The gate of the year

Bronze statuette of the Apis bull, dating to the XXVI dynasty (664-630 B.C.), now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA. The cult of the Apis bull is an exceptional example in ancient Egypt of the worship of a live animal, identified with a God. This cult was central to Egyptian religion and seems to date from the earliest phases of its history. The sacred bull was associated with the pharaoh as a symbol of strength and virility. There was only one Apis bull alive at any time: at its death, the animal was mummified, brought in procession and buried in an underground temple, the Serapeum, in the necropolis of Saqqara. After its death, all Egypt mourned it, and then the search for the new Apis began, which should take the place of the died bull. The worship of the Apis bull was associated to the god Ptah, the creator god whose cult center was in the city of Memphis, and became very popular during the period of the Ptolemies, a Greek dynasty which ruled over Egypt from 322 to 32 B.C. (Remler 2010).

[Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]




Animals

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Bronze statuette of the Apis bull, dating to the XXVI dynasty (664-630 B.C.), now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA. The cult of the Apis bull is an exceptional example in ancient Egypt of the worship of a live animal, identified with a God. This cult was central to Egyptian religion and seems to date from the earliest phases of its history. The sacred bull was associated with the pharaoh as a symbol of strength and virility. There was only one Apis bull alive at any time: at its death, the animal was mummified, brought in procession and buried in an underground temple, the Serapeum, in the necropolis of Saqqara. After its death, all Egypt mourned it, and then the search for the new Apis began, which should take the place of the died bull. The worship of the Apis bull was associated to the god Ptah, the creator god whose cult center was in the city of Memphis, and became very popular during the period of the Ptolemies, a Greek dynasty which ruled over Egypt from 322 to 32 B.C. (Remler 2010). [Image: http://library.artstor.org/library/]