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LETTER XXXII.

OF THE TERRESTRIAL SERAPIS.

The terreftrial Serapis was a deity which, the Egyptians fuppofed, prefided over the increase of the waters. The Nilometer, divided into cubits, was his type, and a feftival was held in his honour, when the inundation began. The priests took the Nilometer from the fanctuary, at the increase of the waters, and there, again, inclfed it, at the decreafe, which they named Sari Api, the column of meafure. This was the origin of the emblematical deity the Greeks called Serapis.

To M. L. M.

Grand Cairo.

THE Egyptians, Sir, had two deities named Serapis; the one celeftial, of which I have spoken, the other terreftrial, of which I fhall now speak. The firft fignified the Sun, in Autumn; the fecond related to the

inundation.

inundation. "The people of Egypt measure the increase of the Nile by cubits (f).""Some authors affirm Serapis and Jupiter 86 are the fame; others that he reprefents "the Nile, because he bears a bufhel and a

cubit in his hand, emblems of the inundation (g)." Thefe different opinions were both right. The celeftial Serapis, as an emblem of the Sun, might be called Jupiter; the other was fuppofed to prefide over the flooding of the river. Thus the rhetorician Ariftides, in his oration on Serapis, calls him the god who, during Summer, makes the waters increase, and the tempefts calm. On this point antient Pagan and Christian authors agree. "To Serapis they attribute "that virtue in the Nile which imparts "riches and fertility to Egypt (b).”— "The Egyptians give the glory of watering "their fields to Serapis (¿).”

Let us enquire what was the origin of this deity, which, perhaps, we may find, by

(f) Greg. Nazianzen. Orat. 9.

(g) Suidas in voce Serapis.'

(b) Ruffin. Hift. Ecclefiaft. lib. 2.
(i) Socrates. Hift. Ecclefiaft. lib. 1.

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collecting the fcattered rays of light history affords. We have seen the Egyptians, ever attentive to what might ascertain the progress of the inundation, conftructed various Nilometers in different parts of the kingdom; as in the island of Elephantina, at Hermunthis (k), the modern Armant, Memphis, and as far as lower Egypt. They were, at first, fatisfied with finking a chamber, the floor of which was on a level with the bed of the river, and tracing lines, on the walls, to measure the height of the water. They afterward raifed a column in the centre of this chamber, which they divided into cubits and inches. This Nilometer they called Sari Api, the column of measure (/). This place became facred, and the priests, in whom all their science centered, only might enter it, whofe obfervations and difcoveries, written in facerdotal characters, guided their fucceffors. Enlightened by meteorological tables, kept for ages with increafing perfection,

(k) Defcribed by Heliodorus, lib. 19.

(1) Thus are thefe Egyptian words interpreted by Jablonski, tom. II. from which the Greeks have formed Scrapis.

from this fanctuary they predicted all the phænomena of the inundation, long before they happened. Poffeffors of this important knowledge, they announced abundance or sterility, and were regarded by the people as oracles. That their prognoftications might be more revered, they attributed them to Serapis, under whofe divine protection they put the column of measure. Knowing the vulgar require fenfible images, they formed a Nilometer of wood, which was the emblem of Serapis, and to which they attributed divine virtue: this they folemnly bore at the feafts of Apis. "It was the custom to carry "the measure of the Nile into the temple of

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Serapis, as the author of the inundation; " which Nilometer was, afterward, depofited "in the church, to render homage to the "Lord of waters (m)." Sozomen adds, this change happened under the reign of Conftantine (n), after which the measure of the increase of the river was no more borne into the Pagan temples, but placed in the

(m) Ruffin. Hift. Ecclefiaft. lib. 2.
(z) Sozomen. Hift. Ecclefiaft. lib. 1.

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churches. Julian (0), the Apostate, re-establifhed things in their former ftate, but Theodonius deftroyed the magnificent temple of Serapis, at Alexandria, and abolished this fuperftitious ceremony. These authors, and many more whom, were it needful, I might cite, prove the Egyptian priefts first called the Nilometer Serapis, the column of meafure, which name they gave to the god under whofe protection they placed it, and to whom they attributed a power of making the waters increafe, and the fymbol of whom they, afterward, bore in their folemn feafts; thus abufing their knowledge to the encouragement of idolatry, and to render themselves refpectable in the eyes of the people.

An Alexandrian coin is preferved, on one fide of which the Nile reclines, depicted as an aged man, bearing a bufhel on his head, and holding a cornucopia in one hand, and, in the other, a flip of the papyrus, with this infcription, To the Nile, Hly God; on the reverse is the head of Serapis, bearing a bufhel, and this legend, To Serapis, Holy God (p*).

(0) Sozomen. Hift. Ecclefiaft. lib. 4. (p*) Pignorii Menfa Isiaca.

I fhall

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