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Egypt and Hermes · Turin King List; Manetho

Gods and demigods ruled Egypt first

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ReferenceTurin King List; Manetho
WrittenTurin list c. 1250 BCE; Manetho c. 280 BCE
SetBefore the first pharaoh
Before Menes, the lists give dynasties of gods, then demigods, then 'spirits of the dead', with reigns of thousands of years. Manetho's total runs to tens of thousands of years.

Summary by the editors. Translation: Summary (Cory 1832 has Manetho) · About the translator

Read it literally

Same pattern as the Sumerian King List: rulers from above, then hybrids, then humans.

What scholars say

Manetho was an Egyptian priest writing in Greek, like Berossus.

From the sky Strange time Giants and hybrids
People and places hereMenes

Quick answers about Turin King List

Where is Turin King List found?

Turin King List; Manetho (Egypt and Hermes). Translation quoted: I. P. Cory, Ancient Fragments (1832; 1876 ed.).

When was Turin King List written?

Turin list c. 1250 BCE; Manetho c. 280 BCE.

What do scholars say about Turin King List?

Manetho was an Egyptian priest writing in Greek, like Berossus.

Rabbit holes in this passage

PersonBerossusBefore the Flood, ten kings ruled for 432,000 years, according to a Babylonian priest who wrote in Greek around 290 BCE. His flood hero was also ordered to bury written records of all things at Sippar and dig them up afterward; the book itself is lost. So how do we know any of this?PersonManethoEvery Egyptology textbook divides the pharaohs into thirty dynasties, and that scheme comes from a book nobody has read in full for well over a thousand years. Manetho, an Egyptian priest writing in Greek around 280 BCE, began with ages of gods and demigods. How do scholars rebuild a lost book from scraps?TextSumerian King ListThe first eight kings in this cuneiform list reign for a combined 241,200 years, and one is credited with 43,200 years alone; kingship, it says, "descended from heaven" at Eridu, and later "the flood swept over." Historians read the numbers as symbols and the list as propaganda. Propaganda for whom?

Sources

  1. I. P. Cory, Ancient Fragments (1832; 1876 ed.)Primary text
  2. Berossus, fragments via Alexander Polyhistor, in I. P. Cory, Ancient Fragments (1832)Primary text
  3. Manetho, Aegyptiaca fragments, trans. W. G. Waddell, Manetho (Loeb Classical Library, 1940)Primary text
  4. The Sumerian King List, trans. Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL t.2.1.1), University of OxfordPrimary text

Scholarly dates are rounded. The wording follows the named public-domain translation.

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