Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

188 Direct identifications of Zeus with the Sun

And, even if such evidence is forthcoming, we must not at once
conclude that Zeus was a sun-god in his own right. It may be

merely a case of international worship, the syn-
cretistic identification of Zeus with a foreign
solar deity.

For instance, among the religious phenomena
of the Hellenistic age few are more remarkable
than the vogue of Sarapis or Serapis. This
deity, whatever his origin1, was regarded by
Egyptians of the Ptolemaic period as the Apis
of Osiris (Asdr-Hapi), a human mummy with
a bull's head and the sun's disk between his horns2. The Greeks
conceived him as a chthonian Zeus3 (fig. 136)4 and indicated his
solar powers by means of a rayed crown (fig. 137)5. All round

1 In recent years there has been much discussion as to the origin of Sarapis (see e.g.
the resumes of Gruppe Myth. Lit. 1908 p. 611 ff. and of R. Wiinsch in the Archiv f. Rel.
1911 xiv. 579 n. 1). Three possible views have been mooted : (i) that Sarapis was from
the first an Egyptian deity, who arose from the fusion of Osiris with the Apis of Se-n-hapi,
the ' Place of Apis,' near Memphis. This is held to explain not merely the compound
names' Oaopairis, 'OcrepaTris, 'Qaipairis, etc. (Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1576 n. 1), but also
the tradition that the statue of Sarapis was brought to Alexandreia from Sinope (Flout.
de Is. et Os. 28 f., Tac. hist. 4. 83 f.), since Se-n-hapi was known to the Greeks as
Iilvuttiov (Dionys. per. 254 f. McLKr/doviov irToKiedpov, j 'ivda HivwrriTao Alos /aeydXoco
fj.£\adpov with Eustath. ad loc. 'ZivajiriTrjs de Zeus ?) 6 Mepicphrjs' ^ivcbinov yap opos Me/i-
0i5os * fj dirb 21^71-775 7-77? HovTiKrjs, k.t.X.). So A. Bouche-Leclercq in the Revue de
P histoire des religions 1902 xlvi. 1 ff., I. Levy id. 1909 lx. 285 ff., 1910 lxi. 162 ff.,
G. Lafaye in Daremberg-Saglio Diet. Ant. iv. 1248 ff.

(2) That Sarapis was originally the Babylonian god Ea, whose cult-title sar apst,
' King of the Ocean, King of the Deep Sea,' became by a series of normal changes
sar apsi, *sar aps, *sar apis, *sar apis. Sarapis is first mentioned in connexion with
Babylon (Flout, v. Alex. 73, 76, Arrian. 7. 26. 2). His ancient cult at Sinope may go
back to an early Assyrian occupation of the town. His worship was introduced into
Egypt by Ptolemy i Soter, who deliberately identified him with Osiris-Apis. This
arrangement of the facts explains inter alia the relation of Sarapis to Iao, whose name is
the final form of the Babylonian Ea {Eau or Eau, later Iau or Iau). So C. F. Lehmann-
Haupt in Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 338—364, cp. A. Dieterich Kleine Schriften Leipzig
and Berlin 1911 p. 159 ff.

(3) That Sarapis was a barbaric Europaean deity known to the Macedonians and by
them equated with the Babylonian god (evidence discussed in Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 352 ff.).

2 E. A. Wallis Budge The Gods of the Egyptians London 1904 ii. 1958". with figs.,.
P. D. Scott-Moncrieff in the Journ. Hell. Stud. 1909 xxix. 87, C. F. Lehmann-Haupt in
Roscher Lex. Myth. iv. 345 f., infra ch. i § 6 (g) i.

3 Plout. de Is. et Os. 28 rod IIXovtwuos, Tac. hist. 4. 83 Iovis Ditis; Dessau Inscr.
Lat. sel. no. 4391 Lambaisa in Numidia (Iovis Plutonis Serapis sacer).

4 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lydia p. 369 pi. 39, 4 a copper of imperial date struck at
Tripolis in Lydia : XEVC CAPATTIC wearing a modius on his head and extending his
right hand over Kerberos at his feet. A similar figure and legend appear on coppers of
Alexandreia struck by Vespasian, both as a seated and as a standing type {Brit. Mus. Cat.
Coins Alexandria p. 31).

5 Brit. Mus. Cat. Bronzes p. 173 no. 939. Height 2^ inches. Restored: left fore-