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SERAPIS , the famous Graeco-See also:Egyptian See also:god. The statue of Serapis in the Serapeum of See also:Alexandria was of purely See also:Greek type and workmanship —a Hades or See also:Pluto enthroned with a See also:basket or See also:corn measure on his See also:head, a See also:sceptre in his See also:hand, See also:Cerberus at his feet, and (apparently) a See also:serpent. According to See also:Plutarch, See also:Ptolemy See also:Soter See also:stole it from See also:Sinope, having been bidden by the unknown god in a See also:dream to bring him to Alexandria. On its arrival the statue was pronounced to be Serapis by two experts in religious matters: the one the Eumolpid See also:Timotheus, the other the Egyptian See also:Manetho. This See also:story may not be true (some See also:con-tend that Sinope as the provenance of the statue originated in the See also:- HILL
- HILL (0. Eng. hyll; cf. Low Ger. hull, Mid. Dutch hul, allied to Lat. celsus, high, collis, hill, &c.)
- HILL, A
- HILL, AARON (1685-175o)
- HILL, AMBROSE POWELL
- HILL, DANIEL HARVEY (1821-1889)
- HILL, DAVID BENNETT (1843–1910)
- HILL, GEORGE BIRKBECK NORMAN (1835-1903)
- HILL, JAMES J
- HILL, JOHN (c. 1716-1775)
- HILL, MATTHEW DAVENPORT (1792-1872)
- HILL, OCTAVIA (1838– )
- HILL, ROWLAND (1744–1833)
- HILL, SIR ROWLAND (1795-1879)
hill of Sinopeion, i.e. See also:place of See also:Apis (?), a name given to the site of the Serapeum at See also:Memphis), but there is little doubt that Ptolemy Soter fixed the iconic type to serve for the god of the new See also:capital of See also:Egypt, where it was soon associated with See also:Isis and See also:Harpocrates in a triad. His policy was evidently to find a deity that should win the reverence alike of Greeks and Egyptians. The Greeks of that See also:day would have had little respect for a See also:grotesque Egyptian figure, while the Egyptians were more willing to accept divinity in any shape. A Greek statue was therefore chosen as the idol, and it.was proclaimed as the anthropomorphic See also:equivalent of a much revered and highly popular Egyptian beast-divinity, the dead Apis, assimilated to See also:Osiris. The Greek figure probably had little effect on the native ideas,but it is likely that it served as a useful See also:link between the two religions. The god of Alexandria soon won an important place in the Greek See also:world. The anthropomorphic Isis and See also:Horus were easily rendered in Greek See also:style, and See also:Anubis was prepared for by Cerberus. The See also:worship of Serapis along with Isis, Horus and Anubis spread far and wide, reached See also:Rome, and ultimately became one of the leading cults of the See also:west. The destruction in A.D. 385 of the Serapeum of Alexandria, and of the famous idol within it, after the See also:decree of See also:Theodosius, marked the See also:death-agony of paganism throughout the See also:empire.
