Who was Manetho?

Manetho was one of the earliest historians and philosophers of the world. He is thought to have existed around 3rd century BC (about 2400 years ago) in an Egypt ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty (a couple of centuries before Cleopatra’s time.)

What were Manetho’s Achievements?

He authored the book Aegiptiaca or the History of Egypt, which is famed for the chronological list of Kings who ruled Egypt before his time. Thus, he is among the first chroniclers of history in the world. The fact that he organized the rule of the previous kings (spanning more than 2500 years) into dynasties – something that was a sort of invention in those times, would make Manetho a highly organized and intelligent man. From some later writings it can be surmised that he was also an important priest.

Manetho wrote extensively about Egypt and its Pharaohs but most of his work was done in Greek, so it may be safely assumed that he was (at least) bilingual.

How did his work Impact the World?

What the historians know perfectly well is that without his list, they would have found it a lot more difficult to put the history of Egypt in order. Before Manetho, the knowledge about the Egyptian bloodlines and its evolution as a society was either verbal or pictorially depicted on the walls of several different temples. He developed a nomenclature as well as a timeline for the Egyptian Kingdoms from scratch (BL5.)

Our Learning:

As we charge into the future, it’s important to remember the knowledge-giants who placed the first stones to construct the path that we walk today. We must also remember that these men and women were multi-talented. This is also indicative of the human ability to learn almost anything, once they put themselves to the task of learning.