The relationships between Greece and Egypt started long before the arrival of the Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies in Egypt. The first literary evidence for the Greek presence in Egypt is in Herodotus. First there is the mention of a Samian merchant who was on his way to Egypt when he was carried off course to the west; this trip probably happened about 638 BC. Thus we can assume that there was at least a casual trade visit by Greeks about the middle of the seventh century. The second information which we take again from Herodotus concerns the reign period of Psammetichus I. According to an oracle he hired as mercenaries Ionian and Carian pirates and used them to prevail in Egypt. As reward gave them two pieces of land on either side of the Pelusian Branch of the Nile. That was the beginning of a regular intercourse with the Egyptians.[1]
Ptolemaic Egypt is a tale of two cultures. Differing in ethos, focus, and aspiration, these cultures initially maintained a wary coexistence, in which convenience and the balance of power generated a viable degree of cooperation usually sufficiently effective to mask their mutual distaste.[2] As consequence, the Egyptians became Hellenized and the Greeks Egyptianized.
Religion is perhaps the most impressive example of cross-cultural interaction. This paper aims to present the encounter in religion in the image of the gods and their religious content.
In Ptolemaic Egypt, and especially in Alexandria, the propagation of Egyptian religion was restricted to the Osirian cycle. The great triad Osiris, Isis and Horus became popular in the form of Sarapis, Isis and Harpocrates. It was also known among the biggest part of the Greek population as Dionysus, Demeter and Apollo, an identification, which was known in as early as the 5th century B.C., but not only with these names.[3] These gods, as we will see for each one of them, were identified in more than one way with the Greek gods. From an artistic point of view, the Alexandrian technique and modes of expression were able to give a different and more complex image to the Egyptian gods, contributing to the philosophical and theological work.[4]
During the second and first centuries B.C. the worship of Isis and Sarapis spread rapidly from Alexandria throughout the Hellenistic world, carried by merchants, travelers and soldiers. Finally, although these three gods had a major role in the Ptolemaic religion, many others, Greek and Egyptian, gods were worshipped and in many cases they were identified with their counterparts in the other religion. (see the following table)
Egyptian Deity
|
Greek Deity
|
Location in Herodotus
|
Ptah
|
Hephaestus
|
II.3.1,112.1
|
Horus
|
Apollo
|
II.144.2
|
Osiris
|
Dionysus
|
II.42.2,144.2
|
Isis
|
Demeter
|
II.59.2
|
Set
|
Typhon
|
II.144.2
|
Bubastis
|
Artemis
|
II.137.2
|
Ammun
|
Zeus
|
II.42
|
Hathor
|
Aphrodite
|
II.42
|
Neith
|
Athena
|
II.28.1
|
But as we already mention this paper will deal with Sarapis, Isis and Harpocrates. These three deities represent good examples of religious interaction, and especially when they get inside the context of Alexandria. As H.I. Bell supported, “From the first Alexandria seemed destined for its role of a melting-pot in which Greece and Egypt could meet and contribute their several quotas to a hybrid culture”.[6]
SARAPIS
Ptolemy I understood from the early years of his reign that he needed to create a harmonious relationship between the Greek emigrants and the native Egyptian population, and the way to do that was to create a unique, new religious system for both of them. For this reason he asked for the help of the Greek Timotheus, who was a member of a priestly family, related to the Eleusinian mysteries, and the Egyptian Manetho, priest and historian.[7] These two men and their immense knowledge of each culture’s religious traditions enabled Ptolemy to create a cult that pleased both the Greeks and the Egyptians. Ptolemies in fostering the cult of the new, or at least revamped and syncretistic deity Sarapis, offered some common focus of devotion. The cult of Sarapis brought the Greeks and the Egyptians together in such a way that they were able to support Ptolemy in their own individual way while still sharing a common belief.
Sarapis was the official god of Alexandria, the symbol of Alexandrian religion. He had a double nature, Greek and Egyptian. Because of his double nature, he was the ruler of the underground world and Heaven as well. As Egyptian, he was the substitute for Osiris. In fact, by his name, he was the Hellenized form of the name of the sacred bull Apis, who was worshipped in Memphis, in the Late Period, as Osiris-Apis, the deceased or Osirianized Apis, who became Osiris after his death.[8]Therefore, Osiris-Apis, who was adopted as Osirapis, became Sarapis. According to a myth related to his invention, a dream revealed to Ptolemy a statue of Hades or Pluto at Sinope or Pontus.[9] This statue was imported to Alexandria and the priests concluded that this statue was Osiris-Apis, who became Sarapis. Therefore, he was linked to the aspects of Osiris, such as the god of dead and fertility.
As Greek, he was identified with Greek gods such as Dionysos, who was the god of sex, wine, and mysteries, Pluto (Hades), who was the Greek god-ruler of the underground world, Zeus, who was the father of the Olympian gods and Asklepios who was the god of medicine.[10] In fact, Greeks seem to have assimilated him to the whole Greek pantheon.[11]
The cultic centre of Sarapis was Alexandria. The Sarapeion was the name of his temple. This temple was built in Greek style, designed by the Greek architect, Parmeniscus. The liturgical language of his cult was Greek.[12] He was also an oracular god for those who traveled or wanted to pray for an absent person. The Greek sculptor Bryaxis seems to have made his statue. However, Stambaugh[13] suggested that Bryaxis was responsible for Sarapis’s Memphite statue and not for the Alexandrian one.
Sarapis was Egyptian in origin but Greek in fashion. He is usually depicted as an old man with patriarchal head, close to that of Zeus. He has luxuriant hair and along beard. On his head, he carries a modius, the basket-symbol of fertility.
