This consummately crafted, hollow cast bronze
sculpture is possessed of an inherent
monumentality which belies its jewel-like,
diminutive size. His long, flowing hair frames his
face and covers his ears. A fringe of five
prominent curls laps his forehead. His crescent-
shaped moustache is full and falls down
alongside his mouth which it conceals. His beard
is full and bifurcated. He wears a kalathos, or
basket in which grained was measured out, on
his head as an attribute. The kalathos serves to
identify this image as Sarapis, a syncretistic deity
introduced into the Greek pantheon by the early
Ptolemies, who were the successors of Alexander
the Great as rulers of Egypt.
The god is shown in the guise of the great Greek
elder gods such as Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades
whose images are characterized by full beards,
flowing moustaches, and long, curly hair. His
kalathos associates him with the Egyptian god,
Osiris, whose associations with the grains grown
in Egypt complemented his role as the lord of
the hereafter. The cult of Sarapis, therefore,
combined into one the religious beliefs of the
ancient Greeks together with those of the native
Egyptians.
Tradition credits Byraxis, a Greek sculptor active
in the court of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, with the
creation of the cult statue of Sarapis which stood
in the vast Serapeum complex in Alexandria. The
monumental blocks of worked rose-colored
Syenite-granite still lying about that site attest
to the size and grandeur of the temple of Sarapis
in Alexandria within which the famed cult statue
created by Bryaxis stood. The style of the hair,
beard, and moustache of this jewel-like bronze
image are so close to other more monumental
depictions of Sarapis in both Egyptian stones and
marble that all reflect the appearance of his cult
statue by Bryaxis. All of these evocations were
created during the course of the second century
AD when the cult of Sarapis enjoyed wide-spread
popularity throughout the Roman Empire. That
popularity was due in part to such Roman
emperors as Hadrian whose favorite, Antinoos,
was deified after having been drowned in the
Nile. It is rare, indeed, to come across such an
exacting evocation of an ancient cult statue
created in such an aesthetically accomplished
manner.
References:
John E. Stambaugh, Serapis under the Early
Ptolemies (Leiden 1972), still remains a standard
reference work on the subject; and compare D.
Wildung and G. Grimm (editors), Götter und
Pharaonen (Hildesheim 1979), nos. 154 and 155,
for comparable images in granite and marble,
respectively.
