In
Egyptian mythologyAncient Egyptian religion encompasses the various religious beliefs and rituals practiced in ancient Egypt over more than 3,000 years, from the predynastic period until the adoption of Christianity in the early centuries AD...
,
Apis or
Hapis (alternatively spelt
Hapi-ankh), was a bull-deity worshipped in the
MemphisMemphis was the ancient capital of the first nome of Lower Egypt, and of the Old Kingdom of Egypt from its foundation until around 2200 BC and later for shorter periods during the New Kingdom, and an administrative centre throughout ancient history....
region.
According to
ManethoManetho was an Egyptian historian and priest from Sebennytos who lived during the Ptolemaic era, ca. 3rd century BC. Manetho wrote the Aegyptiaca...
, his worship was instituted by Kaiechos of the
Second DynastyThe Second Dynasty of ancient Egypt is often combined with the First dynasty under the group title, Early Dynastic Period of Egypt. The capital at that time was Thinis.-Rulers:...
. Hape (Apis) is named on very early monuments, but little is known of the divine animal before the
New KingdomThe New Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt. The New Kingdom followed the Second Intermediate Period and was...
. Ceremonial burials of bulls indicate that ritual sacrifice was part of the worship of the early cow deities and a bull might represent a king who became a deity after death. He was entitled "the renewal of the life" of the Memphite god
PtahIn Egyptian mythology, Ptah was the deification of the primordial mound in the Ennead cosmogony, which was more literally referred to as Ta-tenen , meaning risen land, or as Tanen, meaning submerged land, though Tatenen was a god in his own right before being assimilated with Ptah...
: but after death he became Osorapis, i.e. the
OsirisOsiris was an Egyptian god, usually called the god of the Afterlife, underworld or dead.Osiris is one of the oldest gods for whom records have been found; one of the oldest known attestations...
Apis, just as dead humans were assimilated to Osiris, the king of the underworld. This Osorapis was identified with the Hellenistic
SerapisSerapis was a syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god in Antiquity. His most renowned temple was the Serapeum of Alexandria. Under Ptolemy Soter, efforts were made to integrate Egyptian religion with that of their Hellenic rulers...
, and may well be identical with him.
GreekAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
writers make the Apis an incarnation of Osiris, ignoring the connection with Ptah.
Apis was the most important of all the sacred animals in Egypt, and, as with the others, its importance increased as time went on. Greek and Roman authors have much to say about Apis, the marks by which the black bull-calf was recognized, the manner of his conception by a
raySunlight, in the broad sense, is the total spectrum of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the atmosphere, and the solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon. Near the poles in summer, the days are longer and the...
from heaven, his house at Memphis with court for disporting himself, the mode of prognostication from his actions, the mourning at his death, his costly burial, and the rejoicings throughout the country when a new Apis was found.
MarietteFrançois Auguste Ferdinand Mariette was a French scholar, archaeologist and Egyptologist, the founder of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.-Early career:...
's excavation of the
SerapeumA Serapeum is a temple or other religious institution dedicated to the syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god Serapis, who combined aspects of Osiris and Apis in a humanized form that was palatable to the Ptolemaic Greeks of Alexandria...
at Memphis revealed the tombs of over sixty animals, ranging from the time of Amenophis III to that of
Ptolemy AlexanderThe Ptolemaic dynasty was a Greek royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt during the Hellenistic period...
. At first each animal was buried in a separate tomb with a chapel built above it.
KhamuisPrince Khaemweset was the fourth son of Ramesses II, and the second son by his queen Isetnofret. He is by far the best known son of the king, and his contributions to Egyptian society were remembered for centuries after his death...
, the priestly son of
Ramesses IIRamesses II was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty...
(c. 1300 B.C.), excavated a great gallery to be lined with the tomb chambers; another similar gallery was added by
Psammetichus IPsamtik I , was the first of three kings of the Saite, or Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt. His prenomen, Wahibre, means "Constant is the Heart of Re." The story in Herodotus of the Dodecarchy and the rise of Psamtik is fanciful...
