“So also Ochus,
the most cruel and terrible of the Persian kings, who put many to death and
finally slaughtered the Apis and ate him for dinner in the company of his
friends, the Egyptians called the ‘Sword’; and they call him by that name even
to this day in their list of kings” – Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris 355c
“They were gods honored by
the Egyptians, having a sign around the tail and the tongue, indicating that
they are Apides. These are begotten from time to time, as they used to say,
from the shining of the moon. For them they would celebrate a great festival
and certain priests perform the ritual around the ox that is born, presenting a
complete banquet to feed them sumptuously. Apis: this Apis an Egyptian god. Egyptians honor him with a moon, and this ox
was sacred to the moon, as Memphis
to the sun. Okhos having killed Apis wanted to hand him over to the butchers,
so that they might cut him up for meat and prepare him for dinner.” – Suda s.v.
Apides
“To the moon they dedicated a bull which they
call Apis, which also is more black than others, and bears symbols of sun and
moon, because the light of the moon is from the sun. The blackness of his body
is an emblem of the sun, and so is the beetle-like mark under his tongue; and
the symbol of the moon is the semicircle, and the gibbous figure.” - Porphyry, Concerning
Images
“Now Leon, who wrote a treatise On the
gods of Egypt, says that Isis was called by the Greeks Demeter, who is
contemporary with Lynceus in the eleventh generation after Moses. Apis also the
king of Argos was the founder of Memphis, as Aristippus says in the first Book
of the Arcadica. Moreover Aristeas of Argos says that this Apis was
surnamed Sarapis, and that it is he whom the Egyptians worship. But Nymphodorus
of Amphipolis, in the third Book of The Customs of Asia, says that when
Apis the bull died and was embalmed, he was deposited in a coffin (soros) in
the temple of the daemon who was worshipped there, and thence was called
Soroapis and afterwards Sarapis. And Apis is the third from Inachus.” –
Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 10.12
On the origin of Serapis’ name
“Some do not think that he is Pluto, but rather Osiris, or according to
others Apis; as there was a great deal of contention about this matter,
they erected the image, they say, when they had come to agreement, of
‘Oserapis’ as if from a single compound, so that both Osiris and Apis
would be thought of in the same deity.” – Cyril of Alexandria, Adversus Iulianum 1.13
Story of Io
"From Inachus and Argia Io. Jupiter loved and embraced Io, and changed
her to heifer form so that Juno would not recognize her. When Juno
found out, she sent Argus, who had gleaming eyes all around to guard
her. Mercurius, at Jove’s command, killed him. But Juno sent a fearful
shape to plague her, and out of terror of it she was driven wildly and
compelled to cast herself into the sea, which is called Ionian. Thence
she swam to Scythia, and the Bosporus is named from that; thence she
went to Egypt where she bore Epaphus. When Jove realized that for his
sake she had borne such suffering, he restored her to her own form, and
made her a goddess of the Egyptians, called Isis." - Hyginus, Fabulae 145
Io bore Epaphos
"Zeus loved Inakhos’ daughter Io, the wandering heifer, from whom
beside the Neilos (Nile) came the line begun by Epaphos and primeval
Keroessa." - Nonnus, Dionysiaca 32.65
The identification of Apis and Epaphus questioned
"Among the Aigyptians Apis is believed to be the god whose presence is
most manifest. He is born of a cow on which a flash of light from
heaven has fallen and caused his engendering. The Greeks call him
Epaphos and trace his descent from his mother the Argive Io, daughter
of Inakhos. The Aigyptians however reject the story as false, and
appeal to time as their witness, for they maintain that Epaphos was
born late down the ages, whereas the first Apis visited mankind many,
many thousands of years earlier." - Aelian, On Animals 11.10
Serapis is Apis, a Greek king of Egypt
"Serapis is the greatest of all the Egyptian gods. He is that Apis,
king of the Argives, who travelled to Egypt by ship ... Among the
Egyptians Apis was the bull dedicated to Serapis." - Isidore of
Seville, Etymologies 7.11.85
Argos son of Apis
"After Apis, the king of the Greeks, died, his son Argos succeeded to the kingship ..." - Isidore of Seville, Etymologies 9.2.72
Cambyses slays the Apis bull
"About the time when Cambyses arrived at Memphis, Apis appeared to the
Egyptians. Now Apis is the god whom the Greeks call Epaphus. As soon as
he appeared, straightway all the Egyptians arrayed themselves in their
gayest garments, and fell to feasting and jollity: which when Cambyses
saw, making sure that these rejoicings were on account of his own ill
success, he called before him the officers who had charge of Memphis,
and demanded of them- "Why, when he was in Memphis before, the
Egyptians had done nothing of this kind, but waited until now, when he
had returned with the loss of so many of his troops?" The officers made
answer, "That one of their gods had appeared to them, a god who at long
intervals of time had been accustomed to show himself in Egypt- and
that always on his appearance the whole of Egypt feasted and kept
jubilee." When Cambyses heard this, he told them that they lied, and as
liars he condemned them all to suffer death.
