DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0125
115
curls from that of the celestial Jupiter ; while Serapis has, in some
instances, long hair formally turned back and disposed in ringlets
hanging down upon his breast and shoulders like that of women.
His whole person too is always enveloped in drapery reaching to
his feet; wherefore he is probably meant to comprehend the attri-
butes of both sexes ; and to be a general personification, not un-
like that of the Paphian Venus with the beard, before mentioned ;
from which it was perhaps partly taken ;* there being no mention
made of any such deity in iEgypt prior to the Macedonian con-
quest; and his worship having been communicated to the Greeks
by the Ptolemies ; whose magnificence in constructing and adorning
his temple at Alexandria was only surpassed by that of the Roman
emperors in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.1
146. The mystic symbol called a modius or jtoAoj, which is upon
the heads of Pluto, Serapis, Venus, and Fortune or Isis, appears
to be no other than the bell or seed-vessel of the lotus or water-
lily, the nymphaaa nelumbo of JLinnseus. This plant, which ap-
pears to be a native of the eastern parts of Asia, and is not now
found in iEgypt,3 grows in the water: and amidst its broad leaves,
which float upon the surface, puts forth a large v>hite flower ; the
base and centre of which is shaped like a bell or inverted cone,
and punctuated on the top with little cells or cavities, in which the
seeds grow. The orifices of these cells being too small to let them
drop out when ripe, they shoot forth into new plants in the places
where they were formed; the bulb of the vessel serving as a matrice
to nourish them until they acquire a degree of magnitude sufficient
to burst it open and release themselves; when they sink to the bot-
tom, or take root wherever the current happens to deposit them.
1 UKarrouffi 5e avrTjf (AcppoSirrjv) Kai ycveiov €xovaav' 5tori Kat aPPwa Kai 67]\ea
cpyava. Tavitpf yap \tyovaw e<popov Travis •yeretrectf?, Kai airo tt\s offipvos Kai avw
Xtyovaiv avri\v appeva' ra Sc Kara, e-nteiav. uKarToxiai 5c avrrjv Kai &\>nnrov, Suidas
in A<ppo$.
2epa7riSos eeriv fcpov, hv A8t}vaioi irapa nroAejUaiou 8eov (ariyayayra; Aiymriois 5c
Upa ^epamSas, emipavvTTaTov p.ev furiK AKe^awSptvaw, apxaiorarov 5c (V Me/itpti. Pau-
san. in Att. c. 18. s. 4.
8 Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xxii. 3 Embassy to China, vol. ii. p. 391.
curls from that of the celestial Jupiter ; while Serapis has, in some
instances, long hair formally turned back and disposed in ringlets
hanging down upon his breast and shoulders like that of women.
His whole person too is always enveloped in drapery reaching to
his feet; wherefore he is probably meant to comprehend the attri-
butes of both sexes ; and to be a general personification, not un-
like that of the Paphian Venus with the beard, before mentioned ;
from which it was perhaps partly taken ;* there being no mention
made of any such deity in iEgypt prior to the Macedonian con-
quest; and his worship having been communicated to the Greeks
by the Ptolemies ; whose magnificence in constructing and adorning
his temple at Alexandria was only surpassed by that of the Roman
emperors in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.1
146. The mystic symbol called a modius or jtoAoj, which is upon
the heads of Pluto, Serapis, Venus, and Fortune or Isis, appears
to be no other than the bell or seed-vessel of the lotus or water-
lily, the nymphaaa nelumbo of JLinnseus. This plant, which ap-
pears to be a native of the eastern parts of Asia, and is not now
found in iEgypt,3 grows in the water: and amidst its broad leaves,
which float upon the surface, puts forth a large v>hite flower ; the
base and centre of which is shaped like a bell or inverted cone,
and punctuated on the top with little cells or cavities, in which the
seeds grow. The orifices of these cells being too small to let them
drop out when ripe, they shoot forth into new plants in the places
where they were formed; the bulb of the vessel serving as a matrice
to nourish them until they acquire a degree of magnitude sufficient
to burst it open and release themselves; when they sink to the bot-
tom, or take root wherever the current happens to deposit them.
1 UKarrouffi 5e avrTjf (AcppoSirrjv) Kai ycveiov €xovaav' 5tori Kat aPPwa Kai 67]\ea
cpyava. Tavitpf yap \tyovaw e<popov Travis •yeretrectf?, Kai airo tt\s offipvos Kai avw
Xtyovaiv avri\v appeva' ra Sc Kara, e-nteiav. uKarToxiai 5c avrrjv Kai &\>nnrov, Suidas
in A<ppo$.
2epa7riSos eeriv fcpov, hv A8t}vaioi irapa nroAejUaiou 8eov (ariyayayra; Aiymriois 5c
Upa ^epamSas, emipavvTTaTov p.ev furiK AKe^awSptvaw, apxaiorarov 5c (V Me/itpti. Pau-
san. in Att. c. 18. s. 4.
8 Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xxii. 3 Embassy to China, vol. ii. p. 391.