SERAPIS, in Mythology, an Egyptian deity, who was worshipped under various names and attributes, as the tutelary god of Egypt in general, and as the patron of several of their principal cities. Tacitus informs us, that he was worshipped as a kind of universal deity, that represented Aesculapius, Osiris, Jupiter, and Pluto. He was sometimes taken for Jupiter Ammon, the Sun, and Neptune; and the honours that were rendered to him at Alexandria were more solemn and extraordinary than those of any other place.

Plutarch and Clemens of Alexandria, as well as Tacitus,^[1. Tacitus, Hist. lib. iv. cap. 3; Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride; Clemens Alexandrinus in Protrep. ] inform us, that whilst the first Ptolemy was employed in fortifying Alexandria with walls, and adorning it with temples and stately buildings, there appeared to him in his sleep a young man of extraordinary beauty, of a stature more than human, admonishing him to despatch into Pontus some of his most trusty friends, to bring from thence his statue; assuring him that the city and kingdom which possessed it should prove happy, glorious, and powerful. The young man having thus spoken, disappeared, mounting up into heaven in a blaze of fire.

Ptolemy discovered his vision to the priests; but finding them ignorant of Pontus, he had recourse to an Athenian, who informed him that near Sinope, a city of Pontus, there was a temple much resorted to by the natives, which was consecrated to Pluto, where he had a statue, near which stood that of a woman. Ptolemy neglecting the injunctions of the apparition, it again appeared to him in a menacing attitude; and the king immediately despatched ambassadors to the Serapian monarch, loaded with presents. The king of Sinope consented, but his subjects opposed the removal of the statue. The god, however, of his own accord, as we are informed, conveyed himself to the ambassadors’ ship, and in three days landed in Alexandria. The statue of Serapis was erected in one of the suburbs of the city, where a magnificent temple was afterwards reared.

The statue of Serapis, according to Macrobius, was of a human form, with a basket or bushel on his head, signifying plenty; his right hand leaned on the head of a serpent, whose body was wound round a figure with three heads, of a dog, a lion, and a wolf; and in his left hand he held a measure of a cubit in length, as if it were to take the height of the waters of the Nile. The figure of Serapis is found on many ancient medals.

The famous temple of Serapis at Alexandria was destroyed by order of Theodosius; and the celebrated statue of this deity was broken in pieces, and its limbs carried first in triumph by the Christians through the city, and then thrown into a fierce fire kindled for that purpose in the amphitheatre. As the Egyptians ascribed the overflowing of the Nile, to which was owing the fertility of their country, to the benign influence of their god Serapis, they concluded, that now he was destroyed, the river would no longer overflow, and that a general famine would ensue; but when they observed, on the contrary, that the Nile swelled to a[7:20:107] greater height than had been known in the memory of man, and thereby produced plenty of all kinds of provisions, many of the pagans, renouncing the worship of idols, adored the God of the Christians.