Serapis

Serapis
/si ray"pis/, n.
1. Also, Sarapis. a Greco-Egyptian deity combining the attributes of Osiris and Apis, identified in Egypt with the Ptolemies: later worshiped throughout the Greek and Roman empires.
2. (italics) the British man-of-war captured by John Paul Jones in 1779.

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▪ Greco-Egyptian deity
also spelled  Sarapis 

      Greco-Egyptian deity of the sun first encountered at Memphis, where his cult was celebrated in association with that of the sacred Egyptian bull Apis (who was called Osorapis when deceased). He was thus originally a god of the underworld but was reintroduced as a new deity with many Hellenic aspects by Ptolemy I Soter (reigned 305–284 BC), who centred the worship of the deity at Alexandria.

      The Serapeum at Alexandria was the largest and best known of the god's temples. The cult statue there represented Serapis as a robed and bearded figure regally enthroned, his right hand resting on Cerberus (the three-headed dog who guards the gate of the underworld), while his left held an upraised sceptre. Gradually Serapis became revered not only as a sun god (“ Zeus Serapis”) but also as a lord of healing and of fertility. His worship was established in Rome and throughout the Mediterranean, following the trade routes and being particularly prominent in the great commercial cities. Among the Gnostics (early Christian heretics who believed that matter is evil and the spirit is good; see Gnosticism) he was a symbol of the universal godhead. The destruction of the Serapeum at Alexandria by the patriarch Theophilus (Theophilus of Alexandria, Saint) and his followers in AD 391 signaled the final triumph of Christianity not only in Egypt but throughout the Roman Empire.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Serapis — in Hieroglyphen …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Serápis — SERÁPIS, od. SARÁPIS, ĭdos, Gr. Σέραπις, s. Σάραπις, ιδος 1 §. Namen. Diesen setzen einige aus Σορὸς, ein Sarg, und Apis, zusammen, weil der Ochs Apis ehemals in einen Sarg geleget und also aufbehalten worden Plutarch de Is. & Osir. p. 362. Varro …   Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon

  • SÉRAPIS — Divinité grecque introduite en Égypte sous les Ptolémées, Sérapis, ou Sarapis, était originaire de Sinope. D’après la légende, le roi Ptolémée II, qui régna dans les toutes dernières années du SÉRAPIS IVe siècle, vit en songe le dieu Sérapis de… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Serapis — god of the lower world, from Latin, from Gk. Serapis, earlier Sarapis, from Egyptian User hapi, lit. Osiris Apis …   Etymology dictionary

  • Serapis — Se*ra pis, n. [L., fr. Gr. ???, ???.] (Myth.) An Egyptian deity, at first a symbol of the Nile, and so of fertility; later, one of the divinities of the lower world. His worship was introduced into Greece and Rome. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Serāpis — (Sarapis), ein erst seit Ptolemäos Lagi aus Sinope eingeführter Gott der Ägyptier; er wurde der Hauptgott Alexandriens, der Residenz der neuen Dynastie der Ptolemäer, u. um den bigotten Ägyptiern nicht einen Anstoß mit diesem neuen, fremden Gotte …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Serāpis — (Sarapis), fremde Gottheit, deren Kultus unter dem ersten Ptolemäer aus Sinope in Ägypten eingeführt wurde. Er wurde für einen Unterweltsgott gehalten und, da auch Tod und Krankheit in das Gebiet des Herrschers der Unterwelt gehören, um Heilung… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Serapis — Serāpis, ägypt. Gottheit, s. Sarapis …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Serapis — Serapis, Sarapis, ägypt. Gott, wahrscheinlich der unterirdische Osiris, der Herrscher über das Todtenreich, der heilende Gott. Seine Verehrung kam erst unter den Ptolemäern besonders empor und dehnte sich später fast über das ganze röm. Reich… …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

  • Serapis — {{Serapis}} ⇒ Sarapis …   Who's who in der antiken Mythologie

  • Serapis — [sə rā′pis] n. [L < Gr osorāpis < Egypt wsyr ḥp, Osiris Apis] Egypt. Myth. a god of the lower world, whose cult spread to Greece and Rome …   English World dictionary

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