The Exodus from Egypt is one of the most famous stories in the Bible. It is the story of how Moses led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt and led them to the Promised Land. This story involves the Ten Plagues and the Parting of the Red Sea. However, does this dramatic story appear in Greek mythology?
The absence of Israelites in Greek records
A fact which makes this investigation somewhat difficult is that, for a long time, the Greeks do not seem to have been aware of the Israelites as a distinct people. For example, in Herodotus‘ description of the known world, he does not mention them. Rather, he refers to Syria and Palestine.
The reason for this is evidently because a large portion of the coast between Egypt and Syria was Philistia, the land of the Philistines. The Israelites, in contrast, were further inland. Hence, the Philistines were more familiar to the Greeks than were the Israelites.
Notice how Herodotus describes this region:
“These Phoenicians formerly dwelt, as they themselves say, by the Red Sea; they crossed from there and now inhabit the seacoast of Syria. This part of Syria as far as Egypt is all called Palestine.”
From this, we can gather that Herodotus uses the ‘Phoenicians‘ to describe all the inhabitants between Syria and Egypt. This is because the Phoenicians were another prominent nation in that region, north of the Philistines.
Crucially, this means that some ancient Greek references to the ‘Phoenicians’ are likely about the Israelites, just as the Israelites are unnamed but included in this description by Herodotus.
Cadmus and the Proto-Sinaitic script
With this important fact in mind, consider what the Greeks wrote about their own alphabet. Various ancient writers, at least as far back as Herodotus, stated that the Greek alphabet came from the Phoenicians. Cadmus was supposedly a Phoenician prince who brought the alphabet to Greece before the Trojan War.
Modern archaeology has revealed that the origin of the Greek alphabet does lie with the Phoenician script. Now, what does this have to do with the Exodus from Egypt potentially appearing in Greek mythology?
Greek mythological accounts describe Cadmus as the son of Agenor. This Phoenician king allegedly came from Egypt before moving to Phoenicia later in life. Could this story in Greek mythology have something to do with the account of the Exodus?
Archaeology has revealed that the Phoenician script evolved from the Proto-Sinaitic script. This latter script has been found in Egypt, the Sinai Peninsula, and Canaan. It dates to between approximately 1800 to 1500 BC.
Greek mythology and the date of the Exodus
The reason why the aforementioned dates are so interesting is because they tie in closely with when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, according to the Bible. Based on the Bible’s internal chronology, the Exodus occurred towards the end of the sixteenth century BC. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt for over two centuries prior to that time.
Therefore, there is an obvious potential connection between the Biblical narrative of the Exodus and the spread of the Proto-Sinaitic script from Egypt to Canaan.
Since Cadmus, who brought the Phoenician script to the Greeks, is presented in Greek mythology as the son of someone who was originally in Egypt but then left, this could arguably be a faint memory of the spread of the Proto-Sinatic script and hence the movement of the Israelites during the Exodus.
In other words, when Greek mythology describes Agenor as leaving Egypt and going to Phoenicia, this may well be a description of the Exodus of the Bible.
The Exodus and the Danaides in Greek mythology
There is definitely a potential connection between the Exodus and this story from Greek mythology. However, is there any supporting evidence for this? There are indeed at least three pieces of evidence which support this conclusion.
Firstly, at the same time as Agenor’s departure from Egypt, there is the related myth of the Danaides. These were the daughters of Danaus, a brother or another close relative of Agenor. Danaus, like Agenor, was born and raised in Egypt.
His fifty daughters were ordered to marry the fifty sons of Aegyptus, king of the land. However, Danaus and his daughters decided to flee Egypt instead. Later, when Aegyptus and his sons caught up to them, the daughters of Danaus killed Aegyptus’ sons.
This idea of a flight from Egypt, followed by the death of many Egyptians, is very reminiscent of the Exodus. Even the name of Danaus is significant. One of the Twelve Tribes of Israel was the Danites.
One crucial difference is that Danaus was said to have fled to Greece rather than Phoenicia. However, that can be attributable to confusion between the Israelite tribe of Dan and the Greek tribe of Danaans.
Other supporting evidence
A second piece of supporting evidence is the fact that the family of Danaus and Agenor is said to have lived in Egypt for several generations, although their family was not originally native to the country. This is similar to the concept of the Israelites arriving in Egypt several generations prior to the Exodus.
Furthermore, Herodotus specifically says it was the Phoenicians who brought this family to Egypt. As we saw earlier, Herodotus does not distinguish between the Phoenicians and the Israelites.
Finally, there is the fact that one of the kings of Egypt between this family’s arrival in Egypt and the departure of Agenor and Danaus was a certain Epaphus. The name of this king is essentially a perfect match for Apepi, also known as Apophis.
Apepi was a Hyksos king who ruled exactly in the period in which the Israelites were captives in Egypt according to the Bible. This supports the conclusion that these stories in Greek mythology, set shortly after Epaphus’ rule, describe the Exodus.
