In historiography, it is still controversial how the name of the god Serapis, whose cult, according to some sources (Plutarch, Tacitus), as well as archaeological data, arose only during the reign of Ptolemy I, the successor of Alexander the Great, appeared in one of the versions of the Novel about Alexander. Some researchers are inclined to assume that the events of the "Novel about Alexander" are fictional, which means that we should not say that the cult of Serapis could have existed already during the reign of Alexander. Others, although a minority, are inclined to believe that it was the great general who introduced the cult of this deity into practice. With the greatest probability, we can assume that the first ones are right. However, we should not completely ignore the information contained in the "Romance of Alexander", since although it may contain a lot of fictional things, it nevertheless reflects the ideas of the general population of that time about the functions of Serapis, his identification with other gods, and testifies to the role that his cult played at the end of the Hellenistic period and in Roman times.

The cult of Serapis first appeared in Egypt in the Hellenistic period, i.e. in the era from the conquest of the country by Alexander the Great (331 BC) to its transformation into a Roman province (31 BC). Most researchers agree that this deity was not originally Egyptian, but was created (either by Alexander the Great). or one of the Ptolemies) in order to help the Greek-Macedonians who settled in Egypt feel more comfortable in their new homeland. Indeed, to the ancient canon in iconography (Serapis was usually depicted as a young man with a beard, similar to Hades, with whom he was associated), a name was added, although Graecized, but derived from Egyptian, as well as identification with the Egyptian Osiris.

There are quite a lot of versions about the origin of the cult of Serapis. In particular, the sources that tell about its appearance can, depending on which version the author adheres to, be divided into several groups: "pseudo-Synoptic" (Plutarch in the treatise "On Isis and Osiris", Tacitus, Clement of Alexandria), "Babylonian "(Plutarch in one of his" Comparative Biographies "dedicated to Alexander, Arrian), "Alexandrian" (Pseudo-Callisthenes) and "Memphis" (Clement of Alexandria). In addition, some modern researchers have attempted to look differently at the origin of the cult of this deity. In particular, according to A. D. H. Bivard, the etymology of the name Serapis is quite correct.

* The author expresses his deepest gratitude to Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor I. A. Ladynin for the help provided in writing this article.

page 18
it is possible to ascend to one of the hypostases of Mithras [Bivar, 1991, pp. 52-63]. In this article, we will only consider the "Alexandrian" version, described, in particular, in the" Romance of Alexander " of Pseudo-Callisthenes (more precisely, one of his versions, edited by Achilles Tatius).

Most researchers attribute the appearance of the cult of Serapis to the time of the reign of the first Ptolemies. It is difficult to limit the chronological framework of the beginning of worship of this god to the period of the reign of one king, since Ptolemy I (305-282 BC), according to several ancient historians (Plut. De Iside et Osiride, 28; Tac. Hist., IV, 83-84), brought the statue of Serapis to Alexandria. At the same time, J. Stambaugh notes that the sources refer only to the transportation of the statue of god to Alexandria, but not to the introduction of his cult (Stambaugh, 1972, p.11). The base of the statue and the altar found in Alexandria date back to the era of Ptolemy II (282-246 BC) [Stambaugh, 1972, p. 7], and the embedded tablets from the Alexandrian Serapeum generally date back to the reign of Ptolemy III (246-222 BC) [Bernand, 2001, p. 42-43but these facts only indicate that these rulers simply expanded the already existing temple of Serapis. The discovery of a dedicatory inscription addressed to Serapis and dated to the reign of Ptolemy I put an end to the dispute about the time of the origin of this cult.: "For King Ptolemy and his children, Serapis and Isis, Nicanor and Nicander, the children of Nikon of [dem] Полидевка" (Yπερ βαoτλεως Πτoλεμαιoυ και τωv τεκvωv Σαραπιδι, 'Iσισι Nικαvωρ και Nικαvδρoς Nικωvoς Πoλυδευκειoι)[Bernand, 2001, p. 17 - 18].

