The Cult Of The Bull God Apis In Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptian gods were diverse in form,and a large number of animal gods added a brilliant color to them.As the most important animal worship in the Memphis area,Apis bull played an important role in the ancient Egyptian religion.From the early dynasties to the Roman reign,the popularity of the Apis bull varied at different stages,but the worship of the ancient egyptians never ceased.In the process of development and evolution,the integration of Apis with the Egyptian native god and the foreign god became the external image or the element of the image of many gods.Therefore,Apis also possessed the divinity of these gods and thus played an important role in the daily life from the king down to the ordinary people.The thesis mainly focuses on the development and evolution process of Apis bull and its changes of divinity,so as to take Apis bull as a typical example to explore the characteristics of the worship of ancient Egyptian bull god.For this purpose,this thesis is carried out from the following four parts:The first part is an overview of the Apis bull and their worship,including the selection,feeding,burial ceremony and image analysis of the Apis bull.The second part mainly analyzes the development and evolution of Apis bull worship in ancient Egyptian society,Through this part,clear Apis worship development of the general context.The third part analyzes the functions of the god Apis and the god sarapis formed after the fusion of Apis and other gods.This part aims to summarize the similarities between the two functions and explore the changes of Apis’ functions in the process of the fusion with the native god and the foreign god.The fourth part analyzes the characteristics of Apis worship,and then makes a holistic study of the worship of the whole sacred bull.