The "Religious Sentiment" in man must be satisfied. But, how to do it?
How to find a deity who would meet the aspirations of conquerors as well
as conquered--of his most irreligious Macedonians, as well as of his
most religious Egyptians? It was a great problem: but Ptolemy solved
it. He seems to have taken the same method which Brindley the engineer
used in his perplexities, for he went to bed. And there he had a dream:
How the foreign god Serapis, of Pontus (somewhere near this present
hapless Sinope), appeared to him, and expressed his wish to come to
Alexandria, and there try his influence on the Religious Sentiment. So
Serapis was sent for, and came--at least the idol of him, and--
accommodating personage!--he actually fitted. After he had been there
awhile, he was found to be quite an old acquaintance--to be, in fact,
the Greek Jove, and two or three other Greek gods, and also two or three
Egyptian gods beside--indeed, to be no other than the bull Apis, after
his death and deification. I can tell you no more. I never could find
that anything more was known. You may see him among Greek and Roman
statues as a young man, with a sort of high basket-shaped Persian turban
on his head.
Pages:
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42