It seems that Ptolemy I Soter wanted to find an ideal deity for the cosmopolitan citizens of the universal city of Alexandria – the latter now perceived as the symbol of a regenerated Egypt that he, Ptolemy, was destined to govern. The choice quite naturally went towards the most revered of Egyptian gods, Osiris, or, to be more specific, as we saw in Chapter Five, to a special form of Osiris known as Osiris-Apis, the Wesir-Hapi of the ancient Egyptians. This linked Osiris to the worship of the bull-god Apis, a very ancient cult with its main centre at Memphis in Lower Egypt.43 According to Herodotus, who visited Egypt when this cult still flourished, the sacred Apis bull was: The calf of a cow which is incapable of conceiving another offspring; and the Egyptians say that lighting descends upon the cow from heaven, and that from thence it brings forth the Apis. This calf, which is called Apis, has the following marks: it is black, and has a square spot of white on the forehead; and on the back the figure of an eagle …44
Indeed, the Apis bull was said to be born from the womb of a sacred cow known as ‘Isis’, and when the Apis bull died he was considered to have become Osiris. As Egyptologist George Hart states: Following concepts about the dead pharaoh in the Underworld, Apis, upon dying, became the god Osiris. It is the sacred bull of Memphis in his form of Osiris-Apis that provides the Egyptian nature of the hybrid god created under early Ptolemaic rulers known as Serapis.45
The close similarity between the Apis bull cult and the Isis and Osiris cult is obvious. And the close identification between the Apis calf and the Horus child said in Egyptian mythology to have been born from the womb of Isis is thus inescapable: (1) The Apis bull was associated with the Horus-king or living pharaoh; (2) the sacred ‘Isis’ cow became pregnant by divine intervention in the same manner that the goddess Isis had become pregnant; (3 ) the sacred ‘Isis’ cow bore only one calf in the same way Isis had born only one son; (4) the Apis became ‘Osiris’ after death in the same way that the Horus-king – the pharaoh – was also devoutly believed to became ‘Osiris’ after death. As Hart further explains: The pharaoh identifies closely with Apis-bull imagery (with its inherent notion of strength and fertility) being an ancient characteristic in the propaganda of the god-king, as can be seen from carved slate palettes and in one of the names used in the royal protocol ‘victorious bull’. Celebrating his jubilee festival, a ceremony concerned with the rejuvenation of the monarch's power, the pharaoh strides briskly alongside the galloping Apis bull. The ritual which took place at Memphis is vividly portrayed in a relief on a block from a dismantled chapel in the Temple of Karnak at Thebes …46
A contemporary account of the Apis cult is given by Diodorus Siculus, who visited Egypt in the first century BC. Diodorus describes the funeral of the Apis bull in much the same terms as that of a pharaoh: After the splendid funeral of Apis is over those priests who have charge of the business seek out another calf as like the former as they can possibly find, and when they have found one an end is put to all the mourning and lamentation, and such priests as are appointed for that purpose lead the young bull through the city of Nile and feed him forty days. Then they put him into a barge wherein is a golden cabin and so transport him as a god to Memphis … For the adoration of the bull they give this reason: they say that the soul of Osiris passes into a bull and therefore whenever the bull is dedicated, to this very day the spirit of Osiris is infused into one bull after another for posterity.47
The most crucial aspect of the ancient Egyptian mystery religion is that the ‘son of Osiris’ i.e. Horus, was perpetually reincarnated in the person of the pharaoh, and after each pharaoh died he became ‘Osiris’ while his eldest son became the new living ‘Horus’. Or to put it another way, each successive pharaoh was the living embodiment of Horus while, at the same time – as was the case with the Apis bull – it was held that his soul would become ‘Osiris’ after his death. It can be seen, therefore, that the idea of the combined name ‘Osiris-Apis’ – which transmutated to Serapis – was modelled on the idea of ‘Osiris-Horus’ and, consequently, must be understood to be the ultimate name that symbolises the legitimacy and divinity of the ruling pharaoh.
