(305/304 – 283 BC)

Ptolemy I (305/304 – 283 BC)

Following the unexpected death of Alexander the Great, his empire was divided among his generals. Egypt fell under the dominion of Ptolemy, son of Lagos. Ptolemy completed the construction of Alexandria and buried Alexander the Great there, though his tomb has yet to be discovered. Ptolemy I continued Alexander’s policy of conciliating the Egyptians, going so far as to unify the Egyptian and Greek religions in Alexandria. Given the widespread worship of the goddess Isis throughout the Mediterranean, he established a new cult that combined the worship of Isis and her consort Osiris with that of Zeus, the supreme Greek God. In Alexandria, he introduced a triad consisting of Serapis (a syncretic deity combining Zeus and Osiris), who was depicted in both Egyptian and Greek forms (respectively as a bull-headed man and a bearded man), Isis (the consort), and their son Harpocrates.

A statue of the Apis bull, made of diorite, was discovered in the Serapeum of Alexandria. It dates back to the era of Emperor Hadrian

The head of a statue of the god Serapis, one of the most worshiped deities in Egypt during the Greek and Roman periods, is made of white marble