The "Novel of Alexander" contains a rather interesting version of the" origin " of the cult (although in this case this word is hardly acceptable, since, according to the source, Alexander restored the abandoned temple of the ancient god Serapis): Alexander began to search for the "all - seeing god"on the site of the future capital - Alexandria. He built an altar and, after offering a plentiful sacrifice, began to pray to an unknown deity, calling on him to help defeat the enemies. Suddenly, an eagle flew in, grabbed the entrails of the sacrificial animal and carried them to another, ancient altar. There Alexander saw a statue of an unknown deity, next to which was placed a statue of a sitting woman. Local residents answered Alexander's question about who it is, saying that there is an abandoned sanctuary of Zeus and Hera. Alexander fell asleep next to this temple, and Serapis appeared to him in a dream, declaring that he was the all-seeing, caring god whom the king had called. Then Alexander began to ask him questions about the future of Alexandria and himself, asking God to reveal his name. When the king awoke, he built a huge altar and offered sacrifices to Serapis (Ach. Tat. Hist. Al. Mag., I, 30 - 34).

Researchers have different views on this version. P. M. Fraser, for example, claims that none of the ancient authors who described the origin of the cult of Serapis, did not connect it directly with the name of Alexander, and also that the information contained in the "Novel about Alexander" does not agree with the official version of the introduction of the cult [Fraser, 1967, p. 39 ^ 40]. J. E. Stambaugh also admits that the events described in the "Novel about Alexander" are mostly fictional [Stambaugh, 1972, p.11]. C. B. Welles proves that the sanctuary of God, as well as his cult, was created by Alexander. He draws on the "Romance of Alexander" and argues that Arrian's account of Alexander's death and the role played by Serapis (Arr. Anab., VII, 26, 2) is based on the Ephemeris, which means that it is true - Alexander introduced the cult of this god in Alexandria, and then He "imported" it to Persia (Welles, 1962, p. 290-293).

Probably, the author was also forced to come to this conclusion by the fact that the name of the god Serapis appears in other sources describing the life of Alexander. So, it is mentioned in that fragment of Plutarch's biography of the great Paul.-

page 19
Kovodets, where Alexander and his friends returned to the palace after a ball game, " saw that a man in royal vestments with a diadem on his head was sitting silently on the throne. The man was asked who he was, but he was silent for a long time. When he finally recovered, he said that his name was Dionysius and that he was from Messenia. Accused of some crime, he was brought here by sea, and for a very long time he was in chains; but Serapis had just appeared to him, removed the fetters, and having brought him to this place, ordered him to put on the royal vestments and diadem, and sit on the throne in silence. Alexander, on the advice of the soothsayers, executed this man, but his despondency became even worse, he completely lost hope in the deity and confidence in his friends "(Plut. Al., LXXIII-LXXIV). A similar story is told by Diodorus, but in his version, the man who sat on Alexander's throne did not answer questions (Diod. Bibl. Hist., XVII, 116, 204). Arrian (Arr. Anab., VII, 24, 1 - 3), in turn, referring to Aristobulus, tells this story as follows: Alexander became thirsty and left his throne and left. Then "a simple man (some say that he was one of those who were in custody, but not in chains)... he went up to the throne and sat on it." When Alexander returned, he ordered the unfortunate man to be tortured, but he denied any involvement in any conspiracy. About what happened to this person next, the author is silent.

Nicholas Hammond believes that Plutarch's version of events came about because he used the work of Clitarch in his work (Hammond, 1993, p. 143). Indeed, Klitarchus, about whom, unfortunately, very little is known, lived in Alexandria in the era of the first Ptolemies and, most likely, did not take part in Alexander's campaign [Marinovich, 1982, p.32]. It is therefore likely that the name of Serapis may have been used in his work.

Another version is also possible. Plutarch himself warned readers that there was "no place for authenticity or accuracy" in his work (Plut. Tes., I). He sought to reveal the character of a person through his activities or the reaction of others to his actions, to show how a person changes under the influence of circumstances [Barrow, 1967, p. 57-58]. In order to do this, he could easily add or remove certain subjects that are insignificant for the image of the psychological portrait of his characters. In addition, Plutarch was also a philosopher, which means that in his narrative he could not fail to reveal the philosophical views that he held [Barrow, 1967, p. 58].

