Hecataeus of Abdera explained

Hecataeus of Abdera should not be confused with Hecataeus of Miletus.

Hecataeus of Abdera (el|Ἑκαταῖος ὁ Ἀβδηρίτης; 360 BC  - c. 290 BC) was an ancient Greek historian and ethnographer. None of his works survive; his writings are attested by later authors in various literary fragmentsin particular his Aegypticaa work on the society and culture of the Egyptiansand On the Hyperboreans. He is one of the authors (FGrHist 264) whose fragments were collected in Felix Jacoby's Fragmente der griechischen Historiker.^[1]

Historian John Dillery called Hecataeus "a figure of extraordinary importance for the study of Greek and non-Greek [cultures] in the Hellenistic period."

Life

Hecataeus was generally associated with Abdera (Gr: Ἄβδηρα)a Greek colony on the coast of Thrace near the mouth of the Néstos River.

Diodorus Siculus (fl. 1st century BCE) wrote that Hecataeus visited Thebes in the times of Ptolemy I Soter (r. 305 – 282 BCE) and composed a history of Egypt. Diodorus comments that many additional Greeks went to and wrote about Egypt in the same period.^[2] The 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia the Suda gives him the honorific title "critic grammarian" and says that he lived in the time of the successors to Alexander.^[3] According to 3rd-century CE philosopher Diogenes LaertiusHecataeus was a student of the skeptic Pyrrho (c. 360 – 270 BCE).^[4]

Works

No complete works of Hecataeus have survivedand knowledge of his writing exists only in passages (called "fragments") from works by other ancient writersmost of which concern religion. Eight fragments survive from his book about the Hyperboreansthe mythical people of the far north. Six fragments survive from his Aegyptiaca and regard Egyptian philosophypriestsgodssanctuariesMosesand wine; they also mention the 4th century BCE Greek philosopher Clearchus of Soli and the school of gymnosophists.^[5] Hecataeus wrote the work Aegyptiaca^[6] (320 – 305 BCE)^[7] or On the Egyptians.^[8] Both suggestions are based on known titles of other ethnographic works which contain an account of Egypt's customsreligious beliefs and geography. The single largest fragment from this lost work is held to be Diodorus' account of the Ramesseumthe tomb of Ramesses IIwho is often referred to by the Greek rendition of his nameOzymandias (i.47-50). According to Montanariin Hecataeus's writingEgypt is "strongly idealised" and depicted as a country "exemplary in its customs and political institutions".^[9] Hecataeus' excursus on the Jews in Aegyptiaca was the first mention of them in ancient Greek literature. It was subsequently paraphrased in Diodorus Siculus 40.3.8.

Diodorus Siculus' ethnography of Egypt (Bibliotheca historica, Book I) represents by far the largest number of fragments. Diodorus mostly paraphrases Hecataeusthus it is difficult to extract Hecataeus's actual writings (as in Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller's Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum). Diodorus (ii.47.1-2) and Apollonius of Rhodes tell of another work by HecataeusOn the Hyperboreans.^[10] The early Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215 CE) (Stromata 5.113) cites a work by Hecataeus entitled "On Abraham and the Egyptians". According to ClementHecataeus was his source of verses from Sophocles that praise monotheism and condemn idolatry.^[11] The main fragment explicitly attributed to Hecataeus in Jewish and Christian literature is found in Josephus (Apion 1.175 - 205)who argues in this fragment that learned Greeks (including Aristotle) admired the Jews. The work is considered spurious in the Oxford Classical Dictionary,^[12] andaccording to Brill's New Paulyits author was probably a Hellenised Jew.^[13]

According to the 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia the SudaHecataeus wrote a treatise on Homer and Hesiodentitled On the Poetry of Homer and Hesiod (GreekAncient (to 1453);: Περὶ τῆς ποιήσεως Ὁμήρου καὶ Ἡσιόδου).^[14] Nothing of this work surviveshoweverand it is mentioned by no other ancient source.^[15]

References

Bibliography

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Further reading

• LemserMarie (2025). Beobachtenbeschreibenvergleichen. Ethnographische Praktiken griechischer Autoren von den Alexanderzügen bis ins zweite vorchristliche Jahrhundert [Observedescribecompare. Ethnographic practices of Greek authors from Alexander's campaigns to the second century BC]. Geographica Historicavol. 47. Stuttgart: Steiner,on Hecataeus pp. 103–149.
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External links

• Greek text of Hecataeus' fragments in German: [[Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker]]

Notes and References

1. Jacoby's work has been updated by Brill's New Jacoby; see .
2. [Diodorus Siculus]
3. [Klaus Meister]
4. .
5. StonemanRichard. The Greek Experience of India: From Alexander to the Indo-GreeksPrinceton University Press2019p 142
6. Wachsmuth (1895)Trüdinger (1918)Burton (1972)
7. .
8. Jacoby (1943)Murray (1970)Fraser (1972)
9. .
10. Book: Bar-KochvaBezalel . Bezalel Bar-Kochva

    . Pseudo-Hecataeus: "On the Jews" . Bezalel Bar-Kochva . The Structure of an Ethnographical Work . http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft3290051c&chunk.id=d0e8538&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e8019&brand=eschol . 1997 . University of California Press . 9780520268845.

11. R. DoranPseudo-Hecataeus (Second Century B.C.-First Century A.D.). A New Translation and Introductionin James H. Charlesworth (1985)The Old Testament PseudoepigraphaGarden CityNY: Doubleday & Company Inc.Volume 2(Vol. 1)(Vol. 2)p. 906
12. OCD³ p.671
13. Brill's New Paulys.v. Hecataeus (4).
14. Suda ε 359 = BNJF 264 T1; Brill's New Paulys.v. Hecataeus (4).
15. Brill's New Paulys.v. Hecataeus (4).