previous next

Plutarch (de Isid. 44) says Cambyses killed the Apis, and gave the carcase to his dogs; H. as usual avoids these later exaggerations. But many modern historians (e.g. Brugsch, ii. 299-300) reject the story altogether, because an Apis στήλη (No. 354 in the Louvre) represents Cambyses as adoring the bull-god; this belongs to the sixth year of his reign. Maspero (iii. 668 n.), however, accepts H.'s story. Wiedemann (Gesch. Aeg., 1880, p. 229) argues that the faulty execution of the Apis monument just mentioned shows it was executed secretly by the priests; moreover, its evidence is contradicted by another Louvre ‘column’, set up under Darius to commemorate an Apis born in the fifth year of Cambyses; he (p. 230) conjectures that this second monument was deliberately antedated, so as to ignore the cruel death of the last Apis; this hypothesis is probable, because it explains how two sacred bulls could be represented as existing at once, a thing in itself impossible.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: