Sanctuary of Serapis

[dean]

Hello,I was wondering what you thought about the following,Alexander running high fever and bed bound on practically the last day of his life- the oracle of Serapis is asked if it is possible to move the king to the sanctuary- to effect a cure- and the answer is to leave him where he is.Why did the priests not want him to go there?Could it be the priests feared problems similar to the magi of Cyrus the greatGÇÖs tomb?Would the priests have had anything to gain out of AlexanderGÇÖs death?Was it not in Babylon that Alexander had ordered the reconstruction of a temple and the magi had squandered the money? May have feared punishment for this? Maybe this has nothing to do with the oracle in question. I don't remember.What do you reckon?Best regards,
Dean.

[Polyxena]

Wow, it's really interesting. I don't know nothing about this, but I would like to know. Waiting for sbd's reply.
Regards and thanks for asking

[Kit]

Hi Dean,I would imagine that the simple answer is that the sanctuary did not want to run the risk of incurring the wrath of the Macedonians if Alexander died under their care, and the corresponding negative impact this would have had on the reputation of the sanctuary if a 'miracle cure' failed to materialise?regards Kit

[yiannis]

I was under the impression that the "Serapeion" in Alexandreia was built much later by the Ptolemies...
Was there something similar in another city before them?

[Tre]

There was no reason to move him to the temple in the priests' eyes - it was no doubt obvious Alexander was going to die and who wants to have it seen that a God couldn't effect a cure, especially if you are employed by same God for a living? Better he should die in his own bed than in their temple and even worse, he could die on his way to the temple - now that they could personally get in trouble for.There is some confusion over whether Serapis was a later god invented by Ptolemy or whether he existed at that time, but that is for someone more specialist in those matters than I :-)Regards,Tre

[marcus]

Hi Tre,I believe that Serapis has now been definitely identified as being a later, Ptolemaic institution. But I do remember reading somewhere that when they talked of the temple of Serapis in Babylon they were referring to the temple of Bel Marduk - which was syncretised with Serapis (prior to the secondary source material being written, of course).All the bestMarcus

[dean]

Hello,Yes, I understood that it was Bel Marduk as you say Marcus.From what I was reading, the cult was "used" by Ptolemy later in Alexandria to unite Egyptians and Greeks in worship- as the god was of Egyptian/Greek origin.And Chris, as you say, the most probable guess is just as you say, to avoid incurring any responsibility for his death.Best wishes,
Dean.

[ScottOden]

Hi All,Serapis, known in Egyptian as Asar-Apis or Osiris-Apis, was a god of the Egyptian underworld. The earliest mention I can find of Asar-Apis is from an inscription made in the 18th dynasty (King Tut was a ruler of the 18th dynasty). Asar-Apis is referred to as: "the great god, Khent, Amentet, the lord of life forever" and "the life of Osiris, the lord of heaven, Tem {with} his horns {in} his head." The worship of Asar-Apis was centered at the Serapeum of Memphis, where the Apis bulls (living icons of Osiris) were buried.Much later, Ptolemy I was looking for a god that the Greeks and Egyptians could share. There's some legendary mumbo-jumbo about a dream Ptolemy had, leading him to Serapis, but in reality he practised very shrewd statecraft in getting the Greeks to believe they were worshipping Hades and the Egyptians to continue their belief that Serapis was their national god, Osiris. In a suburb of Alexandria, he renovated an old Asar-Apis shrine that had fallen into disrepair and the home of the Greco-Egyptian god Serapis was born. Later, the Romans embraced the same diety.Hope this helps...Scott

[Bill Giannakos]

Dear Dean
do not forget that the same thing the doctors did when Alexander was ill except Phillipos his doctor.They were afraid of punishment if they couldn't help him recover.
regards Bill