Hecataeus of Abdera (Ἑκαταῖος ὁ Ἀβδηρίτης) was a Greek historian and ethnographer of the early Hellenistic period, flourishing circa 320–300 BCE. A native of Abdera in Thrace, he served under Ptolemy I Soter and traveled to Thebes in Egypt to gather material for his writings [1][2]. His career reflects the increased Greek intellectual engagement with foreign cultures following Alexander the Great’s conquests.

His primary work was On the Egyptians (Aegyptiaca), an ethnography of Egypt. He is also credited with a treatise On the Hyperboreans, concerning a mythical northern people, and possibly a work On the Poetry of Homer and Hesiod [1][2]. All his writings are lost, surviving only as fragments and references in later authors, particularly Diodorus Siculus, who likely used Hecataeus’s Egyptian ethnography as a major source [1][2].

Hecataeus is a significant early Hellenistic ethnographer. His On the Egyptians was an important source for later historians and shaped the Greek understanding of Egyptian culture [1][2]. His work represents the genre of “barbarian history” and influenced later Jewish apologetic literature; his account of Jewish customs was used by Josephus [1]. His reliability is debated, as his accounts blend observation with myth [2].

Sources 1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Plato.stanford.edu): https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hecataeus-abdera/ 2. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics (Oxford University Press): https://oxfordre.com/classics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-2957