THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE PELOPONNESIAN APIS WITH THE EGYPTIAN SERAPIS IN ARNOBIUS, ADVERSVS NATIONES 1.36.6

Abstract

This article examines a brief mention of the Egyptian gods Apis and Serapis in the Aduersus nationes by Arnobius of Sicca. This reference is situated within the context of several traditions dealing with the origin and connections of both of these mythical figures transmitted with some variations until Late Antiquity. It is proposed that the Peloponnesian Apis is identified with the Egyptian Serapis through a tradition already attested in Classical Greek authors, though without it being possible to determine which author is the specific reference for the Arnobian text.

Reports on Egyptian religion are frequent in Greek and Latin literary sources,¹ especially regarding the ancient animal cults in the Nile valley.² This information, which can be found in authors not professing beliefs in the Egyptian native tradition, varies both in the extent of its detail and in its purpose, which in relation to customs not regarded as valid may be considered either mere ethnographic interest or fierce criticism—or both. This is why it is of particular interest to approach these texts—written by authors of different periods with contrasting convictions—with a view to understanding how Egyptian beliefs were judged outside their original context and how they were incorporated into works belonging to different genres.

One of the authors who confronted the unconventional customs of the ancient Egyptians was Arnobius of Sicca, who wrote during the period between the third and fourth centuries a.d., and was teacher of Lactantius³ and a Christian convert.⁴ Arnobius shows much belligerence, for example, towards the dumb animals⁵ to whom the Egyptians consecrated temples;⁶ this was a common subject among pagan and Christian writers.⁷

The present article focusses on a question concerning the reception and transmission of a specific piece of information about Egyptian religion that appears in the Aduersus nationes, a work written by Arnobius between a.d. 302 and 305,⁸ intending to show to the bishop of Sicca the true conviction of his conversion to Christianity.⁹ It is precisely in this text that, in the context of a list of pagan divinities, we find the following phrase: ‘Is it Apis, born in the Peloponnese, and in Egypt called Serapis?’¹⁰ This is a brief but interesting reference that has not been commented on so far.

In this sentence Arnobius refers to a mythical figure of Peloponnesian origin, Apis, who, as with other divinities of the Greek pantheon, is assimilated to an Egyptian god, in this case, Serapis, a Hellenistic construct characteristic of the Nilotic pantheon until Late Antiquity.¹¹ In another section of the Aduersus nationes an Apis appears again, in this case as a deity buried in a secret place that cannot be revealed at the risk of being punished.¹² It is tempting, in view of both of these references to an Egyptian god with the same name, to think that it may be the same sacred bull that was the object of special and ancient veneration,¹³ already found in Herodotus¹⁴ and moreover mentioned in authors after Arnobius.¹⁵ However, this is not the case here, or, at least, not entirely so.

This sacred animal named Apis is widely mentioned in Graeco-Roman literature,¹⁶ and was even compared to the golden calf of Moses’ cycle,¹⁷ but has been linked by textual and archaeological sources to Memphis in Egypt, its place of worship.¹⁸ Apis, incarnation of the Memphite god Ptah, was the most important sacred animal for the Egyptians.¹⁹ His cult is attested until the fourth century a.d.²⁰ Nevertheless, the Peloponnesian origin of the first Apis cited by Arnobius must be sought not only in these more purely Egyptian references but also in other mythological traditions preceding Arnobius. Clement of Alexandria, who lived between the second and third centuries a.d.,²¹ puts us on the right track in his Stromata, where this whole question is developed:

(4) Apis, king of Argos, founded Memphis, says Aristippus in volume one of his History of Arcadia. (5) Aristeas of Argos says that he was named Sarapis and it is he whom the Egyptians worship. (6) Nymphodorus of Amphipolis in volume three of his Practices of Asia says that Apis is the bull who dies and is embalmed and placed in a grave (sōros) within the temple of the divinity honored, and from this is called Soroapis and later Sarapis by local habit. Apis is the third generation from Inachus.²²

This is one of the traditions appearing in the Greek and Latin literary sources on the origin of Serapis. It is an account that, according to authors such as Clement, can be found in earlier texts. We can also quote a fragment from the Bibliotheca of Apollodorus (Early Imperial period) which briefly mentions both the place of the Peloponnesian king Apis among the descendants of Inachus and some aspects of his life and death:²³

Ocean and Tethys had a son, Inachus, after whom a river in Argos is called Inachus. He and Melia, daughter of Ocean, had sons, Phoroneus and Aegialeus. Aegialeus having died childless, the whole country was called Aegialia; and Phoroneus, reigning over the whole land afterwards named Peloponnese, begat Apis and Niobe by a nymph Teledice. Apis converted his power into a tyranny and named the Peloponnese after himself Apia; but being a stern tyrant he was conspired against and slain by Thelxion and Telchis. He left no child, and being deemed a god was called Sarapis.²⁴

The connection between the Memphite bull and the Argive king that leads to the account of Arnobius, including Serapis as well, is the result of the transmission in the Greek and Latin literary sources of the assimilation of the bulls Apis and Epaphus. The latter was the son of the Argive princess Io (a complex mythological figure transformed into a cow²⁵ who, according to different traditions, was said to be the daughter of Inachus or the daughter/sister of Phoroneus, both of them Argive kings)²⁶ and of Zeus, who had assumed the form of a bull in Memphis when he begot him. As cows, Io and Isis are assimilated, and the same may be said about their bovine offspring.²⁷

All of this explains Arnobius’ brief reference to the Peloponnesian origin of Apis and his assimilation with the Memphite god Serapis at his death.²⁸ It is information whose brevity is due not to the loss of knowledge of this mythical tradition about Apis–Serapis²⁹ but to Arnobius’ choice to quote it in this way as part of an enumeration of certain pagan beliefs. In fact, this same Greek–Egyptian mythological theme is found again in later authors such as Augustine of Hippo, who transmits the same story, although in a more extended form, within the framework of his aetiological and etymological explanation of the figure and name of the Egyptian god Serapis:

In those days Apis, king of the Argives, sailed to Egypt with a fleet, and when he died there he became Serapis, the chief god of all the Egyptians. Moreover, Varro gave a very simple explanation of his name, that is, why he was not still called Apis after his death, but rather Serapis.³⁰

Although this testimony comes after Arnobius, it too indicates that, like Augustine, Arnobius may have used the same source for his brief reference to Apis and Serapis: Varro.³¹ However, this question is more difficult to determine in the case of Arnobius, because we are dealing with evidence attested in several works and authors.³²

Therefore, the Arnobian identification of the figure of Apis, Argive king, with the Egyptian god Serapis—closely linked to the sacred bull Apis—has its origin in a mythological story attested in various versions, which begins in Pre-Hellenistic Greek authors. In that tradition, Apis, the Egyptian bull, son of Isis in these stories, is associated with Epaphus and with his mother, the Argive Io (identified with Isis), who ends up in Egypt in the myth.³³ The origin of this association may be found in the identification of the cow-goddesses Io and Isis, an identification that is reinforced by figures with the same name such as Apis (king in one case, sacred bull in another). Another question is the reason for the identification of the Egyptian Serapis with the Peloponnesian Apis; this identification logically starts at least in the Hellenistic period, and derives from hypotheses on the origin of the figure of Serapis that can be found in Greek and Latin texts. The reason why Arnobius included that specific reference in his work was probably because Serapis and Isis were the most well-known and recognizable Egyptian gods at the time.