Serapis was a syncretistic deity first introduced in Alexandria by Ptolemy I Soter (r. 305/304-282 B.C.) to unite his heterogeneous society encompassing Greeks and native Egyptians. As A. Stewart concludes (Greek Sculpture, p. 202), “the synthesis was shrewd, embracing on the Greek side Dionysos in his capacity as a god of a joyous afterlife, and Hades-Pluto as simultaneously god of the Underworld and the god of fertility (via his association with the earth, Persephone, and through her the life-giving Eleusinian Mysteries); and on the Egyptian, the Apis bull, worshipped in death at Memphis (whence the cult was introduced to Alexandria) as Osor-Hapi and as such identified with Osiris, the pan-Egyptian fertility god…[who was] set to rule over the dead.” The all-embracing nature of Serapis proved popular beyond Egypt and in subsequent centuries the god’s cult was exported throughout the Roman world (see p. 104 in E. Vassilika, Greek and Roman Art).
The most celebrated cult statue of Serapis was sculpted by Bryaxis in Alexandria between 286-278 B.C. and depicted the god with luxurious curls that were characterized by three locks that fell vertically over his forehead (see Stewart, op. cit., p. 203 and pp. 83-84 in M. Bieber, The Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age). However, as B.S. Ridgeway informs (p. 95 in Hellenistic Sculpture I), the spread of Serapis’ cult throughout the Graeco-Roman world makes it “impossible, in the present state of our knowledge, to determine which cult image was copied by the extant replicas.”
The Serapis presented here displays the characteristic vertical locks at the forehead and the full beard divided at the center. The top of the head was previously surmounted by a modius, and there are traces of drapery at the left shoulder. The number 651 is inscribed in black on the reverse.