Worship

The 5th-dynasty Palermo Stone indicates that Apis was worshipped as early as the reign of Den in the 1st dynasty. The god is known to have been especially venerated at the site of Memphis throughout most of Egyptian history, and according to the

Bronze statuette of the Apis bull showing stylized ‘eagle’s wings ’ and blanket on the bull’s back as well as the sun disk and uraeus common on later images. Late Period. British Museum.

Huge calcite embalming table used in the mummificaiion of the divine Apis bulls. 26th dynasty. Ptah temple complex, Memphis.

Mammalian Deities

3rd-century writer Aelian, the god’s cult was established in that location by Menes and continued until Roman times which clearly reflects a timdition of great antiquity for the Memphite cult of Apis. According to the Pyramid Texts and the Book of the Dead, the divine bull was also worshipped at Sais and Athxibis in the Delta.

In Memphis the Apis bull was kept in special quarters just south of the temple of Ptah where it was adored by worshippers and entertained by its own harem of cows. In addition to its participation in special processions and other religious rituals, the animal was utilized in the delivery of oracles and was regarded as one of the most important oracular sources in Egypt.

According to the Classical writers Herodotus and Plutarch, when the Apis bull reached its 25th year it was killed with great ceremony. It was then embalmed and buried in a great granite sarcophagus - some weighing as much as 70 tons - in the vast subterranean galleries of the Serapeum at Saqqara. The funeral ceremonies were extensive and it was said that in the Late Period, at the height of its worship, Egypt mourned for the deceased Apis as for the death of the pharaoh himself. The cow which had produced the Apis bull, known as the Isis cow, was also taken to Memphis at the time of the bull calf’s selection and also kept under special circumstances to be eventually buried in the ‘Iseum’ not far from the Serapeum.