Intertextuality and Ideology in Pseudo-Hecataeus

Abstract

The article discusses the fragments of Pseudo-Hecataeus’ work “On the Jews” (Josephus, 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 describes 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 an antithetical rewriting by Pseudo-Hecataeus of the story told by Aristeas.