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Statue of the Apis Bull
Unknown · Reign of Nectanebo I, 379-361 BC
A bull stands foursquare on its base, a sun disc between the stumps of its lost horns, its body painted black. Nearly one metre eighty long, the statue is a life-size image of Apis, the sacred bull of Memphis, in whom the god Ptah made himself present on earth. The limestone is carved with a broad, muscular simplicity, the dewlap hanging under the neck and the tail lying along the flank. Look for the uraeus cobra on the front of the disc and, between the front legs, the faint scratched signs left by pilgrims.
The statue was found exactly where it had stood in antiquity, in a small chapel built by King Nectanebo the First beside the avenue that linked the two temples of the Serapeum at Saqqara, the burial place of the Apis bulls. Auguste Mariette discovered the Serapeum in eighteen fifty-one, and this bull came to the Louvre in the division of finds recorded in eighteen fifty-two. It dates from the last native dynasty of Egypt, when the animal cults flourished as never before.
Did You Know? Between the bull's forelegs are traces of graffiti in demotic, scratched by ancient visitors who came to pray at the Serapeum long before Mariette found the statue in place.
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