“When they were dead, he called the priests to his presence, and
questioning them received the same answer; whereupon he observed, "That
he would soon know whether a tame god had really come to dwell in
Egypt"- and straightway, without another word, he bade them bring Apis
to him. So they went out from his presence to fetch the god. Now this
Apis, or Epaphus, is the calf of a cow which is never afterwards able
to bear young. The Egyptians say that fire comes down from heaven upon
the cow, which thereupon conceives Apis. The calf which is so called
has the following marks:- He is black, with a square spot of white upon
his forehead, and on his back the figure of an eagle; the hairs in his
tail are double, and there is a beetle upon his tongue.
“When the priests returned bringing Apis with them, Cambyses, like the
harebrained person that he was, drew his dagger, and aimed at the belly
of the animal, but missed his mark, and stabbed him in the thigh. Then
he laughed, and said thus to the priests:- "Oh! blockheads, and think
ye that gods become like this, of flesh and blood, and sensible to
steel? A fit god indeed for Egyptians, such an one! But it shall cost
you dear that you have made me your laughing-stock." When he had so
spoken, he ordered those whose business it was to scourge the priests,
and if they found any of the Egyptians keeping festival to put them to
death. Thus was the feast stopped throughout the land of Egypt, and the
priests suffered punishment. Apis, wounded in the thigh, lay some time
pining in the temple; at last he died of his wound, and the priests
buried him secretly without the knowledge of Cambyses.
“And now Cambyses, who even before had not been quite in his right
mind, was forthwith, as the Egyptians say, smitten with madness for
this crime." - Herodotus 3.28
Cambyses is slain by the Apis bull
“Cambyses no sooner heard
the name of Smerdis than he was struck with the truth of Prexaspes'
words, and the fulfilment of his own dream- the dream, I mean, which he
had in former days, when one appeared to him in his sleep and told him
that Smerdis sate upon the royal throne, and with his head touched the
heavens. So when he saw that he had needlessly slain his brother
Smerdis, he wept and bewailed his loss: after which, smarting with
vexation as he thought of all his ill luck, he sprang hastily upon his
steed, meaning to march his army with all haste to Susa against the
Magus. As he made his spring, the button of his sword-sheath fell off,
and the bared point entered his thigh, wounding him exactly where he
had himself once wounded the Egyptian god Apis. Then Cambyses, feeling
that he had got his death-wound, inquired the name of the place where
he was, and was answered, "Agbatana." Now before this it had been told
him by the oracle at Buto that he should end his days at Agbatana. He,
however, had understood the Median Agbatana, where all his treasures
were, and had thought that he should die there in a good old age; but
the oracle meant Agbatana in Syria. So when Cambyses heard the name of
the place, the double shock that he had received, from the revolt of
the Magus and from his wound, brought him back to his senses. And he
understood now the true meaning of the oracle, and said, "Here then
Cambyses, son of Cyrus, is doomed to die.” – Herodotus 3
