Manētho

, a celebrated priest of Helio polis in Egypt, surnamed the Men desi an, B.C. 261. He wrote in Greek a history of Egypt, which has been often quoted and commended by the ancients, particularly by Joseph us. It was chiefly collected from the writings of Mercury, and from the journals and annals which are preserved in the Egyptian temples. This history has been greatly corrupted by the Greeks. The author supported that all the gods of the Egyptians had been mere mortals, and had all lived upon earth. This history, which is now lost, had been epitomized, and some fragments of it are still extant. There is extant a Greek poem ascribed to Manetho, in which the power of the stars, which preside over the birth and fate of mankind, is explained. The Apo telesm at a of this author were edited in 4to, by Gronovious, Leiden, 1698.