Ebook: Sarapis under the Early Ptolemies

Although based on a doctoral dissertation, this work is agreeably concise, and the ground covered comprises the Hellenistic iconography of Sarapis, the relation of the god to Pluto, Osiris, Dionysus, the Apis Bull, Apis the King, and Asclepius, as well as later Hellenistic equations.

A good point is made in the Introduction about the antecedents of the cult. Wilcken's theory, which derives Sarapis from the Egyptian Osiris-Apis, is generally accepted, and yet it is surprising how many scholars still refer to the worship of Sarapis as something which involved the creation of a new god and a new cult. Mr. Stambaugh wisely distinguishes between the god and his image, and the new development of course attaches to the form and installation of the image. The forms used at Alexandria and Memphis are further distinguished, and a case is made for the idea that the former 'emphasized the kingly nature of the god, while the one at Memphis emphasized the fruitful blessings of a chthonic god.'

In view of the valid general approach it is surprising that more attention is not given to the Egyptian antecedents. There is a chapter on 'Sarapis and Osiris', but this is the least satisfactory in the book, dwelling much as it does on the outmoded theory that Osiris was in origin a mortal king. On the other hand, the book succeeds in upholding the possibility that the Hellenized form 'Sarapis' originated in the later part of Alexander's life.