Forlong - Rivers of Life

Sun Worship.
(Go-estan or place of cows), the Aith-IO-pians (Ethiopians), and Aityo-pias of
Ayoodya (Oud), and Ram himself with the Egyptian Hyksos to the Hookeas, or
peoples of the Oxus and Euxine, into all of which I will not enter.
From the Greeks we get the name Serapis or Sarapis, as that of an Egyptian
Divinity, whose worship was introduced into Greece in the time of the Pto-
lemies. Apollodorus says this name “was given to Apis after his death and
deification.” 1 His Egyptian names were Soor-Apis, Soora-pas or Soora-pa, Soor-
Ab or Soor-Ab-is, which clearly means the Sun-God, Father, or Great Male.
From Gibbon’s immortal work we learn that “Serapis does not appear to have
been one of the native gods or monster who sprang from the fruitful soil of superstitious
Egypt,” although some Christian Fathers held that their “Joseph was adored
in Egypt as the Bull Apis, and God Serapis!” It was “the first of the Ptolemies,”
says Gibbon, “who, owing to his God’s commands in a dream, imported the stranger
from the coast of Pontus, where he had long been adored by the inhabitants of Sinope;”
but this would place the date of his Egyptian nativity only in the second century B.C..,
which is far too late; probably this was a resuscitation of the faith in the Delta of
Egypt. Plutarch identifies Serapis with Osiris and Isis; and in Rome, Serapis and
Isis were worshipped in one temple. Yet it was long before “the usurper was introduced
into the throne and bed of Osiris . . . . for this so religious and
conservative a people did not allow the god within their city walls” till
the rich bribes of the Ptolmies at last seduced the priests.
This is one of the figures under which Serapis was exhibited to the
public, 2 and here he is clearly Siva—the Bull with Serpent and Luna on
head, and crosier, crux ansata, and scourge or “irritator” 3 in hand. The
Alexandrians gloried in the god’s name and residence in their midst,
and soon spoke of him as Osir-Apis and “the Ancient of Days,” “God
of Gods” and “Father of All.” “His temple, which rivalled the pride
and magnificence of the capitol, was erected on the spacious summit of
an artificial mound, raised one hundred steps above the level of the ad-
jacent parts of the city. The interior cavity was strongly supported
by arches, and distributed into vaults and subterraneous apartments.
Fig 187—SERAPIS
The consecrated buildings were surrounded by a quadrangular portico, the stately halls
and exquisite statues displayed ‘the triumphs of the arts,’ and the treasures of ancient
learning were presented in the famous Alexandrian Library, which had risen with
new splendonr from its ashes. Mark Antony alone had bestowed upon it the whole
Pergamus coIlection of two hundred thousand volumes.
All sects of Pagans and Christians adored or feared Serapis and his glorious
shrine; not even the early and unjust edicts of “the very Christian Theodosius”
1 2
Smith’s G. and R. Biog and Myth. Large Ed. 3 vols. 1873. Sharpe’s Egyp. Myth.
3
[Probably either a flail for threshing grain, or a fly-whisk. — T.S.]
501