. The careful statement of the ages of the animals in the later instances, with the regnal dates for their birth, enthronization, and death have thrown much light on the chronology from the
Twenty-second dynastyThe Twenty-First, Twenty-Second, Twenty-Third, Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Third Intermediate Period.-Rulers:...
onwards. The name of the mother-cow and the place of birth often are recorded. The
sarcophagiA sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos the word came to refer...
are of immense size, and the burial must have entailed enormous expense. It is therefore remarkable that the priests contrived to bury one of the animals in the fourth year of
CambysesCambyses can refer to two ancient rulers and a play:-*Cambyses of Anshan r. 600 to 559 BCE*Cambyses of Persia r. 530 to 522 BCE*Cambyses, a tragedy by Thomas Preston...
.
The Herald of Ptah
The cult of the Apis bull started at the very beginning of
Egyptian historyEgyptian history can be roughly divided into the following periods:*Prehistoric Egypt*Ancient Egypt**Early Dynastic Period of Egypt: 31st to 27th centuries BC**Old Kingdom of Egypt: 27th to 22nd centuries BC...
, probably as a fertility god connected to grain and the herds. In a funerary context, the Apis was a protector of the deceased, and linked to the pharaoh. This animal was chosen because it symbolized the king’s courageous heart, great strength, virility, and fighting spirit. The Apis bull was considered to be a manifestation of the pharaoh, as bulls were symbols of strength and fertility, qualities which are closely linked with kingship ("strong bull of his mother
HathorHathor , , was an Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of feminine love, motherhood and joy. She was one of the most important and popular deities throughout the history of Ancient Egypt...
" was a common title for gods and pharaohs).
Occasionally, the Apis bull was pictured with her sun-disk between his horns, being one of few deities associated with her symbol. When the disk was depicted on his head with his horns below and the triangle on his forehead, an
ankhThe ankh was the Egyptian hieroglyphic character that read "eternal life", a triliteral sign for the consonants ˁ-n-ḫ...
was suggested. It also is a symbol closely associated with his mother. The Apis bull is unique as he is the only Egyptian deity represented solely as an animal, and never as a human with an animal's head—perhaps, because from the earliest of Egyptian religious practices, they were animals sacrificed to the cow goddess and represented the resurrected, renewal of life (
HapyHapi was a deification of the annual flooding of the Nile River, in Egyptian mythology, which deposited rich silt on its banks, allowing the Egyptians to grow crops. When pairing of deities began to occur in the Egyptian pantheon, occasionally a token wife, named Meret , was given to him...
and later
OsirisOsiris was an Egyptian god, usually called the god of the Afterlife, underworld or dead.Osiris is one of the oldest gods for whom records have been found; one of the oldest known attestations...
).
Apis was originally the Herald (wHm) of
PtahIn Egyptian mythology, Ptah was the deification of the primordial mound in the Ennead cosmogony, which was more literally referred to as Ta-tenen , meaning risen land, or as Tanen, meaning submerged land, though Tatenen was a god in his own right before being assimilated with Ptah...
, the chief god in the area around
MemphisMemphis was the ancient capital of the first nome of Lower Egypt, and of the Old Kingdom of Egypt from its foundation until around 2200 BC and later for shorter periods during the New Kingdom, and an administrative centre throughout ancient history....
. As a manifestation of Ptah, Apis also was considered to be a symbol of the pharaoh, embodying the qualities of kingship.
The bovines in the region in which Ptah was worshipped exhibited white patterning on their mainly black bodies, and so a belief grew up that the Apis bull had to have a certain set of markings suitable to its role. It was required to have a white
triangleA triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted ....
upon its forehead, a white
vultureTh Egyptian Vulture is a small Old World vulture, found from southwestern Europe and northern Africa to southern Asia. It is the only living member of the genus Neophron. In Southern Asia this species is called the Scavenger Vulture.-Taxonomy:There are three recognised subspecies of the Egyptian...
wing outline on its back, a
scarabScarab beetle may refer to: *A beetle of the family Scarabaeidae*A dung beetle, especially the Scarabaeus sacer worshipped by the ancient Egyptians as an embodiment of the god Khepri Scarab may refer to:* Scarab artifacts of Ancient Egypt.* Scarab , a Formula One race...
mark under its tongue, a white
crescent moonThe Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is , about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system is located at about —a quarter the Earth's...
shape on its right flank, and double hairs on its tail.
