(2015) The cult of the sacred bull Apis: History of Study (original) (raw)
Related papers
(2016) A look through his window: the sanctuary of the divine Apis bull at Memphis.
The Journal of Ancient Egyptian Architecture 1: 57-70.
The divine Apis bulls were kept, lived, died, and were prepared for burial within the building complex known as the Place of Apis, somewhere in the vicinity of the main temple of Ptah at Memphis. Unfortunately, its exact location and layout are yet to be identified on site since large parts of the Ptah temple enclosure today lie under the modern settlement of Mit Rahina. Yet, since the Place of Embalmment has already been discovered in the south-western corner of the Ptah temple precinct, the rest of the sanctuary must have been located nearby. The purpose of this article is to propose a completely new layout for the sanctuary of Apis based on all available source material in order to connect parts of the burial ritual, known as the Apis Embalming Ritual, with actual localities inside the sanctuary itself.
The bull in the ancient civilizations
An analysis of the bull cult in some civilizations of the Near East and in Sardinia leads to define the sacredness of the bull and its association with the zodiacal constellation of Taurus. The myth of the killing of the bull by the god Mithra (India and Iran) and the change of the sun god in Egypt lead to define a symbolic representation of the passage between the zodiacal Age of Taurus and that of Aries. The strange representation of the androcephalous Assyrian bulls and the androcephalous bull bronzes found in Sardinia make us assume a stellar symbolism, aimed at setting out the passage between the zodiacal Age of Gemini / Beaver and that of Taurus.
The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 104.2: 195-204.
Memphis served as a main royal residence and the military, administrative, and economic capital of Egypt for much of its history. The city’s gradual decline had begun already under the Ptolemies, whose true capital was at Alexandria, and important changes in administrative practice during the Roman period diminished its traditional status further. The god Ptah and his earthly manifestation, the divine Apis bull, certainly continued to enjoy both religious and socio-political importance until the first decades of the third century AD at the latest, as will be discussed in the article. Given the fragmentary and haphazard nature of surviving evidence on the site, it is almost impossible to trace a coherent history of traditional Memphite cults beyond this date. This article aims to discuss the decline of the divine Apis bulls in the context of broader historical developments of the third to the fourth centuries AD.
The Role of Animals and Mythological Creatures in Global Cultures, 2021
The bull represents without any doubt one of the most important and powerful animals and one that played an important role not only in the everyday life of ancient civilizations but also in their belief systems. Based on available artistic and textual sources, a short investigation of the bull and bull mastery in the imagery and ideology of the ancient Near East and Egypt should illuminate its role and meaning, its positive and negative connotations as well as similarities and differences between the individual regions. By means of a more detailed comparative study, we may analyse its role in the Aegean Bronze Age, where the evidence is largely limited. A closer look at the relationship between Aegean and Near Eastern images of bull mastery and their individual motifs should increase our understanding not only of the meaning of this animal in the Aegean, but also of the accompanying figures depicted and their activities and thus shed new light on this still rather mysterious society.
Mesopotamian Gods and the Bull
En Mesopotamia, los dioses fueron asociados al toro desde por lo menos el período Protodinástico hasta la época neo-babilónica o caldea. Esta relación adoptó muchas modalidades: el toro podía servir como el animal divino del dios, la divinidad era comparada con el toro o, quizás, hasta podía adoptar la forma misma del animal. En este artículo, son identificados y estudiados los distintos dioses relacionados con el toro a fin de reconocer qué deidades fueron asociadas con más frecuencia al bóvido. Los vínculos entre los dioses y el toro son evidentes tanto en fuentes textuales como iconográficas, aunque se cuenta con menos ejemplos de esta conexión en este último tipo de registro. Los ejemplos de la representación de la asociación entre los diversos dioses y el toro en las inscripciones y la iconografía se pueden comparar y contrastar con el fin de revelar diferencias y similitudes en estas representaciones.