COLOSSAL HEAD OF SERAPIS

2nd century AD
Italy
Marble

Serapis is a god who was invented by merging the images of preexisting deities. His name derives from two Egyptian divinities, the sacred bull Apis, and Osiris, the god of the underworld. He possessed aspects of many Greek and Egyptian deities, such as the supreme power of Zeus, the healing power of the deity Asklepios, the fertility of Helios, and acted as a boundary between life and death like Hades. He was a god of abundance and brought about the annual flood of the Nile that provided prosperity to the land. The romanization of Serapis helped to spread his cult all across the Mediterranean. Serapis was an attempt to merge varying religions to give different people a common god to worship. However, to us, he looks like an average man. How do we know this is an image of Serapis?

This head was carved separately from the body it would have accompanied. It portrays a man with a full beard and deep-set eyes. He is distinctively Serapis by the five locks of hair on his forehead. Walk around the sculpture. Around his head is a simple diadem, a crown worn by ancient gods. If you can, look at the top of his head. There is a drilled hole there, which in his prime would have held a grain basket called a modius. This symbol of Serapis denoted his quality of abundance, and it was a symbol that would have been instantly understood by its intended audience. The appropriation of the image of Serapis did not stop with the Romans. When Christianity was on the rise, Christians took identifiable characteristics of Serapis and awarded them instead to Jesus the son of God.