Intertextuality and Ideology in Pseudo-Hecataeus

What is it about?

The article discusses the fragments of Pseudo-Hecataeus’ work “On the Jews” (Jos. C. Ap. 1.183-205) from a new, literary perspective that highlights the author’s relationship to Hecataeus of Abdera, Clearchus of Soli and Aristeas, and highlights his position within contemporary Jewish culture in the Egyptian Diaspora. Pseudo-Hecataeus demonstrates a strong anti-Hellenization tendency in the questions which are of crucial importance for the native Egyptian Jewry: the adaptation of Greek education and translation of the law into Greek. The article also suggests that a famous discrepancy between Pseudo-Hecataeus and Aristeas in how they depict the origins of the Jewish community in Egypt can be considered as antithetical rewriting by Pseudo-Hecataeus of the story told by Aristeas.

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