This is precisely how Alexander the Great wanted to be perceived by the world, and this was also in the mind of Ptolemy when he was crowned the successor of Alexander in Egypt. When, in the summer of 323 BC, Alexander lay dying in Babylon from malaria (made worse by drinking excessive quantities of wine as a ‘cure’), his priests prepared a makeshift Temple of Osiris-Apis, i.e. Serapis, in his encampment, leaving us with no choice but to conclude that Alexander had embraced this god as his own. According to the official royal journal kept by the scribe Eumenes,48 Alexander was seized by a violent fever on 4 June which persisted for several days and, by 8 June, it was becoming clear to all that he was dying: 8 June: The fever continues. The Macedonians, thinking that he was dead, came screaming to the gates of his palace and insisted to see him. The doors were opened. They all passed in procession in front of the bed. In silence he [Alexander] greeted each of them by nodding his head or by making a sign with his eyes. In the Temple of Serapis, Peithon, Attalos and Demophon [Alexander's close companions] slept in turn waiting for an oracle from the god to tell them if they should transport Alexander to his sanctuary for him to be cured. The fever continued all night.
9 June: Same condition [the king is now in a coma]. New consultation of the god [‘father’ of Alexander] by Kleomenes, Menidas and Seleukos who relayed in the Temple of Serapis to sleep and to consult the god.
10 June: The god gave his reply, which was not to bring Alexander to the temple as he was better off where he lay resting. The companions reported this to the soldiers. A short while later, towards evening, Alexander died.49
The above text make it clear that a temple or shrine of Serapis had been raised somewhere near Alexander's palace in Babylon, and that this god was consulted over a matter of great importance – i.e. whether or not Alexander's body should be transported to the principal ‘sanctuary’ of Serapis, i.e. Osiris-Apis, in Egypt. There is an apparent anomaly in the text which refers to Serapis as the ‘father of Alexander’ when we know that Amun of Siwa already filled that role. But perhaps in the minds of the Macedonians at least, no clear distinction was made between Serapis and Amun, since both in the Egyptian tradition were ‘fathers’ to the pharaohs. Herodotus clearly equates Amun of Siwa with Zeus,50 and we know that Serapis was also equated with Zeus by the Alexandrians.
The labyrinth of Serapis
The main sanctuary of the Osiris-Apis bull (Serapis) was near Memphis in Lower Egypt, not far from the complex of the Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. Here, from at least 1400 BC, successive generations of Apis bulls were buried, in huge stone sarcophagi, in a subterranean labyrinth known today as the Serapeum (the same name applied to the Temple of Serapis at Alexandria). Herodotus, who wrote his Histories a century before Alexander's arrival in Egypt, is the first foreigner to mention the ‘Temple of Apis’. It probably was still operational well into Christian times, but by the middle ages the Serapeum had been completely buried in sand and its location forgotten. It was not until 1850 that it was re-discovered by the French archaeologist, Auguste Mariette. The story goes that Mariette, while trekking in the desert near Saqqara, stumbled on one of the many small sphinxes mentioned by the ancient geographer, Strabo, that had once had flanked the processional road leading to the Serapeum. He was to later write: ‘One finds,’ said the geographer Strabo [first century AD], ‘a temple to Serapis in such a sandy place that the wind heaps up the sand dunes beneath which we saw sphinxes, some half buried, some buried up to the head, from which one can suppose that the way to this temple could not be without danger if one were caught in a sudden wind storm.’ Did it not seem that Strabo had written this sentence to help us rediscover, after over eighteen centuries, the famous temple dedicated to Serapis? It was impossible to doubt it. This buried Sphinx, the companion of fifteen others I had encountered in Alexandria and Cairo, formed with them, according to the evidence, pa
