(West Asian mythology)

The state god of Ptolemaic Egypt, the period of Macedonian rule (305–30 BC). Portrayed as a man with curly hair and beard, wearing a basket upon his head. Derived from the cult of the Apis Bull at Memphis, the main centre of Serapis worship was Alexandria, a centre of learning and commerce under the Ptolemies. The Serapeum there, accounted one of the wonders of the world, drew pilgrims from far and wide seeking miraculous cures. Serapis was primarily a healer of the sick, a deity who was superior to fate and who retained from Osiris the character of a god of the underworld. He had enormous influence among the Romans until his cult was overshadowed by that of the goddess Isis. Finally, the pious emperor Theodosius I (379–95) congratulated the Christians of Alexandria on their destruction of the Serapeum at the instigation of the patriarch Theophilus.

A Dictionary of World Mythology. Copyright © Arthur Cotterell 1979, 1986, 2003. All rights reserved.