Based on the above, the reason for the appearance of the name Serapis in this fragment of Alexander's biography can be found in Plutarch's personal ideas. First, it is immediately obvious that the author does not agree with the version of Alexander's divine origin. Unlike many other biographers of the tsar, Plutarch traces his family line from Heracles (who, like other Greek heroes [Kostyukhin, 1972, p. 8], Plutarch sees first of all a man who performed great deeds, and not the son of Zeus), and from Aeacus through his mother. Neptolemus (Plut. Al, II). The serpent with which Olympias was seen sleeping is not considered by Plutarch to be an incarnation of Zeus, but only an attribute of the Orphic mysteries to which she was initiated (Plut. Al, II-III). Thus, he rejects the possibility of Alexander's birth from a sacred marriage. Indeed, Plutarch was a Platonist and therefore believed that God could not taint himself by being present in the material world, much less by having a child with an ordinary woman.

It can be assumed that the fragment that speaks of Alexander's meeting with Dionysius, Plutarch added to his story just in order to create some kind of counterbalance to the version about the origin of the king from the deity. Plutarch seems to have implied that Serapis - the god in whom he saw the concentration of all things, the ruler of the universe, in whose mysteries he was probably initiated - chose another candidate for the throne of Alexander the Great, reproaching the latter's behavior, in particular-

page 20
It is also important to emphasize its claim to divine origin, or at least to God's choice.

Serapis is also mentioned in another fragment of Alexander's biography, which deals with the death of the king when his friends went to the temple of this deity located in Babylon to find out what to do with their sick master (Plut. Al., LXXVI-LXXVII). I note that a similar description of the death of Alexander the Great can be found in Arrian (Ar. Anab., VII, 26, 2). At the same time, the reports of Plutarch and Arrian are very similar, from which we can conclude that they used the same source. In reporting Alexander's death, Plutarch and Arrian refer to the Ephemeris, as well as to the writings of Ptolemy and Aristobulus. In the works of later ancient historians who used other sources (Curtius Rufus, Diodorus, Pompey Trogus in the retelling of Justin), nothing is said about Serapis (Quint. Curt. Ruf. De rebus gestis Alexandri Magni, X, 5, 4; Diod. Bibl. Hist., XVII, 1 - 5). It is believed that these authors were followers of the "vulgate" - a romantic literary tradition, the founder of which was Klitarch [Marinovich, 1982, p. 33]. They also used other sources. Diodorus and Curtius Rufus, for example, when describing certain events, referred to the work of the Athenian historian Diyelus, who wrote a work on world history in 357-297 BC (Hammond, 1993, p. 153).

Researchers do not agree on the authenticity of court diaries. Probably, they really existed, and Ptolemy, after becoming king of Egypt, moved Alexander's body and belongings (among which there may well have been copies of the Ephemeris) to Alexandria (Hammond, 1983, p. 9). It is known that he himself used this composition when writing the biography of Alexander the Great. Ptolemy I, trying to prove that the cult of Serapis was not created during his reign in Egypt (as some ancient authors and many modern researchers believed), but existed before that and also played an important role in the life of Alexander himself, could have included this episode in his memoirs.

It is hardly possible to say with certainty that the temple of any Egyptian deity existed in Babylon of the Persian period, as Nicholas Hammond believes [Hammond, 1983, p.7]. In each part of the Persian state, a cult of local gods was performed [Dandamaev and Lukonin, 1980, p. 338]. In addition, there was no god in the Babylonian pantheon who could be identified with Serapis even in the Hellenistic period.

Such a detailed description of the sources, which would seem to relate to the topic under study only indirectly, is due to the fact that, as we will see below, all these versions, so different from each other, appeared under the influence of the same factors. Here it is necessary to take into account that all of them, including the "Novel about Alexander", were created at approximately the same time, which means that the appearance of the subjects described in them is connected both with general trends in the development of ideas about the role and functions of Serapis, and with the peculiarities of the worldview of representatives of the intellectual elite of that time. Thus, we should return to the study of the text of the "Novel about Alexander".

