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Statuette of Apis 7th-1st centuries B.C. Cast bronze Height: 14cm The bull Apis is the best-known sacred animal of Ancient Egypt and he provides a good way to trace the mechanism of deification and picture the nature of religious syncretism. He was considered a manifestation of Ptah and worshipped in Memphis, where his dwelling and sanctuary - the Apieion - was located. It is hard to say why specifically a bull became the embodiment of Ptah, but we do know how from a large number of candidate bulls for the role of Apis one would be chosen on the basis of 29 signs (among these were a white triangular patch on the forehead and black patches on the body, one of which had to be in the shape of a bird). Ptah was identified with Sokar, the god of the local necropolis, and the latter in turn with Osiris, resulting in the syncretic deity Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, and evidently for this reason Apis too was associated with Osiris. This syncretism resulted in the establishment of a cult of Serapis (Osiris-Apis) in the Greek period. Besides this, like many other deities venerated in the guise of a bull, Apis was associated with fertility and there was a ritual known as "the race of Apis" that was supposed to fertilize the soil. Finally, Apis was also associated with the Sun, hence the solar disk between his horns. When an Apis died he was embalmed and buried in underground galleries (known as the Serapeum) in the Memphite Saqqara necropolis, and a new bull was chosen in his place.
Copyright © 2011 State Hermitage Museum
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