Serapis was an ancient Egyptian god that combined the underworld god Osiris with the Apis Bull, a god associated with fertility, like Osiris. The god was adopted as a patron and heavily Hellenized by the Ptolemaic dynasty to create a patron that was acceptable both to the ancient Egyptian population and the new Greek residents that came with the Macedonians. The god would later become popular with the Roman conquerors.
Osiris
Osiris was the god of the underworld in Egyptian mythology. A member of the Ennead of Heliopolis, he was the first king of Egypt and married his sister Isis. But his jealous brother killed Osiris to steal his kingship. Isis managed to bring Osiris back to life so that she could conceive the god Horus to challenge Seth and reclaim kingship. But Osiris was only restored to a king of half-life, which meant that he could not live in the existing world. Instead, the underworld was created for him, called the Duat.
Osiris became the ruler of the Duat. Others were able to join him there if they copied the rituals that were used to bring Osiris back to life. They would also be judged on their worthiness by a counsel of gods, led by Osiris.
As well as being a god of the dead, he was a fertility god associated with the annual cycle of life, death, and renewal that Egypt experienced with the annual flooding of the Nile.
The Ba of Osiris, an element of his soul, was also sometimes worshipped as a distinct god called Banebdjed. This was the part of the god that lived on beyond him through his seed. Ba was also the word for ram, and a living ram was kept in some temples and worshiped as an incarnation of the god.
Apis Bull
Osiris was also closely connected with the Apis Bull, which was worshipped in the Memphis region before growing to national importance. He was identified as the son of Hathor and included in her worship, being repeatedly sacrificed and reborn. He was also seen as an intermediary between humans and more powerful deities, such as Ptah, Osiris, and Atum.
There was a process for identifying a black bull that was the embodiment of the Apis, that was believed to be conceived by a ray from heaven. His actions could be used to interpret the future. When he died, the bull was mourned, and he enjoyed a costly burial. Then, the search for a new bull would begin.
Excavations at the Serapeum of Saqqara revealed more than 60 bulls buried, dating from the reign of Amenhotep III (14th century BCE) to the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty (1st century BCE).
Serapis
Serapis was called Userhapi (Osiris-Apis) by the Egyptians, which became Serapis in Greek. There is evidence that there was an ancient Serapeum at Memphis, and that he was originally a god of a village called Rhakotis.
As Serapis became popular, he began to usurp the place of Osiris as the consort of Isis and the father of Horus, known as Harpocrates in infant form.
Hellenization
Ptolemy I Soter, the first ruler of the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, dedicated a temple to Serapis in his new capital of Alexandria and made him the patron god of his dynasty. Ptolemy may have chosen Serapis based on a story that Alexander consulted Serapis, but this seems to have been an unrelated god Sarapis that was consulted on behalf of the sick king in Babylon.
The Greek historian Plutarch said that when Ptolemy established a new temple at Alexandria he stole the cult statue from Sinope in Asia Minor, having been instructed in a dream to bring it to Alexandria. It was identified as Serapis by two separate religious experts, Eumolpidae, a hierophant of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and scholarly Egyptian priest Manetho.
When the god was Hellenized, they embraced the chthonic elements of Osiris, assimilating the god with Hades, but also assigned him the benevolence and joy of the god Dionysus.
They changed the appearance of the god to anthropomorphic since the Greeks had little respect for animal deities. He was often made to look like Hades or Pluto, enthroned with a modius, a grain basket, on his head. This was the Greek symbol of the land of the dead.
He often held a sceptre, as a sign of his rulership, and was accompanied by Cerberus, the three-headed dog that was the gatekeeper of the underworld, who would rest at his feet. In Egyptian form, Serapis was sometimes represented as a three-headed creature with the heads of a lion, a dog, and a wolf.
Serapis was also often accompanied by a serpent, linked to the uraeus, the Egyptian symbol of kingship. Because of his relationship to the serpent and the dog, both symbols of Asclepius, the god of medicine and healing in Greek mythology.
Roman Serapis
When the Romans occupied Egypt, they adopted Serapis with enthusiasm. Their polytheistic religion was accepting of new gods, and they often adopted new local gods that they encountered. There were at least nine temples of Isis and Serapis erected in Rome. The first was built during the Second Triumvirate in the 1st century BCE in the Campus Martius.
The cult became particularly popular after Vespasian spent time in Egypt while conducting the Jewish War and vying for power in Rome. He had several experiences in the region that he claimed were omens of his future power. This included visiting the Temple of Serpais where he reportedly had a vision.
He was then met by two laborers who were convinced that he had the power to work miracles as a vassal of Serapis. One was blind and the other had an unresponsive hand. He then spat in the eyes of a blind man, granting him sight, and stepped on the other man’s hand, which could then work perfectly. When Vespasian returned to Rome as emperor, Serapis often appeared on imperial coinage.
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