clio's Other Sons: Berossus and Manetho (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2015).

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

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