Serapis

----------     What I Like About Ancient Coins     ----------

A statuette of Serapis from the British Museum


A Bronze Statuette of Serapis from the British Museum

Not dated or given an origin by the British Museum.


The BM card says: "The seated figure is adapted from a famous statue made by the Greek sculptor Bryaxis for Ptolemy II of Egypt around 300 BC."

The deity Serapis was most likely invented by Ptolemy I as a means of uniting the two disparate cultures of Alexandria: native Egyptians, and the Hellenic incomers consequent on the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, whose general Ptolemy was.

The Bryaxis who produced the original may also have produced a large cult statue of Serapis, also in Alexandria. He certainly produced a cult statue of Apollo which was in a temple in a suburb of Antioch. This was not the same Bryaxis who was known to have worked on the Mausoleum at Helicarnassos in the previous century.

The photograph was taken hand-held through glass by the light of the BM's own not-too-good illumination.


The content of this page was last updated on 22 July 2009