348 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



and Mnevis were both sacred to Osiris, and wor- 

 shipped as Gods throughout the whole of Egypt * ; 

 and Plutarch suggests that, from these well-known 

 representations of Osiris, the people of Elis and 

 Argos derived the idea of Bacchus with an ox's 

 head ; Bacchus being reputed to be the same 

 as Osiris. Herodotus t, in describing him, says, 

 *' Apis, also called Epaphus, is a young bull, whose 

 mother can have no other offspring, and who is 

 reported by the Egyptians to conceive from light- 

 ning sent from heaven, and thus to produce the 

 God Apis. He is known by certain marks : his 

 hair is black ; on his forehead is a white triangular 

 spot, on his back an eagle, and a beetle under his 

 tongue, and the hair of his tail is double." Ovid 

 speaks of him as " varius coloribus ^pis." Strabo 

 describes him with the forehead and some parts of 

 his body of a white colour, the rest being black, 

 by which signs they fix upon a new one to succeed 

 the other when he dies." Plutarch t observes, 

 that, " on account of the great resemblance they 

 imagine beween Osiris and the Moon, his more 

 bright and shining parts being shadowed and ob- 

 scured by those that are of a darker hue, they call 

 the Apis the living image of Osiris, and suppose 

 him begotten by a ray of generative light, flowing 

 from the Moon, and fixing upon his dam at a time 

 when she was strongly disposed for generation." 



Pliny § speaks of Apis " having a white spot in 

 the form of a crescent upon his right side, and a 



* Diodor. i. 21. t Herodot. iii. 28. 



X Plut. de Is. s. 43. § Plin. viii. 46. 



