Serapis statue of Bryaxis

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Head of a Serapis statue from Carthage (now in the Louvre )

The statue of Serapis is considered the main work of the Greek sculptor Bryaxis . It shows the Hellenistic-Egyptian god Serapis , who is known from Egyptian sources as Osiris - Apis and was particularly venerated by the Ptolemies (the Greek rulers of Egypt at the time ). The deity unites Egyptian and Greek elements and religiously was supposed to bring Egyptians and Greeks closer together.

The statue has not survived, but is known from ancient descriptions and copies. It was a purely Hellenistic work of art. She was the cult image in the Serapeum , the Serapis Temple in Alexandria . Before the statue stood either in Sinope , Memphis or Seleukia Pieria , from where it was under Ptolemy I or Ptolemy III. was brought to Alexandria. This information goes back to Tacitus , who is not sure about the original location of the statue and the time of the transfer to Egypt and therefore gives different versions. He also reports that the statue initially did not depict Serapis, but Asklepios or Hades and was only consecrated on Serapis in Alexandria. Clement of Alexandria reports that the statue was made by Bryaxis, but not the one from Athens. Clemens also reports that the statue was made of different materials and was painted dark blue. Clemens' remark that the statue was not made by Bryaxis from Athens causes problems in research, since no other artist of the same name is known from other sources.

The statue showed the god enthroned, with full hair and a full beard, and is said to have been 12 m high. It was destroyed in 391 AD during Christian devastation of the Serapeum. This had great symbolic significance, as it was believed that the end of the world would come with the destruction of this statue. The Christian historian Rufinus of Aquileia reports:

the earth will instantly open to merge into chaos, and instantly the heavens will fall into the abyss

Most of the surviving ancient portraits of Serapis can be traced back to this statue.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tacitus, Historien 4, 84.
  2. ↑ Clemens, Protrepticus 48.5 ( German translation ).
  3. ↑ Rufinus, 2, 23

literature

  • Jerome J. Pollitt: Art in the Hellenistic Age. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1986, ISBN 0-521-27672-1 , pp. 279-280.

Web links

Commons : Serapis  - collection of images, videos and audio files