His body is covered with a rich cloak. In many instances, in one of his hands, he holds a sceptre, while in the other he holds the chain of a three-head dog, well-known from the Greek mythology as Cerberus, the guardian of the doors of the underground world. In addition, coins of Ptolemies II-IV illustrate his relation to Osiris by depicting Sarapis as Zeus with the Atef crown, the typical crown of Osiris.[14]
It should be noticed that for the Egyptians Sarapis was still a form of Osiris in Memphis or merely the Greek name for the ancient Osiris. Contrarily to the promotion and the expectations of the religious policy, which engendered it, there was little response in Egypt to the figure of Sarapis. However, from the 4th century onwards, his cult together with that of Isis was rapidly spread throughout the Mediterranean world, and in some regions of the Ptolemaic Empire such as Thera and Cyprus, there is occasional evidence of the associations of his cult with the cult of Ptolemies.[15]
ISIS
Isis was the goddess of the great triad, who had a long history in Egyptian religion. She was the wife of Sarapis, since she was the wife of Osiris during the Dynastic Period. However, the cults of Isis and Sarapis were separated.[16] She was also the mother of Horus, who had the name Harpocrates in the Ptolemaic Period. Her cult was the most popular cult in Egypt and in the Hellenistic world.
Isis was an Egyptian goddess with many faces and she was known as the goddess with a thousand names. The Greeks were already familiar with her, since she had a temple in Piraeus, before the time of Alexander the Great. She was also identified with many Greek goddesses, such as Aphrodite, who was the goddess of love, beauty and desire, Demeter, who was the goddess of grains and agriculture and who was also connected with mysteries, Hera, who was the wife of Zeus, Tyche, who was the deity of luck, Hecate, who was the deity of the poor people and Artemis, who was the goddess of hunting and wild animals.[17] She was also the goddess of sailors and navigation.[18]
Isis had no single authoritative model for her image. She is young and often slender. Usually, she wears an Egyptian style distinctive dress, in Greek fashion, with a central knot below her breasts. Her attributes were the sistron, the discus and the situla, borrowed from the Egyptian tradition. Her hair was long floating or corkscrew curls, with or without further Egyptian headgear. The corkscrew curls are the indelible identifying feature of Greek representations of Isis: they were a creative adoption from earlier Greek sculpture, a kind of neo-archaic loan employed to suggest the age and otherness of the Egyptian goddess.[19] It should be noticed here that Isis, as mother of Horus, was a natural choice for a divinity with which the Ptolemaic queens could be linked.[20]
HARPOCRATES
Horus the child, Harpocrates, was the child god, son of Isis, in its Greek form. During the late Ptolemaic period, he was not distinguished from Horus the elder, Haroeris. He was identified with various Greek gods and deities, such as Apollo, Herackles, Helios. In his young form, he was associated with Eros, young Apollo and young Heracles. He also assumed the attributes of local deities with whom Amun-Re had been identified. Horus-Harpocrates’ symbol, remained the falcon, but sometimes was confused by the Greeks with the eagle.[21]
Harpocrates was portrayed in different forms and shapes during the Ptolemaic period. He was usually presented as a child on a lotus flower, or rising out from a chalice. Sometimes, he was depicted with his mother Isis curing or suckling him. His finger in his lips, the symbolic manifestation of his infancy, sometimes was interpreted as a command to the faithful to be silent, concerning the mysteries of the religion.[22] Finally, he frequently wears the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt or the crown of Osiris.[23] This aspect may be interpreted within the context of his Egyptian nature, since according to the myth of Osiris, Horus replaced his father as a king among the living.[24]
In concluding even if it appears that the Greek settlers did not at once forget their ancestral gods, though they showed no reluctance to adopt the Egyptian deities also,[25] Alexandria, as a melting –pot, worked in such a way that at the produced this new triad (Sarapis, Isis and Harpocrates), which is a very good example of the religious interaction between Greeks and Egyptians. Ptolemy I understood that he should encouraged the cult of Sarapis and Isis. The Egyptian beauty and style were made visible and attractive to Greeks. In the long run it was not Sarapis, who made the impact but Isis. She was an enormously appealing figure; a wife, a savior, a mother, a woman who could be either seductive or pure or both at the same time. She nursed her child, Horus for the Egyptians and Harpocrates for the Greeks and she offered sustenance, forgiveness, hope for the suffering and immortality to the dying.[26] Thus with Isis in the front line of this triad Alexandria met a religious interaction which was able to bring together the Greeks and the Egyptians. Both of the communities were able to find in these deities characteristics which were familiar to them, while later they were able to accept also the characteristic of the others.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Bell, H. “Popular Religion in Graeco-Roman Egypt: I. The Pagan Period”, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 34, 1948: 82-97.
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Herodotus, The Histories, Book II (transl. A. de Sélincourt), New York, 1972.
Hölbl, G. A History of the Ptolemaic Empire, London, 2001.
Kahil, L. “Cults in Hellenistic Alexandria”, in M. True and K. Hamma, Alexandria and Alexandrianism, Malibu, 1996: 75-84.
Lloyd, A.B. “The Ptolemaic Period (332-30 BC)”, in I. Shaw, The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, Oxford, 2003: 388-413.
Mercer, S.A.B. The Religion of Ancient Egypt, London, 1949.
Shaw, I. and Nicholson, P.T. The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, London, 2002.
Smith, R.R.R. Hellenistic Sculpture. A Handbook, New York, 1991.
Welles, C.B. Alexander and the Hellenistic World, Toronto, 1970.
Witt, R.E. Isis in the Graeco-Roman World, Ithaca and New York, 1971.
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