There were a lot of variants of the "Novel about Alexander", it was rewritten even in the Middle Ages, and the later the list is dated, the more unreal details the events described in it acquire. However, the name Serapis appears only in the earliest versions, in particular in the edition of Achilles Tatius, III century AD (Ach. Tat. Hist. Al. Mag., I, 30 - 34). The author of the revision of the text, which dates back to the third century AD (the date is conditional - according to the time of translation of the text into Latin and the peculiarities of the language), was probably an Alexandrian, a representative of the middle strata of the city's population, who tried to contrast the image of Alexander created by him with that promoted by the Roman authorities [Kinzhalov, 1955, p.9].

page 21
At the same time, the text of the "Novel about Alexander" itself has a composite character - some fragments included in it date back to the Hellenistic period [Fraser, 1972, p.4]. The earliest extant papyrus containing Alexander's appeal to Serapis appeared as early as the first century BC (dating from paleographic features) [Stambaugh, 1972, p. 11]. Therefore, it can be assumed that the tradition that dates the appearance of the cult of Serapis to the reign of Alexander the Great existed already at the end of the Hellenistic period.

Referring directly to the text of the" Romance of Alexander", it is necessary to note the following: none of the works of ancient biographers of Alexander says that the episode of the foundation of Alexandria is somehow connected with Serapis. It can be assumed that in the ancient Egyptian village of Rakotis, which was located where Alexandria later grew up, and served as a fortified point protecting Egypt from pirate raids [Fraser, 1972, p. 5], there was a small temple dedicated to Osiris and Isis (Tac. Hist., IV, 84). At the very least, it can be argued that this territory was somehow connected with the cult of Osiris. Let us recall that 45 km west of Alexandria is the city of Taposiris (Busiris), one of the cult centers of Osiris, where the cenotaph of Osiris and the temple of Isis located not far from it continued to exist in Roman times [Voros, 2001, p.92-93].

Alexander, as a rule, tried to patronize the religions of the peoples captured by the Persians and" liberated " by them. The great conqueror had a special attitude to the religion of Egypt, whose inhabitants voluntarily submitted to him [Shofman, 1977, p. 113]. And, according to Arrian, Alexander ordered the foundation of the temple of the Egyptian Isis in the future Egyptian capital (Arr. Anab., Ill, l, 5). Thus, we can conclude that the city was originally subject to the sacred authority of Osiris and Isis. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Osiris was chosen for the formation of a new cult (in this case, it does not matter who), who did not shock the Greeks with his appearance (he, unlike many Egyptian gods, was depicted as a man) and who also patronized the territory of Alexandria from ancient times.

Let's return to the text of the "Novel about Alexander". On the whole, it presents a mixture of Egyptian and ancient concepts typical of Greco-Roman Egypt (Bowman, 1996). First, Alexander learns the true location of the temple of Serapis from the flight of an eagle. This type of divination is more characteristic of Roman auspiciums than of Egyptian religious practice. The same can be said about the methods of making sacrifices. In slaughtering a sacrificial animal on the altar of god, Alexander follows Greek rather than Egyptian traditions.

The prophetic dreams mentioned in the "Novel of Alexander", in which the sleeper is a deity, are characteristic of Egyptian ideas. Let us recall at least the dream of Amenhotep II, who saw Amun-Ra during a campaign in Asia, or the famous dream of Thutmose IV, who was visited by Harmachis-Khepri-Ra-Atum, who ordered him to unearth a large sphinx covered with sand, personifying this deity [Korostovtsev, 1976, p. 40-44], or the dream of the ruler Bakhtan, who did not want to let the god Khonsu, who had healed his daughter Bentresh, go back to Egypt, and once saw Khonsu turn into a golden falcon and fly away [Demidchik, 1998, p. 63]. Dreams in which Serapis appeared to someone were widespread in Greco-Roman Egypt. So, in the" Dream Book "of Artemidorus, it says:" One man dreamed that Sarapis put him in a kalaf that is on his head. This man died, because it is believed that Sarapis is the same Pluto " (Artemid. Oneirocritica, 92) or the dreams of Ptolemaios, who lived in the Memphis Serapeum (Thompson, 1988, pp. 234-235). Diogenes of Laertes reports that when Demetrius of Falerna became blind while in Alexandria,

page 22
Serapis appeared to him in a dream and cured him, in honor of which Demetrius, who had regained his sight, wrote a hymn (Fraser, 1972, p. 257).

