SERAPIS. 



Plutarch, who did not know this diftiiiftion, fancied that 

 fome people in Egypt would not allow forapis to have been 

 a pod : the dilpute was about the found of a word : no 

 Egyptian could deny the divinity of the god Serapis, but 

 Sor-apls had another meaninir ; and tliis was the term in de- 

 bate. Upon the whole he concludes, that the daemon, or 

 deitied man, was Sar-apis, and that for-apis was the tomb 

 of Apis. Analyfis ot Ancient Mythology, vol. ii. p. 428. 



Others have maintained, tliat Serapis was not originally 

 an Egyptian deity, anciently worlhipped in that country, 

 but an adventitious god brought thither from abroad. The 

 ancient place of his llation, according to Polybius, was on 

 the coalt of the Propontis, on the Thracian fide, over- 

 againft Hieras ; and there Jafon, when he went on the Ar- 

 gonautic expedition, facrificed to him. Thence his image 

 was brought to Sinope in Pontus ; and from Sinope, Pto- 

 lemy, the lirllof that name, in obedience, as it is faid, to a 

 fupernatural direClion, brought it to Alexandria, and fet it 

 up in one of the fuburbs of that city, called Rhacotls, where 

 it was worlhipped by the name of Serapis: and this new 

 god had in that place, fooii after, a very famous temple 

 erected to him, called the Serapeiim. This temple, fays 

 Ammianus Marcellinus, did, in tiie magnificence and orna- 

 ments of its buildings, exceed all other edifices in the world, 

 next to that of the Capitol at Rome. Hence Serapis be- 

 came the god of the court, and led the Egyptians almoft to 

 forget their ancient gods. The provinces vied with each 

 other in building temples to him, and burning incenfe on his 

 altars. The molt ancient temple, according to Paufanias, 

 was that at Memphis. 



And this, fay the advocates of this opinion, was the firtl 

 time that this deity was either worlhipped or known in 



Egypt- 

 Ptolemy found great difficulty in obtaining this image ; 

 but the inhabitants of Sinope, being opprell'ed with a 

 grievous famine, were relieved by Ptolemy with a fleet of 

 corn, and in return they confentcd to part with the image 

 of their god. 



The ftatue of Serapis, according to Macrobius, was of a 

 human form, with a balket or bulhel on his head, refembling 

 plenty, and referring, as fome fay, to the hifto'y of Jofeph's 

 Inpplying the Egyptians with corn ; or, according to 

 others, to the relief of Sinope by Ptolemy : his right hand 

 leaned on the head of a ferpent, whofe body was wound 

 round a figure with three heads, of a dog, a lion, and a 

 wolf; in his left he iield a meafure of a cubit length, as it 

 were to take the height of the waters of the Nile. 



Thofe who maintain that Serapis was a foreign god, un- 

 known to the Egyptians before the time of the Ptolemies, 

 argue, that Herodotus, who dilutes in his account of the 

 Egyptian gods, makes no mention of Serapis ; which he 

 probably would have done, if he had been one of the great 

 gods of that people. Moreover, the Ifiac table, upon 

 which fo many Egyptian deities appear, prefents us with 

 nothing that refen.bles Serapis. Befides, Tacitus relates, 

 that Serapis appeared in a dream to Ptolemy, under the 

 figure of an cxquifitely beautiful young man, and ordered 

 him to fend two of his molt faithful Iriends to Sinope, a 

 city of Pontus, where he was worlhipped, and to bring his 

 ftatue from thence. Ptolemy, having communicated this 

 vifion, deputed a felefl embafly to Sinope, and from thence 

 the llatue of that god was brought. Hence it is concluded 

 that he was unknown in Egypt before this event. 



