Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Mythology for destination: "MEMPHIS Ancient city EGYPT".
Daughter of the Nile, wife of Epaphus.
Epaphus, (Epaphos). A son of Zeus and Io. This mythological personage is the instrument by which Grecian myth derived the rulers of more ancient countries from its own gods and princes. Epaphus, according to the legend, was born in Egypt, and married Memphis, the daughter of the Nile, by whom he had a daughter named Libya. The same fable made him the founder of the city of Memphis. Libya bore to Poseidon Agenor, the father of Cadmus and Europa, and also Belus, who had by another daughter of the Nile, named Anchinoe, two sons, Danaus and Aegyptus.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Epaphus (Epaphos), a son of Zeus and Io, who was born on the river Nile, after the long wanderings of his mother. He was then concealed by the Curetes, by the request of Hera, but Io sought and afterwards found him in Syria. Epaphus, who subsequently became king of Egypt, married Memphis, the daughter of Nilus, or according to others, Cassiopeia, and built the city of Memphis. He had one daughter Libya, from whom Libya (Africa) received its name, and another bore the name of Lysianassa. (Apollod. ii. 1.3, 4, 5.11; Hygin. Fab. 145, 149, 275; comp. Herod. iii. 27, 28). Another mythical being of this name is mentioned by Hyginus. (Fab. init.)
Apis. The divine bull of the Egyptian capital Memphis, a manifestation of
the god Ptah.
Already in the most ancient times, the Egyptians venerated bulls, animals
that represented fertility. ('Strong bull' was a common title for creator gods
and kings.) Examples are the white Mnevis bull and the Bouchis of Hermonthis,
which was also white but had a black head. The Apis is described by the Greek
researcher Herodotus of Halicarnassus.
The Apis is the calf of a cow which is never afterwards able to have another.
The Egyptian belief is that a flash of light descends upon the cow from heaven,
and this causes her to conceive Apis. The Apis-calf has distinctive marks: it
is black, with a white square on its forehead, the image of an eagle on its back,
the hair on its tail double, and a scarab under its tongue. [Herodotus, Histories
3.28; tr. Aubrey de Selincourt]
The animal was venerated in Memphis, where a special shrine was built.
It sometimes served as an oracle.
[Pharaoh] Psammetichus built the southern gateway of the temple of Ptah at Memphis,
and opposite it a court for Apis [...]. Apis is kept in this court whenever he
appears; it has a colonnade round it, with statues six meters high instead of
pillars, and is richly carved with figures. [Herodotus, Histories 2.153; tr. Aubrey
de Selincourt]
The Apis was considered to be a manifestation of the Memphite creation
god Ptah; it was the 'soul (Ba) Ptah' and 'herald (whm) of Ptah'. The bull was
therefore a kind of servant, who was himself divine. Sometimes, it was shown to
the populace; during this procession, its walk was considered to be the blessing
of the country.
When the Apis died, it was buried in a necropolis at Saqqara, which
was first used by Nebmaatra Amenhotep III (1391-1353). The died bull had become
identical to the god of the Underworld, Osiris. Therefore, he was known as Osiris-Apis.
During the reign of the Ptolemaic kings (323-30 BCE), the god Osirapis or Serapis
became the most important god of Egypt.
The Apis is usually depicted as a black bull with, between his horns,
a sun disk and an uraeus snake. An example can be found on the tomb of the Apis
that died in September 524, which shows the Cambyses, the Persian king who had
conquered Egypt but behaved like a normal pharaoh, venerating the bull.
The Greeks identified the Apis with their demi-god Epaphus, a son
of their supreme god Zeus and his lover Io, who had been transformed into a cow.
The cult for Apis still existed in Roman times, but disappeared when
Egypt was christianized.
Apis, the Bull of Memphis, which enjoyed the highest honours as a god among the
Egyptians (Pomp. Mela, i. 9; Aelian, Hist. An. xi. 10; Lucian, de Sacrif. 15).
He is called the greatest of gods, and the god of all nations, while others regard
him more in the light of a symbol of some great divinity; for some authorities
state, that Apis was the bull sacred to the moon, as Mnevis was the one sacred
to the sun (Suid. s. v.; Ammian. Marcell. xxii. 14; Aelian, l. c.; Lutatins, ad
Stat. Theb. iii. 478). According to Macrobius (Sat. i. 21), on the other hand,
Apis was regarded as the symbol of the sun. The most common opinion was, that
Apis was sacred to Osiris, in whom the sun was worsllipped; and sometimes Apis
is described as the soul of Osiris, or as identical with him (Diod. i. 21; Plut.
de Is. et Os. 20, 33, 43; Strab. xvii.).