There is a similar passage in Plutarch's biography of Alexander, but there is no mention of Serapis. Alexander, having drawn the boundaries of the future Alexandria, had a dream at night in which he saw "a venerable old man with gray hair standing next to him," reciting a passage from the Odyssey (Plut. Al., XXVI). It is obvious that both of these works were based on the same source, but the author of the" Novel about Alexander " apparently tried to weave the plot that was common in the broad strata of the population of Alexandria into the general outline of the narrative.

In his poetic prediction, Serapis does not reveal his name to Alexander, but gives him a hint, offering to calculate it from the correspondence of numbers to the letters of the Greek alphabet. Here we can trace the influence of not only Pythagoreanism, but also, possibly, the Egyptian ideas, according to which those who know the name of the deity can control it (Budge, 1998, pp. 24-26).

In the text of the Romance of Alexander, Serapis is identified with the gods with whom he was traditionally associated. First of all, this is Hades-Pluto, with whom Serapis was identified as the lord of the afterlife. Let us recall at least fragments of Tacitus '"History", when he wrote that Ptolemy I saw a beautiful young man in a dream and demanded to bring a statue of Pluto from Sinope (Tac. Hist., IV, 83), as well as the work of the already mentioned Artemidorus. However, Serapis was most likely associated with Hades through the" mediation " of Osiris, who among the Egyptians, as well as Hades among the Greeks, was the ruler of the afterlife.

Serapis is also associated with Zeus in the text. This parallel was also nothing new in Greco-Roman Egypt. For example, a certain Sarapador during the reign of Marcus Aurelius dedicated the inscription: "To Zeus the Mighty royal Serapis "(Διι μ[εγαλω] βασιλ i Σαραπιδι) [Kayser, 1994, p. 190-193]. There are many such initiations [Kayser, 1994, pp. 179-181, 187-190]. But, as a rule, they belong to the Roman period of Egyptian history. It can be assumed that such a parallel is not so much connected with the fact that Serapis was the patron saint of royal power, but rather suggests that by the time this association appeared, he had already accumulated the functions and attributes of many Egyptian and Greek gods. The identification of Serapis with Zeus and Helios, the main gods of the Greek pantheon, completed this process. As a result, Serapis became a kind of universal henotheistic deity, a concentration of all things, which later, already in the Roman period, played an important role in the transformation of his image and cult.

The Novel of Alexander also mentions the Aeon. This deity appeared in the Hellenistic period (for example, on the octodrachs of Ptolemy IV, his father Ptolemy III was depicted as an Aeon-Hades (Holbl, 2001, p. 96)). It was probably only later that he was identified with Serapis. At least in the image of Osiris-Serapis, Ptolemy III was depicted separately on the same coins of his son. Thus, it seems that the Ptolemies initially sought to emphasize the connection of Serapis with the Egyptian Osiris, and not with the Greek Hades, but later, as it appears from the text of the "Romance of Alexander", all these gods began to be identified. Perhaps due to the fact that by that time Serapis had already become a universal deity.