On tiie other hand, thofe who contend that Serapis was 

 one of the great gods of Egypt, where he was worlhipped 

 before the time of the Ptolemies, allege, that before the tef- 

 timony of Tacitus can be admitted, it muft be proved 



that Serapis was the deity aftually worlhipped at Sinope, 

 whereiis, they fay, that the god to whom that city paid 

 adoration was Pluto ; and that the name Serapis was not 

 given to him till his Itatue was brought into Egypt. Plu- 

 tarch teftifies, that he had not that name when he came into 

 Egypt ; but upon his arrival at Alexandria, he took the 

 name which the Egyptians gave to Pluto, which was Se- 

 rapis. When Paufanias relates, that the Alexandrians re- 

 ceived from Ptolemy the worfliip of Serapis, he fays, at the 

 fame time, that there was already at Alexandria a very 

 magnificent temple of that god ; and another, not fo grand, 

 but of great antiquity, in the city of Memphis. Tacitus 

 himfelf, when he lays that Ptolemy, after Serapis was 

 brought into Egypt, built a ftately temple to him in the 

 place named Rhacotis, afierts alfo, that there was another 

 fmailer one, confecrated to the fame god, and to Ifis ; which 

 proves, not that Serapis was not worlhipped in Egypt till 

 the time of the embalTy to Sinope, but only that the vvor- 

 fhip of that god, perhaps neglected for a long time, was re- 

 eltablifhed there with folemnity. Tlie filence of Hero- 

 dotus, and the omillion in the Ifiac table, may be accounted 

 for by the following confiderations. Though it is true 

 that Herodotus fet apart his fecond book for the hillory of 

 the Egyptian religion, yet we cannot be fuie that he has 

 omitted none of their gods. Befides, having fpoken fully 

 of Ofiris, who was perhaps the fame with Serapis, he might 

 think it needlefs to fay anv thing particularly of the latter. 

 The fame obferva ion is applicable to the Ifiac tabl.'. Al- 

 though a great number of the Egyptian gods may be found 

 there, yet it cannot be affirmed that they are all there, and 

 much lefs that they can all be dlllinguilhed by their parti- 

 cular fvmbol?;. The proof drawn from the diverfity of re- 

 prefentations is yet lefs conclufive. The Egyptians varied 

 exceedingly with refpeft to the figures of their gods, and 

 the fymbols annexed to them. Tlie figures frequently bore 

 a valt number of attributes, which could not agree to a 

 fing'e divinity. Thefe are what have been called the Pan- 

 theon figures, which reprefented feveral deities ; as any one 

 may be convinced by viewing fome of thofe of Ifis, of 

 Harpocrates, and others. From thefe and fome other con- 

 fiderations, many learned men have inferred that Serapis 

 was an Egyptian god, known and worlhipped by that 

 people long before the time of the Ptolemies ; and that he 

 was the fame with Pluto; and though the tellimonies of 

 Tacitus and Plutarch, above cited, were lefs conclufive 

 than they are, yet one of the ilneft llatucs of that god, at 

 whofe feet we fee the three-headed Cerberus, would leave 

 no room to doubt. See ?. print of this figure in Moiit- 

 faucon's Antiquity, tom. ii. p. 185. Antiquarians have 

 furnilhed us with feveral other figures, always known to be 

 thofe of Serapis by the caiatluis, or a kind of bonnet which 

 he wore upon his head. Sometimes he is joined with Ifis, 

 and reprefented like a young man, and then he is taken for 

 Ofiris ov the Sun : frequently like a bearded old man, very 

 much refembling Jupiter, whofe name he alfo bore ; at lealt, 

 from the time that the Greeks became mailers of Egypt, 

 Varro fays, that there was a law which forbade faying, 

 under pain of death, that Serapis had been a mortal man. 



We (hall here add, that Ofiris was varioufly reprefented, 

 fometimcs by a fceptre and eye, to exprcfs his power and 

 providence ; at other times, by the image of a hawk, be- 

 caufe of its fharp fight, fwiftnefs, and other qualities ; and 

 in later times, in a human form, in a pollure not very decent, 

 fignifying his generative and nutrilive faculty ; but the 

 greatelk adoration was paid to his living image, the bull. 



The image of Ifis was ufually in the form of a woman, 

 with cow's horns on her head, reprefenting the appearance 



of 



