Bull Crap, The Myths

Apis

Worship of an Apis bull a sacred bull in the Memphis region, the ancient Egyptians considered it to be holy being the son of Hathor. Initially appears in the First Dynasty in Memphis, the elevation of Apis as a proper god, at least according to Manetho's Aegyptiaca, seems to be a later adoption, purportedly started during the reign of king Kaiechos (possibly Nebra) of the Second Dynasty.

Apis is named on very early monuments, but little is known of the divine animal before the New Kingdom. Initially Apis was linked with Hathor and played a significant part in her ceremonies being sacrificed and reborn, Ceremonial burials of bulls indicate that ritual sacrifice was part of the worship of the early cow deities, Hathor and Bat, and a bull might represent her offspring, a king who became a deity after death.Apis developed into an intermediary between humans and other deities firstly Ptah then Osiris and finally Atum. He was entitled "the renewal of the life" of the Memphite deity Ptah: but after death he became Osorapis, i.e. the Osiris Apis, just as dead humans were assimilated to Osiris, the ruler of the underworld. This Osorapis was identified with Serapis of the late Hellenistic period and may well be identical with him. Creating parallels to their own religious beliefs, ancient Greek writers identified Apis as an incarnation of Osiris, ignoring the connection with Ptah. Apis was the most popular of three great bull cults of ancient Egypt, the others being the cults of Mnevis and Buchis. All are related to the worship of Hathor or Bat, similar primary goddesses separated by region until unification that eventually merged as Hathor. The worship of Apis was continued by the Greeks and after them by the Romans, and lasted until almost 400 CE.