All of the above points to the emergence of a whole tradition at the end of the Hellenistic - beginning of the Roman period, which relates the creation (or rather, the restoration ) of the cult of Serapis to the time of Alexander. It can also be concluded that this tradition was especially popular among the general population of Alexandria, who, although they idealized the image of Alexander, saw in him first of all not a deity, but a mortal person, just like them, concerned about their fate and trying to learn about it from the deity.

page 23
Thus, we can conclude that although the plot of the fragment of the "Novel about Alexander", which tells about the conversation between Alexander the Great and Serapis in a dream, is fictional, but it is probably based on the very real ideas of the inhabitants of the ancient Egyptian village of Rakotis, in whose lives the cult of Osiris played an important role. Thus, the conclusion follows: "The Novel about Alexander" reflects the ideas about the functions of Serapis and the gods with whom he was identified, formed in the minds of the Greek-speaking population of Egypt by the beginning of our era. It is also important to note that the author of the source under study, as well as Plutarch, saw in Serapis a universal henotheistic deity (both Plutarch and Achilles Tatius call this god "all-seeing", "god of the Universe", "the greatest"), the embodiment of everything that exists, which is characteristic of the ideas of the inhabitants of Egypt at the beginning of our era.

In both The Romance of Alexander and Plutarch's Life of Alexander, fiction plays a major role. However, its functions in literary works change over time. If Plutarch sought to express his own views and reverence for the deity by adding nonexistent details, then Pseudo-Callisthenes and later Achilles Tatius already freely use the name of Serapis, speaking about him, although with reverence, but without giving their "artistic techniques" a hidden meaning. Perhaps this is due to the fact that their works were intended for the mass reader, who is not familiar with the depths of ancient philosophy, but traditionally believes in Serapis and honors him as an all-powerful, undoubtedly ancient god, who, since he knows the future of the great commander, is able to comfort them, help in their sorrows and grant true believers and pure soul afterlife bliss.

list of literature

Budzh E. A. U. Legends of the Egyptian gods, Moscow: Kiev, 1998.

Bivar A.D. Kh. Mitra i Sarapis [Mitra and Sarapis]. 1991. N 3.

Dandamaev M. A., Lukonin V. G. Kul'tura i ekonomika Drevnego Irana [Culture and Economy of Ancient Iran]. Moscow, 1980.

Healing Bentresh // Tales of Ancient Egypt / Edited by G. A. Belova and T. A. Sherkova, translated by A. Demidchik, Moscow, 1998.

Kinzhalov R. V. Political and social orientation of the story "About the life of Alexander the Great". Abstract of the thesis. for job seekers. degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences, Leningrad, 1955.

Korostovtsev M. A. Religion of Ancient Egypt, Moscow, 1976.

Kostyukhin E. A. Alexander the Great in the literary and folklore tradition. Moscow, 1972.

Marinovich L. P. Vremya Aleksandra Makedonskogo [The Time of Alexander the Great] / / Istochnikovedenie Drevnoi Greksii (epokha hellenizma), Moscow, 1982.

The Tale of the Birth and Victories of Alexander the Great, St. Petersburg, 2004.

Shofman A. S. Religious policy of Alexander the Great / / Vestnik drevnoi istorii. 1977. N 2.

Bernand Etienne. Inscriptions Grecques a'Alexandrie Ptolemaique. Le Caire, 2001.

Bowman Alan K. Egypt after the Pharaohs: 332 BC - AD 642 from Alexander to the Arab Conquest. London, 1996.

Fraser P. M. Current Problems Concerning the Early History of the Cult of Sarapis // Opuscula Atheniensia. Lund, 1967. Vol. VII.

Fraser P. M. Ptolemaic Alexandria. Oxford, 1972.

Hammond N. G. L. Sources for Alexander the Great. N. Y., 1993.

Hammond N. G. L. Three Historians of Alexander the Great. Cambridge, 1983.

Holbl Gunther. A History of the Ptolemaic Empire. London-New-York, 2001.

Kayser Francoise. Recueil des Inscriptions Grecques et Latines. Le Caire, 1994.

Stambaugh John E. Sarapis under the Early Ptolemies. Leiden, 1972.

Thompson Dorothy J. Memphis under the Ptolemies. Princeton, 1988.

Voros Gyozo. Taposiris Magna. Port of Isis. Budapest, 2001.

Welles C. B. The Discovery of Sarapis and the Foundation of Alexandria // Historia. 1962. Vol. II.

Permanent link to this publication: