In his historical writing "On the Red Sea" Agatharchidus of Cnidus describes (chapters 31-48) the Ichthyophagi, a coastal hunter-gatherer community on the African coast of the Red Sea. They share their name with some tribes of fishermen on the Nile (Herodotus) or on the Gedrosian, Carmanian, and Babylonian coasts of the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean (Nearchus), however, the description of the Ichthyophagi from Trogloditike by Agatharchides is very specific and totally different from Herodotean or Nearchian. This Red Sea coast-dwellers are presented in his "On the Red Sea" as a tribe living the simplest life. No tools, no unnecessary needs, no funerary ceremonies, no idea of fear of being threatened. The Ichthyophagi are described as an apathetic, passionless primitive population on the edge of human beings and animals. The aim of this paper is to consider the origin and shape of Agatharchides' image of the Ichthyophagi on the basis of archaeological sources, ethnological theories, and philosophical and artistic conventions of Hellenistic literature.

Ichthyophagi on the African coast of the Red Sea - paleolithic relict hunter-gatherers population or example of Hellenistic literary convention