In regard to the birth of this divine animal Herodotus (iii. 28) says,
that he was the offspring of a young cow which was fructified by a ray from heaven,
and according to others it was by a ray of the moon that she conceived him (Suid.,
Aelian, ll. cc.; Plut. de Is. et Os. 43). The signs by which it was recognised
that the newly born bull was really the god Apis, are described by several of
the ancients. According to Herodotus, it was requisite that the animal should
be quite black, have a white square mark on the forehead, on its back a figure
similar to that of an eagle, have two kinds of hair in its tail, and on its tongue
a knot resembling an insect called kantharos. Pliny (H. N. viii. 71), who states,
that the cantharus was under the tongue, adds, that the right side of the body
was marked with a white spot resembling the horns of the new moon. Aelian says,
that twenty-nine signs were required ; but some of those which he mentions have
reference to the later astronomical and physical speculations about the god. When
all the signs were found satisfactory in a newly born bull, the ceremony of his
consecration began. This solemnity is described by Aelian, Pliny, Ammianus Marcellinus,
and Diodorus (i. 85). When it was made known, says Aelian, that the god was born,
some of the saered seribes, who possessed the secret knowledge of the signs of
Apis, went to the place of his birth, and built a house there in the direction
towards the rising sun. In this house the god was fed with milk for the space
of four months, and after this, about the time of the new moon, the scribes and
prophets prepared a ship sacred to the god, in which he was conveyed to Memphis.
Here he entered his splendid residence, containing extensive walks and courts
for his amusement. A number of the choicest cows, forming as it were the harem
of the god, were kept in his palace at Memphis. The account of Diodorus, though
on the whole agreeing with that of Aelian, contains some additional particulars
of interest. Pliny and Ammianus Marcellinus do not mention the god's harem, and
state that Apis was only once in every year allowed to come in contact with a
cow, and that this cow was, like the god himself, marked in a peculiar way. Apis,
moreover, drank the water of only one particular well in his palace, since the
water of the Nile was believed to be too fattening. The god had no other occupation
at Memphis, than to receive the services and homage of his attendants and worshippers,
and to give oracles, which he did in various ways. According to Pliny, his temple
contained two thalami, and accordingly as he entered the one or the other, it
was regarded as a favourable or unfavourable sign. Other modes in which oracles
were derived from Apis are mentioned in the following passages: Lutat. ad Stat.
Theb. iii. 478; Diog. Laert. viii. 9 ; Paus. vii. 22.2; Plin., Aelian, Solinus,
ll. cc.; Plut. de Is. et Os. 14.
As regards the mode in which Apis was worshipped, we know, from Herodotus
(ii. 38, 41), that oxen, whose purity was scrupulously examined before, were offered
to him as sacrifices. His birthday, which was celebrated every year, was his most
solemn festival; it was a day of rejoicing for all Egypt. The god was allowed
to live only a certain number of years, probably twenty-five (Lucan, Phars. viii.
477; Plut. de Is. et Os. 56). If he had not died before the expiration of that
period, he was killed and buried in a sacred well, the place of which was unknown
except to the initiated, and he who betrayed it was severely punished. If, however,
Apis died a natural death, he was buried publicly and solemnly, and, as it would
seem, in the temple of Scrapis at Memphis, to which the entrance was left open
at the time of Apis' burial (Paus. i. 18.4; Clem. Alex. Strom. i.; Plut. de Is.
et Os. 29). The name Serapis or Sarapis itself is said to signify "the tomb of
Apis". Respecting the particular ceremonies and rites of the burial, its expenses,
and the miracles which used to aecompany it, see Diod. i. 84, 96; Plut. l. c.
29, 35. As the birth of Apis filled all Egypt with joy and festivities, so lis
death threw the whole country into grief and mourning; and there was no one, as
Lucian says, who valued his hair so much that he would not have shorn his head
on that occasion (Lucian, de Sacrif. 15, de Dea Syr. 6; Tibull. i. 8; Ammian.
Marc., Solin. ll. cc.). However, this time of mourning did not usually last long,
as a new Apis was generally kept ready to fill the place of his predecessor; and
as soon as he was found, the mourning was at an end, and the rejoicings began
(Diod. i. 85; Spartian. Hadr. 12).
The worship of Apis was, without doubt, originally nothing but the
simple worship of the bull, and formed a part of the fetish-worship of the Egyptians;
but in the course of time, the bull, like other animals, was regarded as a symbol
in the astronomical and physical systems of the Egyptian priests. How far this
was carried may be seen from what Aelian says about the twenty-nine marks on the
body of Apis, which form a complete astronomical and physical system. For further
details respecting these late speculations, the reader is referred to the works
on Egyptian mythology by Jablonsky, Champollion, Pritchard, and others.
The Persians, in their religious intolerance, ridiculed and scorned
the Egyptian gods, and more especially Apis. Cambyses killed Apis with his some
own hand (Herod iii. 29), and Ochus had him slaughtered (Plut. l. c. 31). The
Greeks and Romans on the other hand, saw nothing repugnant to their feelings in
the worship of Apis, and Alexander the Great gained the good will of the Egyptians
by offering sacrifices to Apis as well as to their other gods (Arrian, Anab. iii.
1). Several of the Roman emperors visited and paid homage to Apis, and his worship
seems to have maintained itself nearly down to the extinction of paganism (Suet.
Aug. 93, Vespas. 5; Tacit. Annal. ii. 59; Plin. l. c.; Spartian. l. c., Sept.
Sever. 17).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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