University of Heidelberg

Shifting Conceptions of the Divine: Sarapis as Part of the Social Imageries of Ptolemaic Egypt

Eleni Fassa (University of Athens)

Ptolemaic Egypt constituted a geographical and conceptional space of extensive and intense intercultural exchange. An inescapable consequence of the Greek and Egyptian encounter was the transformation of the ways in which the various ethnic groups that coexisted in the Ptolemaic kingdom imagined, approached and described the supernatural. The case of Sarapis is indicative. In his journey from Memphis to Alexandria and back to Memphis the image of Sarapis underwent substantial changes, demonstrating that the cultural context is to a large extent determinative of the understanding of the divine. For the rulers and the people of Ptolemaic Egypt Sarapis seems to have functioned as an open semantic field, which, especially during the 3^rd century BC, was modified according to the needs of certain communities or individuals. The paper will present and compare the ways in which Greeks and Egyptians viewed the god, both in certain localities (synchronic perspective) and in relation to the historical development of the Greek rule in Egypt (diachronic perspective). Secondly, it will examine the modes of transformation (adaptation, elimination, innovation) in the historical process of constructing his divine personality. In this context, the paper will also pose the question of agents instituting changes which reflect on social imaginary.