The bull which matched these markings was selected from the herd, brought to a temple, given a
haremHarem refers to the sphere of women in a usually polygynous household and their quarters which is enclosed and forbidden to men...
of cows, and worshipped as an aspect of Ptah. His mother was believed to have been conceived by a flash of
lightningLightning is an atmospheric discharge of electricity accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
from the heavens, or from
moonbeamMoonlight is the light that comes to Earth from the Moon. This light does not originate from the Moon, but is actually reflected sunlight. In many legends and fantasy games, moonlight is an important part of magical processes .- Illumination :The intensity of moonlight varies greatly depending on...
s, and also was treated specially. At the temple, Apis was used as an
oracleAn oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion. It may also be a revealed prediction or precognition of the future, from deities, that is spoken through another object or life-form ....
, his movements being interpreted as prophecies. His breath was believed to cure disease, and his presence to bless those around with virility. He was given a window in the temple through which he could be seen, and on certain holidays was led through the streets of the city, bedecked with jewelry and flowers.
Ka of Osiris
When Osiris absorbed the identity of Ptah, becoming
Ptah-Seker-Osiris, the Apis bull became considered an aspect of Osiris rather than Ptah. Since Osiris was lord of the dead, the Apis then became known as the
living deceased one. As he now represented Osiris, when the Apis bull reached the age of twenty-eight, the age when Osiris was said to have been killed by
SetIn Ancient Egyptian mythology, Set is an ancient god, who was originally the god of the desert, Storms, Darkness, and Chaos...
, symbolic of the
lunar monthIn lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two identical syzygies . There are many variations. In Middle-Eastern and European traditions, the month starts when the young crescent moon becomes first visible at evening after conjunction with the Sun 1 or 2 days before that evening...
, and the
new moonIn astronomical terminology, the phrase new moon is the lunar phase that occurs when the Moon, in its monthly orbital motion around Earth, lies between Earth and the Sun, and is therefore in conjunction with the Sun as seen from Earth...
, the bull was put to death with a great sacrificial ceremony.
There is evidence that parts of the body of the Apis bull were eaten by the pharaoh and the priests to absorb the Apis's great strength. Sometimes the body of the bull was
mummifiedA mummy is a corpse whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness, very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs...
and fixed in a standing position on a foundation made of wooden planks. Bulls' horns embellish some of the tombs of ancient pharaohs, and the Apis bull was often depicted on private coffins as a powerful protector. As a form of Osiris, lord of the dead, it was believed that to be under the protection of the Apis bull would give the person control over the four winds in the afterlife.
By the New Kingdom, the remains of the Apis bulls were interred at the cemetery of
SaqqaraSaqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. Saqqara features numerous pyramids, including the world famous Step Pyramid, as well as a number of mastabas...
. The earliest known burial in Saqqara was performed in the reign of
Amenhotep IIIAmenhotep III was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...
by his son Thutmosis; afterwards, seven more bulls were buried nearby.
Ramesses IIRamesses II was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty...
initiated Apis burials in what is now known as
the SerapeumA Serapeum is a temple or other religious institution dedicated to the syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god Serapis, who combined aspects of Osiris and Apis in a humanized form that was palatable to the Ptolemaic Greeks of Alexandria...
, an underground complex of burial chambers at Saqqara for the sacred bulls, a site used through the rest of Egyptian history into the reign of Cleopatra VII.
The Apis was a god to be venerated for his excellent kindness and for his mercy towards all strangers. Apis was the most popular of the three great bull cults of ancient Egypt (the others being the bulls
MnewerIn late Egyptian mythology, Mnewer was an aspect of the chief god in the region of Heliopolis, Atum-Ra. The origin and meaning of its name is currently unknown.Mnevis was identified as being a living bull...
and
BakhaIn Egyptian mythology, Bakha was the manifestation of the a deification of Ka of the war god Menthu, worshipped in the region of Hermonthis...
.) Unlike the cults of most of the other Egyptian deities, the worship of the Apis bull was continued by the Greeks and after them by the Romans, and lasted until almost 400 A.D.
