Existing comment:
Roman
Bust of Serapis, 2nd century AD
The cult of Serapis was created by the Ptolemies in Egypt as part of their efforts to blend traditional Egyptian and Greek religion. The god combined the features of the Egyptian gods Apis and Osiris with the iconography of bearded Greek deities such as Zeus and Hades. This bust is based on the cult image in the famous Serapeum (temple of Serapis), which showed Serapis with a modius (grain measure) on his head symbolizing Egypt's fertility.
The emperor Septimius Severus (reigned 193-211) modeled many of his portraits on Zeus Serapis. |