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| God Serapis Hieroglyphic Name |
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| God Serapis |
God Serapis was an human like God created by the Greek King
Ptolemy I. Ptolemy I chose Serapis to be the official god of Egypt and Greece alike. He hoped a bad spiritual base would mix the 2 peoples and ease tension in the country. Serapis' properties were both Egyptian and Hellenistic. Serapis become very popular and his cult quickly spread from its heart in Alexandria. A Roman historian took a firm stand that the god was to begin with from Asia Minor. However, Egypt likely provided the serious attributes of Serapis. Serapis' Egyptian nature can be saw in his roots, which were drawn from the crazes of Osiris and the Apis bull. These rages had been combined prior to the dominate of Ptolemy I. At that time, a spiritual bull of Memphis addressed Osorapis was favorite after its expiry. Osorapis was an agricultural god whose cult emphasized the Egyptian rules of life afterwards death. The early Greek pharaohs seemed to have been run to Osorapis as a god who appeared to fuse the countless of
Egyptian gods and disciplined aspects that were easily fusible with the gods of the Greeks.
The Hellenistic factors of Serapis prevail Serapis' (personality) and iconogrpahy. Many greek deities brought to his nature, taking on: Zeus, Helios, Dionysos, Hades and Aesculapius. From "Zeus" and "Helios" he taken the looks of reign and sun-deity. Dionysos brought to him the attribute of presiding over nature. Hades connected him to the hereafter and Aesculapius made him the art of healing. The Greek pictures of Serapis show him with long hair and a long beard. He is seated on a throne with the 3 headed dog of Hades, Cerberus, at his feet. The Egyptian images of the god present him as a mummified human with the bead of a bull. He is royal with the elliptical moon and two clothes.