It is assumed above that the name Serapis (so written in later Greek and in Latin, in earlier Greek Sarapis) is derived from the Egyptian Userhapi—as it were Osiris-Apis—the name of the See also:bull Apis, dead and, like all the blessed dead, assimilated to Osiris, See also:- KING
- KING (O. Eng. cyning, abbreviated into cyng, cing; cf. O. H. G. chun- kuning, chun- kunig, M.H.G. kiinic, kiinec, kiinc, Mod. Ger. Konig, O. Norse konungr, kongr, Swed. konung, kung)
- KING [OF OCKHAM], PETER KING, 1ST BARON (1669-1734)
- KING, CHARLES WILLIAM (1818-1888)
- KING, CLARENCE (1842–1901)
- KING, EDWARD (1612–1637)
- KING, EDWARD (1829–1910)
- KING, HENRY (1591-1669)
- KING, RUFUS (1755–1827)
- KING, THOMAS (1730–1805)
- KING, WILLIAM (1650-1729)
- KING, WILLIAM (1663–1712)
king of the underworld. There is no doubt that Serapis was before See also:long identified with Userhapi; the See also:identification appears clearly in a bilingual inscription of the See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time of Ptolemy Philopator (221–205 B.c.), and frequently later. It has, however, been contended by an eminent authority (Wilcken, Archiv fitr Papyrusforschung, iii. 249) that the parallel occurrence of the names Sarapis and Osorapis (Userhapi) points to an See also:independent origin for the former. But doublets, e.g. Petisis-Petesis, are See also:common in Graecisms of Egyptian names. The more accurate See also:form is then generally the later, found in documents written by Greeks in See also:familiar intercourse with Egyptians, the less accurate is traditional from an older date in the mouths of pure Greeks and Hellenists, and is used in See also:literary writings. Thus Sarapis would be the literary and See also:official form of the name; it might be traditional, dating perhaps from the reign of See also:Amasis or from the See also:Persian See also:period. We know that in See also:Herodotus's day, and long before, the See also:discovery of the new Apis was the occasion of universal rejoicing, and his death of universal See also:mourning. The See also:ancient Serapeum (Puserhapi) and the name Userhap would be almost as familiar to See also:early Greek wanderers in Egypt as the Apieum and Apis itself.
But why was a Plutonic Serapis selected rather than another god to furnish the Egyptian See also:element to the See also:chief divinity of Alexandria? According to one See also:account in See also:Tacitus, Sarapis was the god of the See also:village of Rhacotis before it suddenly See also:expanded into a See also:great capital; but it is not very probable that temples were erected to the dead Apis except at his Memphite See also:tomb. See also:Alexander had courted See also:Ammon. But Ammon had little hold on the affections of the Egyptian See also:people. He was the god of See also:Ethiopia and the Thebais which were antagonistic to the progressive See also:north. On the other hand, Osiris with Isis and Horus was everywhere honoured and popular, and while the artificer Ptah, the god of the great native capital of Egypt, made no See also:appeal to the See also:imagination, the Apis bull, an incarnation of Ptah, threw Ptah himself altogether into the shade in the popular estimation. The See also:combination of Osiris and the Apis bull which was found in the dead Apis was thus a most politic choice in naming the new divinity, whose figure represented a god of the underworld wearing an See also:emblem of fruitfulness.
The earliest mention of Sarapis is in the See also:authentic death See also:scene of Alexander, from the royal diaries (See also:Arrian, See also:Anabasis, vii. 26). Here Sarapis has a See also:temple at See also:Babylon and is of such importance that he alone is named as being consulted on behalf of the dying king. It would considerably alter our conception of the dead Apis if we were to find that a travelling See also:shrine of his divinity accompanied Alexander on his expedition or was set up for him in Babylon. On the other hand, the See also:principal god of Babylon was See also:Zeus Belus (See also:Bel See also:Marduk), and it is difficult to see why he should have been called Sarapis on this occasion. See also:Evidence has, however, been found to prove that See also:Ea, entitled arapsi, " king of the deep (See also:sea)," who was also great in learning. and magic, had a temple in the See also:city (See also:Lehmann in Beitrage zur See also:alten Geschichte, iv. 396). It seems unwarranted to make this Sarapsi=Sarapis travel to Sinope and thence to Alexandria as the type of the Egyptian god; but whether or no the Egyptian appellation Sarapis was applied to See also:express the Babylonian Sarapsi, the See also:part it played in the last days of Alexander may have determined the choice by which the Egyptian Osiris-Apis supplied the name and some leading characteristics to the god of Alexandria.
See Isis; A. Bouch6-Leclercq, Histoire See also:des Lagides, i. (1903), ch. iv.; J. G. Milne, See also:History of Egypt under See also:Roman See also:Rule (1898), p. 14o; G. Lafaye, Histoire du culte des divinites d'Alexandrie hors de l'E`gypte (See also:Paris, 1884). (F. Li.
End of Article: SERAPIS
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