rt of the avenue that led to the Memphis Serapeum …51
Inspired by his find, Mariette organised a workforce and, within a few weeks, had uncovered the entrance to the Serapeum which, even today, remains a hugely impressive and awe-inspiring place. It is located about a kilometer to the northwest of the stepped Pyramid of Djoser, and is approached from the east through a sloped alley going downwards into the bowels of the sand-rock desert. The vastness of this underground maze is what first hits you, with its dark and sprawling corridors running in several directions like a hellish labyrinth built for giants. Today there is lowwattage electric lighting but even so, if left wandering alone in this strange Hades, one is gripped by a curious sense of uneasiness, a sort of slow panic that mingles with the eerie and deathly stillness. There is something almost unnatural and something almost superhuman here. For what is seen all along the huge tunnels and corridors are dozens and dozens of enormous sunken niches, the size of large living rooms, in which were inserted massive granite sarcophagi that once contained the mummified corpses of the Apis bulls. The size and weight of these sarcophagi – some over 60 tons and cut from a single block of granite – fires the imagination for, at least on face value, it is very difficult to see how they were brought down here in the first place let alone manoeuvred into the niches. One has the sense that deep and dark mysteries were performed here. Their atmosphere still lingers – the charged residue of place where, in the words of the ancient Greeks, men were transformed into gods.
Alexander's return
Nectanebo II (the ‘father’ of Alexander in some legendary accounts) had his tomb built not far from the Serapeum at Saqqara.52 Could this have played a part in the strange events that took place after Alexander's death and the dilemma confronting his generals and officers as to where the remains of their heroic demi-god should be taken? For while still in Babylon, the body of Alexander was prepared in the ancient Egyptian manner by embalmers brought specially for this task. Alexander's body was then placed within a golden sarcophagus and a huge catafalque was built – the size of a house on wheels according to some eye witnesses – in order to transport the dead hero-god back to Egypt.
The journey took almost two years . Finally when it arrived at the borders of Egypt the catafalque was met by Ptolemy and the golden sarcophagus taken to Memphis. There it was buried near the Serapeum in a sumptuous tomb befitting the hero-god. So entrenched is the idea that Alexander's ‘lost tomb’ lay hidden in Alexandria that it generally comes as a surprise for some to know that his coffin remained at Memphis for at least ten years, and perhaps even longer, before finally being taken to Alexandria. At that time the city of Memphis was still the capital of Egypt, and the Temple of Heliopolis was still functioning as the priestly school for the state. As for Ptolemy himself, he was still satrape, i.e. governor of Egypt, under the authority of Alexander IV, the son of Alexander the Great by his Persian wife, Roxanne. In 310 BC, however, when the Alexander IV was 13, he was assassinated, and the succession not settled. Against this background, five years later, Ptolemy seized his chance and declared himself pharaoh of Egypt in 305 BC.
We may guess that it was to strengthen and symbolise his own legitimacy as the true successor of Alexander the Great that Ptolemy transferred Alexander's golden sarcophagus, and along with it the cult of Serapis-Osiris-Apis, to the newly built city of Alexandria. It is also likely that the kernel of the future Great Library of Alexandria was brought at this time from the great temple-library at Heliopolis.
This then was the manner in which Alexandria was turned into the new ‘capital’ of Egypt and created the great spark of enlightenment that was to illuminate the Western world at the time of the Renaissance.
