TYPE: Bull God
ORIGIN: Egyptian
INFORMATION: The living personification of the creator god Ptah in Memphis, he acts as an intermediary between the supreme god and mankind. His mother is Isis, who engendered him in a lightning flash. The bull is depicted wholle black apart from a small white triangle on the forehead, and it bears vulture wings. Between its horns are surmounted the sun disc (or, in later times, the moon) and the uraeus.
The cult of the bull is very ancient and is attested in Egypt from at least 3000 BCE. According to the Greek writer Herodotus, huge statues of Apis supported the temple of Ptah in Memphis. In a ritual of virility, the king paced alongside the charging bull to renew his strength. The average life of an Apis bull was fourteen years, at the end of which each was mummified and interred in huge sarcophagi, which were placed in catacombs at th e necropolis at Seqqara. The bull also has strong underworld connections. See also Sarapis.