Abstract

The Memphite Sarapieion, the sacred precinct in the royal necropolis of Saqqara that was dedicated to the burial and mortuary cult of the Apis bull from at least as early as the Dynasty 18 reign of Amenhotep III (circa 1390-1353 B.C.E.), was significantly altered, probably during the early Ptolemaic period, by the installation of an elaborate sculptural program and a single architectural feature, all rendered in the Hellenistic style. The Greek elements introduced to the site included a semicircle of eleven portraits of Greek poets and philosophers, three Attic lions, a modest chapel of the Corinthian order, and ten colossal statues depicting fantastical beings. An evaluation of the enhancement in accordance with the conventions of the Greek visual vernacular current during the Hellenistic Age suggests that the intended purpose of the installation was two-fold. First, the sculptural program provided an iconic translation of the religious ideology associated with the deceased bull as Osiris-Apis which encouraged the Greek population of post-Alexandrian Egypt to participate in the indigenous rites practiced at the Sarapieion. Second, the installation functioned to perpetually proclaim Ptolemaic royal identity and hegemony at the Sarapieion, a place with long-standing regal connotations, and within the context of Memphis, the capital city of Egypt throughout most of its history. An attempt to reconstruct the probable reception of the program by the indigenous Egyptian audience uncovers what appears to he a similarly pro-Ptolemaic message. I propose that the remarkable coincidence of Greek and Egyptian comprehension of the program, along with the symbolic and material benefits that might be generated if the program communicated successfully to the two primary demographics of its audience, suggests the collusion of the local priesthood of Ptah, the order which supervised the ritual activities of the Sarapieion, in its conception and execution. A survey of the historic relations between the Ptolemaic crown and the Memphite leadership would seem to support such an assertion. Thus, a site of esoteric theriomorphic worship was transformed to more accurately reflect the cultural diversity of Ptolemaic Egypt and to serve the respective ambitions of the indigenous religious authority and the state.