Artwork Page for Apis Bull

Details / Information for Apis Bull

Apis Bull

400–100 BCE

Egypt, Greco-Roman period (332 BCE–395 CE), Ptolemaic dynasty

(305–30 BCE)
Medium
serpentinite
Measurements
Overall: 53 x 19 x 59 cm (20 7/8 x 7 1/2 x 23 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1969.118
Public Domain
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Location
107 Egyptian
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Did You Know?

A larger base, likely inscribed, may have hidden the rough, unfinished lower edges of this statue.

Description

Sacred animal cults have a long history in ancient Egypt, but they became even more important in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Because each god could incarnate himself into any animal species, beasts of all sorts--dogs, cats, ibises, crocodiles--were protected, venerated, mummified, and collected by the thousands in specialized animal cemeteries. The sacred bull cults were different. Apis, the bull of Memphis, was a god in his own right. But he was also associated with other deities, such as Ptah, the god of Memphis, and Osiris, in the form of Osiris-Apis (or Serapis). Statues and reliefs always show him crowned with a sun disk and cobra. When an Apis bull died, he was given a burial fit for a king in an area of the Memphite cemetery known as the Serapeum.
A sculpture depicts a bull carved from serpentinite, a dark stone mottled with light specks and smoothed to a sheen. In profile facing our left, fine, curved incised lines detail the bull’s thick neck and long, textured tail. A rectangular form rises between short horns. The bull stands with one front leg stepped forward on a thick, rough-textured base, while a solid stone slab remains between its legs to support the belly.

Apis Bull

400–100 BCE

Egypt, Greco-Roman period (332 BCE–395 CE), Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BCE)

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