Ancient Egypt seems to us an absolutely amazing world, powdered with the dust of centuries and the sands of the Sahara. Meanwhile, for people who lived in the period of "ancient" Egypt, he too was already ancient, especially for those who were born in the era of the so-called New Kingdom. After all, there is a thousand years between the Old and New kingdoms!
Even the Middle and Old Kingdoms are more than 500 years apart. And what happened there, in the Old Kingdom covered with darkness, the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom would hardly tell you. For them, it was also a distant and almost legendary time.
And the people of the Old Kingdom, in turn, would have found it difficult to tell what happened before the pharaoh Menes united the red and white crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, and whether this pharaoh existed at all. Because between them and Menes himself lay a gulf of five centuries, and before him there are at least two thousand more years of their culture …
Time of Manetho
Such an extreme antiquity of the Egyptian civilization is a huge problem for historians, both for modern and for those who lived before our era. Even for them, whose time today is also considered ancient, a fair part of history has already disappeared into darkness.
The priest Manetho from the city of Heliopolis is one such. His time is Ptolemaic Egypt, approximately 323-222 BC. e. He wrote in the purest Greek language, since the political situation and times obliged it, but about the history of the native Egyptian civilization.
His main work, the three-volume "Egyptica", is considered the only known complete and truly historical treatise on the history of Egypt. It was Manetho who divided Egyptian history into the Ancient, Middle and New kingdoms and marked the boundaries of the rule of the dynasties. We still use this slightly modified and tweaked division.
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Let's start with the gods
However, in his historical research, Manetho was, to put it mildly, not very convincing, and therefore his chronology went far beyond the historical period recognized by modern scientists. The famous list of Egyptian kings from Manetho provokes irritation and malevolent skepticism from current researchers, and even baffles them.
Still would! Manetho begins the history of the rulers of Egypt with the gods, or rather, with Hephaestus, the first god and man. His descendants, also gods, became his heirs - Helios, Cronus and the brothers Osiris and Typhon. Horus succeeded them, and after Horus the era of demigods and spirits begins.
This is how Manetho describes that unimaginably distant era: “The first man [or God] in Egypt is Hephaestus, who is also known to the Egyptians as the discoverer of fire. The heir to his son Helios [the Sun] was Sosis, then in turn Kronos, Osiris, Typhon, brother of Osiris, and finally Horus, son of Osiris and Isis. They were the first rulers of Egypt. After that, the royal power passed from one to another, without interruption, up to Bidis for 13,900 years. Then for 1255 years the gods and demigods ruled, and again for 1817 years another royal family gained power in the country. Then another thirty Memphis kings ruled for 1790 years, and after them 10 more kings - for 350 years. Then came the reign of the "spirits of the dead", which lasted 5813 years."
The legendary, but still recognized by modern researchers, Pharaoh Menes, who united around 3000 BC. e. Upper and Lower Egypt into a single state, became the first in a series of its truly earthly rulers. He founded Dynasty I, which lasted for 150 years.
It is clear that modern researchers are annoyed by the fact that the real history of Egypt begins too suddenly - from demigods directly to a real person, that the historical person closes the absolutely fantastic list.
And, of course, the question of where and why the divine personalities disappeared from Egypt cannot but arise. Manetho has no answer to it.
Author: Marina Sitnikova