it be accorded to me some day to render a detailed account of the
operations of which the Serapeum was the theatre, I will endeavor
to show and to define the Serapis whom the classifying and interpretation
of the texts found in the temple of this god have revealed to
us. It will then be seen what Serapis really was. It will be seen
how Serapis was a god of Egyptian origin, as ancient as Apis, seeing
that after all he is but Apis dead. It will be seen how the Serapis
of the G-reeks is only another amalgamated Grseco-Egyptian god;
and how these- two divinities have lived at Memphis in two distinct
Serapeums, in each other’s presence, without ever being confounded.”
“ It is known that the Serapeum is situate, not at Memphis, but
in the burial-ground of Memphis ; and that this temple was entirely
built for the tomb of Apis. The Serapeum is merely, therefore,
according to the definition of Plutarch and of Saint Clemens-Alex-
andrinus, the sepulchral monument of Apis; or rather the Serapeum
is the temple of Apis dead, who, in consequence, must be distinguished
from the temple of Apis living, that Herodotus has described,
and which Psametichus embellished with the colossi of Osiris. Apis
had, then, properly speaking, two temples; one which he inhabited
under the name of Apis during his lifetime, the other wherein he
reposed after his death under the name of Osorapis”—corrupted by
Greeks and Romans into Serapis,
“ By way of resume, the explanations which I have just given have
already had for result to show us :-r~
lst.—That the Serapeum is but the mausoleum of Apis; and thus
that the principal god of the Serapeum, that is to say, Serapis, is but
Apis dead ;
2d..—That there had been at Memphis two Serapeums; one
founded by Amenophis HI. [Memnon—XVIIth dynasty, 15th century
b . o.], in which the worship of the god of the ancient Pharaohs
preserved itself intact down to the Roman emperors [3d century
after C.] : the other, inaugurated a short time after the advent of the
Greek dynasty at Memphis, and in which the Alexandrian Serapis,
result of a bifurcation [i. e. a separation of religious doctrine] operated
under Soter I. [about B. c. 310], was more especially adored;
3d.—-That the clearing out of the only one of these temples that
has been explored, has produced 7000 monuments; among which the
monography of Serapis can merely claim the 3000 objects that, by
their origin, are relative to this god;
4th.—That these 3000 objects come almost all from the tomb of
Apis properly so-called; and hence that the collection of the Louvre
possesses a funereal and Egyptian character, quite different from that
which it would seem a collection, drawn entirely out of the temple
of Serapis, ought to assume;
5th. Finally, that this tomb had been violated and sacked; but
that, notwithstanding, the principal divisions of the monument and
the nature of the objects gathered from it have permitted the proximate
re-construction of the ancient state of the localities, and to
establish, in a manner more or less certain, the existence of a mi D i-
mum of 64 Apises that is, of the hieroglyphic reeords, and some
remains, of at least 64 embalmed bulls dedicated to, and once buried
in this sanctuary of, the god Apis.
Mariette then proceeds to catalogue, by epoch and circumstances,,
the succession of these divine animals, in the most detailed and interesting
manner; for which I must refer to the luminous papers
themselves. Space confines my remarks to but one point bearing on
chronology.
Ancient writers cited by him275—all, however, disciples of the later
Alexandria-schools—affirm that the lifetime of the sacred bull Apis
was restricted to'25 years; at the expiration of which the quadruped
deity was put to death by theocratic law, and a canonical successor
sought for and installed. This custom becoming assimilated to the
periodical conjunction, every 25 years, of the solar and lunar
motions, on the same day and at the same celestial points, had led to
modern astronomical suggestion of a famous cycle, called “ the
period of Apis." Nevertheless, the two ideas are proved by Mariette
to be wholly distinct; the luni-solar cycle of 25 years being used as
far back as Claudius Ptolemy (about a . d. 150) in his tables; and the
supposed application of this cycle to Apis being derived from an incidental
and misapprehended remark of Plutarch, that—“multiplied
by itself, the number 5 produces a square equal to the number of the
Egyptian letters and to that of the years lived by Apis.”276
jj Did the Pharaonic Egyptians, in limiting, according to later Grecian
accounts, the life of Apis to 25 years, recognize therein the luni-
solar cycle in vögue among astronomers of the Alexandria-school ? *
If they did, a most useful implement is at once found by which to
fix an infinitude of points in Egyptian chronology. Alas! The fune-
bral tablets demonstrate that some Apises died a natural death before
the 25 years were completed, and that others lived “ 26 years,” and
“26 years and 28 days,” or “ 25 years and 17 days.”
Hence the argument is positive. Our Apises die at all ages; and
2,6 P i i h y , viii. 46:— S o l in u s , o. 82:— A m m ia n u s M a r c e l . , xxii. 14, 7: P l u t a r c h , De
leide, c. 56; &e., &c.
*** See also the authorities in Lepsius, Über den Apiskreie, Leipzig, 1853:—and Chrono-
l°gie der JEgy-pter, i. pp. 160-1.