A special gnosis
It has long been recognised that the ancient Egyptians did not have a ‘religion’ – at least not in the sense that we understand the meaning of this word today. And although the term Egyptian ‘religion’ has been extensively used in Egyptology, and we ourselves use it in this book, the fact remains that it cannot be found in the vocabulary of the ancient Egyptians. It simply does not exist. As the eminent Egyptologist and philologist Alan H. Gardiner explains: From the Egyptian point of view we may say that there is no such thing as ‘religion’; there was only heka, the nearest English equivalent of which is ‘magical power’ …53
Everything about the ancient Egyptian monuments and texts leads us to suppose that heka, i.e. magical powers, were believed to be acquired through a very intense spiritual and intellectual learning process involving elaborate and secret initiations. Heka was a sort of sacred science or, as we prefer to call it, a special gnosis, and it was thought to be the gift of Thoth, the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom (the Hermes Trismegistus of the Greeks). According to British Egyptologist Patrick Boylan, professor of Eastern languages at University College Dublin: Thoth … is god of wisdom and orderer of the cosmos. His word has to call things into being … [and is] endowed with magical powers. Magic presupposes always a special Gnosis. The magician claims to possess a higher and deeper knowledge of the secret nature of things, and the hidden connection which holds things together. He is the wise one whose words have power to control mysterious forces, and to ward off invisible perils. And the magician does all this by the power of his special gnosis … 54
This special gnosis or magical knowledge was said to have been gathered by Thoth and written in sacred books which, according to a legend found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, were taken to the Temple of Heliopolis by the goddess Hathor, whose star, the reader will recall, was Sirius.55 A rather similar legend that associates Thoth and his sacred books to the city of Heliopolis is found in the Westcar Papyrus. In this 3500-year-old text a story is told about a magician brought to the court of Pharaoh Khufu, the legendary builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Khufu is keen to find the secret chamber of Thoth (presumably where the magical ‘books’ were kept) in order to design his pyramid, and he is told by the magician that it will be found at Heliopolis in some sort of ‘inventory room’ or library or hall of scriptures and records.56 This story therefore associates the idea of the pyramid with the magical knowledge of Thoth – knowledge, as we shall see, that was specifically connected to the stars. As the French Egyptologist and author Christian Jacq asserts: The greatest centre of magic in Egypt was probably the holy city of Heliopolis, the city of the sun, where the most ancient theology developed. Here were preserved numerous papyri, ‘magic’ in the widest sense of the word, including medical, botanical, zoological and mathematical texts. Most Greek philosophers and savants travelled to Heliopolis to study some of that knowledge … 57
Jacq then goes on to say that at Heliopolis and other similar learning centres was practiced the most ‘sacred science that requires specialists trained for many years to grasp the most secret forces of the universe.’58 Everything points to the fact that the most important aspect of this ‘sacred science’ or special gnosis, rested on the belief that the influences and powers of the stars could be somehow drawn down to earth. As Christian Jacq and others have pointed out, the edifices of the ancient Egyptian sacred science rested on the fervent conviction that innate objects such as amulets, statues, shrines, monuments, temples and even whole cities could be imbued with the divine essence of the star-gods which was harnessed with the application of heka i.e. magic.
Western civilisation in the 21st century does not, by and large, believe in magic. Earlier civilisations did and the ancient Egyptians were emphatically amongst them. What they understood by heka however, does not necessarily accord with modern ideas of magic at all and therefore needs to be clearly defined. According to Dame Frances Yates of the University of London, who made a lifetime study of these matters: The type of magic with which we are to be concerned differs profoundly from astrology which is not necessarily magic at all but a mathematical science based on the belief that human destiny is irrevocably governed by the stars, and that therefore from the study of a person's horoscope, the position of the stars at the tim
e of his birth, one can foretell his irrevocably foreordained future. This magic is astrological only in the sense that it too bases itself upon the stars, their images and influences, but it is a way of escaping from astrological determinism by gaining power over the stars, guiding their influences in the direction which the operator desires. Or, in the religious sense, it is a way of salvation, of escape from material fortune and destiny, or of obtaining insight into the divine. Hence ‘astrological magic’ is not a correct description of it, and hereafter, for want of a better term, I shall call it ‘astral magic’ …59
Frances Yates, as we shall see in the next chapter, was speaking here not of ancient Egyptian ‘astral magic’ but, more specifically, of the revival of the Egyptian magical religion during the Italian Renaissance. But she might as well also have referred to ancient Egypt itself, for the definition she gives covers precisely the sort of ‘astral magic’ that seems to have existed in Egypt since time immemorial.