From bull to man
Under Ptolemy Soter, efforts were made to integrate Egyptian religion with that of their
HellenicHellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BC to about 146 BC ; note, however that Koine Greek language and Hellenistic philosophy and religion are also indisputably elements of the Roman era till Late Antiquity...
rulers. Ptolemy's policy was to find a deity that should win the reverence alike of both groups, despite the curses of the Egyptian priests against the gods of the previous foreign rulers (i.e
SetIn Ancient Egyptian mythology, Set is an ancient god, who was originally the god of the desert, Storms, Darkness, and Chaos...
who was lauded by the
HyksosbfThe Hyksos were an Asiatic people who invaded the eastern Nile Delta, in the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt initiating the Second Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt...
).
AlexanderAlexander III of Macedon, popularly known as Alexander the Great , was an Ancient Greek king of Macedon who created one of the largest empires in ancient history...
had attempted to use
AmunAmun, reconstructed Egyptian Yamānu , was a deity in Egyptian mythology who in the form of Amun-Ra became the focus of the most complex system of theology in Ancient Egypt...
for this purpose, but he was more prominent in
Upper EgyptUpper Egypt is the strip of land, on both sides of the Nile valley, that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan north to the area between El-Ayait and Zawyet Dahshur . The northern section of Upper Egypt, between El-Ayait and Sohag is sometimes known as Middle Egypt...
, which was not so popular with those in
Lower EgyptLower Egypt is the northern-most section of Egypt. It refers to the fertile Nile Delta region, which stretches from the area between El-Aiyat and Zawyet Dahshur, south of modern-day Cairo, and the Mediterranean Sea....
, where the Greeks had stronger influence. Nevertheless, the Greeks had little respect for animal-headed figures, and so a Greek statue was chosen as the idol, and proclaimed as anthropomorphic equivalent of the highly popular Apis. It was named
Aser-hapi (i.e.
Osiris-Apis), which became
Serapis, and was said to be Osiris in full, rather than just his Ka.
The earliest mention of a
Serapis is in the authentic death scene of Alexander, from the royal diaries (
ArrianLucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Roman historian , a public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the Roman period...
,
Anabasis, VII. 26). Here,
Serapis has a temple at
BabylonBabylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
, and is of such importance that he alone is named as being consulted on behalf of the dying king. His presence in Babylon would radically alter perceptions of the mythologies of this era, though fortunately, it has been discovered that the unconnected Bablyonian god
EaEnki was a god in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Akkadian and Babylonian mythology. He was originally patron god of the city of Eridu, but later the influence of his cult spread throughout Mesopotamia and to the Hittites and Hurrians...
was titled
Serapsi, meaning
king of the deep, and it is this Serapsi which is referred to in the diaries. The significance of this
Serapsi in the Hellenic psyche, due to its involvement in Alexander's death, may have also contributed to the choice of
Osiris-Apis as the chief ptolomeic god.
According to
PlutarchPlutarch, born Plutarchos then, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 – 120, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
, Ptolemy stole the statue from
SinopeSinope can refer to:*Sinop, Turkey, a city on the Black Sea, historically known as Sinope*Sinope , in Greek mythology, daughter of Asopus and eponym of Sinop*Sinope , a moon of the planet Jupiter*Sinope Gospels...
, having been instructed in a dream by the
unknown godIn addition to the twelve main gods and the innumerable lesser deities, ancient Greeks worshiped a deity they called Agnostos Theos, that is: the Unknown god. In Athens, there was a temple specifically dedicated to that god and very often Athenians would swear "in the name of the Unknown god"...
, to bring the statue to
AlexandriaAlexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports...
, where the statue was pronounced to be Serapis by two religious experts. One of the experts was the one of the Eumolpidae, the ancient family from whose members the
hierophantA hierophant is a person who brings religious congregants into the presence of that which is deemed holy. The word comes from Ancient Greece, where it was constructed from the combination of ta hiera, "the holy," and phainein, "to show." In Attica it was the title of the chief priest at the...
of the
Eleusinian MysteriesThe Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance. These myths and mysteries, begun in the Mycenean...
had been chosen since before history, and the other was the scholarly Egyptian priest Manetho, which gave weight to the judgement both for the
EgyptiansEgyptians is the name of the nationality and Mediterranean North African ethnic group native to Egypt....
and the Greeks.
