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

434 The Bull and the Sun in Egypt

attendants and priests declared that Nile-water was too fattening.
He had also a seraglio of fine cows1. Once a year a cow, distin-
guished by a special set of signs, was exhibited before him:
tradition said that she was always found and destroyed on the self-
same day2. During one week in the year Apis' birthday was cele-
brated : a gold and a silver bowl were sunk in the Nile at a place
in Memphis called from its configuration Phiala, 'the Saucer';
and the crocodiles of the river harmed no one till noon on the day
following the birthday week3. The stele of Palermo records the
first celebration of another festival, the ' Running round of Apis,'
but gives us no indication as to its character4. Omens and oracles
were drawn from the bodily movements of Apis5. When he licked
the himdtion of Eudoxos the Cnidian, the priests averred that the
astronomer would be famous but short-lived6. When he turned
away from Germanicus Caesar, who was offering him food, that
meant that Germanicus was a doomed man7. Apis had two chapels
called bridal-chambers: if he entered the one, it was a good sign ;
if the other, mischief was brewing8. He was attended by choirs of
boys, who sang his praises and then, suddenly becoming possessed,
would burst out into predictions of the future9. Omens were also
drawn from the first words heard on quitting his sanctuary10. Thus
Apis lived for the mystic number of five times five years11. After
his allotted span, the priests drowned him in their sacred spring,
and mourned with shorn heads till they found his successor12.
Large sums of money were spent on his obsequies13; his burial
place was kept a profound secret14; and all Egypt lamented his

1 Ail. de nat. an. n. 10, Diod. i. 84.

2 Plin. nat. hist. 8. 186, Amm. Marc. 22. 14. 7, Solin. 32. 20.

3 Plin. nat. hist.8. 186, Solin. 32. 21, Amm. Marc. 22. 15. 17. According to Timaios
the mathematician ap. Plin. nat. hisf. 5. 55, Phiala was the source of the Nile.

4 E. A. Wallis Budge Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection London and New York
1911 i. 398.

5 Lact. Plac. in Stat. Theb. 3. 478 motu corporis sui, cp. Claud, de quart, cons. Hon.
576 submissis admugit cornibus Apis.

6 Favorinus Arelatensis frag. 16 {Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 579 Muller) ap. Diog. Laert.
8. 90.

7 Plin. nat. hist. 8. 185, Amm. Marc. 22. 14. 8, Solin. 32. 19.

8 Plin. loc. cit., Amm. Marc. loc. cit., Solin. loc. cit.

9 Ail. de nat. an. if. 10, Plin. nat. hist. 8. 185, Solin. 32. 20, Myth. Vat. 1. 79.

10 Paus. 7. 22. 3 f.

11 Plout. de Is. et Os. 56. See, however, R. Pietschmann in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc.
i. 2808.

12 Plin. nat. hist. 8. 184, Amm. Marc. 22. 14. 7, Solin. 32. 18, Myth. Vat. 1. 79.

13 Diod. 1. 84 f.

14 Arnob. adv. nat. 6. 6: but see Aug. de civ. Dei 18. 5. Hdt. 3. 29 Xadp-rj Ka^jjcrea}
is indecisive. On the Apis-tombs of the "Lapainov (Strab. 807) of Sakkara see A. Mariette
Le Se'rapeum de Memphis Paris 1857 rev. by G. Maspero 1882 or the brief accounts in