Manetho was an Egyptian priest and historian who lived in the 3rd century BCE, during the early Hellenistic period when Egypt was ruled by the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty. He came from the city of Sebennytos in the Nile Delta and served in the temple of Heliopolis. As a literate member of the priestly class, he was fluent in both Egyptian and Greek, which positioned him to bridge the native traditions and the new Greek-speaking administration. Some scholars believe he was involved in establishing the cult of the god Serapis for the Ptolemaic rulers, though the exact nature of his role is uncertain.

His major work, known as the Aegyptiaca or History of Egypt, was written in Greek. This history organized the reigns of Egyptian pharaohs into a sequence of thirty dynasties, mixing king lists with brief narratives. The original text is lost and survives only through fragments quoted by later historians, such as Josephus and early Christian chronographers.

Manetho’s work is historically significant because he created the foundational structure for Egyptian chronology. According to modern scholars, his division of rulers into dynasties provided the basic framework that Egyptologists still use today, with modifications. His Aegyptiaca represented an important synthesis of Egyptian temple records and king lists for a Greek audience, and the preserved fragments remain crucial sources for understanding ancient Egyptian history and its connection to other historical traditions.