Plutarch may not however be correct, as some Egyptologists allege that the
Sinope in the tale is really the hill of Sinopeion, a name given to the site of the already existing Serapeum at Memphis. Also, according to Tacitus, Serapis (i.e. Apis explicitly identified as Osiris in full) had been the god of the village of Rhacotis, before it suddenly expanded into the great capital of Alexandria.
The statue suitably depicted a figure resembling
HadesHades refers both to the ancient Greek underworld, the abode of Hades, and to the god of the underworld. Hades in Homer referred just to the god; the genitive , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades"...
or Pluto, both being kings of the Greek
underworldIn the study of mythology and religion, the underworld is a generic term approximately equivalent to the lay term afterlife, referring to any place to which newly dead souls go. In most cultures the term refers to a neutral or dystopic realm of the afterlife, instead of a heavenly or paradisiac one...
, and was shown enthroned with the
modius, which is a basket/grain-measure, on his head, since it was a Greek
symbolA symbol is something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention. For example, a red octagon may stand for "STOP". On maps, crossed sabres may indicate a battlefield...
for the land of the dead. He also held a
sceptreA sceptre or scepter is a symbolic ornamental staff held by a ruling monarch, a prominent item of royal regalia. While some sceptres resemble a mace, their use is quite different.-Antiquity:...
in his hand indicating his rulership, with
CerberusCerberus, in Greek and Roman mythology, is a multi-headed hound which guards the gates of Hades, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping...
, gatekeeper of the underworld, resting at his feet, and it also had what appeared to be a
serpentSerpent is a word of Latin origin that is commonly used in a specifically mythic or religious context, signifying a snake that is to be regarded not as a mundane natural phenomenon nor as an object of scientific zoology, but as the bearer of some potent symbolic value.-Cross-cultural symbolic...
at its base, fitting the Egyptian symbol of rulership, the
uraeusThe Uraeus is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian spitting cobra , used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity, and divine authority in ancient Egypt.The Uraeus is a symbol for the goddess Wadjet, one of the earliest of Egyptian deities, who often was...
.
With his (i.e. Osiris') wife,
IsisIsis was a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshiped as the ideal mother, wife, patron of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans, the downtrodden, as well as listening to the prayers of the...
, and their son (at this point in history)
HorusHorus is one of the oldest and most significant of the deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horuses are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists...
(in the form of
Harpocrates), Serapis won an important place in the Greek world, reaching
Ancient RomeAncient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, with
AnubisAnubis is the Greek name for a jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in Egyptian mythology. In the ancient Egyptian language, Anubis is known as Inpu, . The oldest known mention of Anubis is in the Old Kingdom pyramid texts, where he is associated with the burial of the...
being identified as Cerberus. The cult survived until 385 AD, when Christians destroyed the Serapeum of Alexandria, and subsequently the cult was forbidden by the Theodosian decree.
See also
- Serapis
Serapis was a syncretic Hellenistic-Egyptian god in Antiquity. His most renowned temple was the Serapeum of Alexandria. Under Ptolemy Soter, efforts were made to integrate Egyptian religion with that of their Hellenic rulers...
- Ankh
The ankh was the Egyptian hieroglyphic character that read "eternal life", a triliteral sign for the consonants ˁ-n-ḫ...
- Bukhis
- Bull (mythology)
Appearances of the Bull in mythology and worship are widespread in the ancient world. It is the subject of various cultural and religious incarnations, as well as modern mentions in new age cultures.- Paleolithic findings :...
- Golden Calf
According to the Hebrew Bible, the golden calf was an idol made by Aaron to satisfy the Israelites during Moses' absence, when he went up to Mount Sinai. The Quran indentifies the maker as Samiri....
- Hathor
Hathor , , was an Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of feminine love, motherhood and joy. She was one of the most important and popular deities throughout the history of Ancient Egypt...
- Mnewer
In late Egyptian mythology, Mnewer was an aspect of the chief god in the region of Heliopolis, Atum-Ra. The origin and meaning of its name is currently unknown.Mnevis was identified as being a living bull...
- Nandi
- Narmer Palette
The Narmer Palette, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archeological find, dating from about the 31st century BC, containing some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found. It is thought by some to depict the unification of...
External links