Exhortation to the Greeks 4.48
Summary: The great Egyptian god Sarapis, called “not made by hands,” was a statue with a known history, made of ground metals and stones.
Greek text · Stählin 1:37–38
Καὶ τί περὶ ταῦτα διατρίβω, ἐξὸν αὐτὸν τὸν μεγαλοδαίμονα ὑμῖν ἐπιδεῖξαι ὅστις ἦν, ὃν δὴ κατʼ ἐξοχὴν πρὸς πάντων σεβασμοῦ κατηξιωμένον ἀκούομεν, τοῦτον ὃν ἀχειροποίητον εἰπεῖν τετολμήκασιν, τὸν Αἰγύπτιον Σάραπιν; οἳ μὲν γὰρ αὐτὸν ἱστοροῦσιν χαριστήριον ὑπὸ Σινωπέων Πτολεμαίῳ τῷ Φιλαδέλφῳ τῷ Αἰγυπτίων πεμφθῆναι βασιλεῖ, ὃς λιμῷ τρυχομένους αὐτοὺς ἀπʼ Αἰγύπτου μεταπεμψαμένους σῖτον [ὁ Πτολεμαῖος] ἀνεκτήσατο, εἶναι δὲ τὸ ξόανον τοῦτο ἄγαλμα Πλούτωνος· ὃ δὲ δεξάμενος τὸν ἀνδριάντα καθίδρυσεν ἐπὶ τῆς ἄκρας, ἣν νῦν Ῥακῶτιν καλοῦσιν, ἔνθα καὶ τὸ ἱερὸν τετίμηται τοῦ Σαράπιδος, γειτνιᾷ δὲ τοῖς τόποις τὸ χωρίον. Βλιστίχην δὲ τὴν παλλακίδα τελευτήσασαν ἐν Κανώβῳ μεταγαγὼν ὁ Πτολεμαῖος ἔθαψεν ὑπὸ τὸν προδεδηλωμένον σηκόν. ἄλλοι δέ φασι Ποντικὸν εἶναι βρέτας τὸν Σάραπιν, μετῆχθαι δὲ εἰς Ἀλεξάνδρειαν μετὰ τιμῆς πανηγυρικῆς. Ἰσίδωρος μόνος παρὰ Σελευκέων τῶν πρὸς Ἀντιοχείᾳ τὸ ἄγαλμα μεταχθῆναι λέγει, ἐν σιτοδείᾳ καὶ αὐτῶν γενομένων καὶ ὑπὸ Πτολεμαίου διατραφέντων. ἀλλʼ ὅ γε Ἀθηνόδωρος ὁ τοῦ Σάνδωνος ἀρχαΐζειν τὸν Σάραπιν βουληθεὶς οὐκ οἶδʼ ὅτῳ περιέπεσεν, ἐλέγξας αὐτὸν ἄγαλμα εἶναι γενητόν· Σέσωστρίν φησι τὸν Αἰγύπτιον βασιλέα, τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν παρʼ Ἕλλησι παραστησάμενον, ἐθνῶν ἐπανελθόντα εἰς Αἴγυπτον ἐπαγαγέσθαι τεχνίτας ἱκανούς· τὸν οὖν Ὄσιριν τὸν προπάτορα τὸν αὑτοῦ δαιδαλθῆναι ἐκέλευσεν αὐτοῖς πολυτελῶς, κατασκευάζει δὲ αὐτὸν Βρύαξις ὁ δημιουργός, οὐχ ὁ Ἀθηναῖος, ἄλλος δέ τις ὁμώνυμος ἐκείνῳ τῷ Βρυάξιδι· ὃς ὕλῃ κατακέχρηται εἰς δημιουργίαν μικτῇ καὶ ποικίλῃ. ῥίνημα γὰρ χρυσοῦ ἦν αὐτῷ καὶ ἀργύρου χαλκοῦ τε καὶ σιδήρου καὶ μολίβδου, πρὸς δὲ καὶ κασσιτέρου, λίθων δὲ Αἰγυπτίων ἐνέδει οὐδὲ εἷς, σαπφείρου καὶ αἱματίτου θραύσματα σμαράγδου τε, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοπαζίου. λεάνας οὖν τὰ πάντα καὶ ἀναμίξας ἔχρωσε κυάνῳ, οὗ δὴ χάριν μελάντερον τὸ χρῶμα τοῦ ἀγάλματος, καὶ τῷ ἐκ τῆς Ὀσίριδος καὶ τοῦ Ἄπιος κηδείας ὑπολελειμμένῳ φαρμάκῳ φυράσας τὰ πάντα διέπλασεν τὸν Σάραπιν· οὗ καὶ τοὔνομα αἰνίττεται τὴν κοινωνίαν τῆς κηδείας καὶ τὴν ἐκ τῆς ταφῆς δημιουργίαν, σύνθετον ἀπό τε Ὀσίριδος καὶ Ἄπιος γενόμενον Ὀσίραπις.
English · Claude translation
But why do I dwell on these, when I can show you the great daemon himself, who he was, the one whom we hear was pre-eminently deemed worthy of reverence by all, the one whom they have dared to call “not made by hands,” the Egyptian Sarapis? Some record that he was sent as a thank offering by the people of Sinope to Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of the Egyptians, who had won their favor when, worn down by famine, they sent for grain from Egypt; and that this xoanon was a statue of Pluto. Ptolemy received the statue and set it up on the promontory now called Rhacotis, where the temple of Sarapis is honored, and the place is near those parts. Ptolemy brought his concubine Blistiche, who had died at Canopus, and buried her beneath the shrine just mentioned. Others say that Sarapis was an image from Pontus, and was brought to Alexandria with festal honors. Isidorus alone says the statue was brought from the people of Seleucia near Antioch, when they too were in a famine and were fed by Ptolemy. But Athenodorus the son of Sandon, wishing to make Sarapis ancient, fell somehow into refuting himself, proving that it was a manufactured statue. He says that Sesostris, the Egyptian king, having subdued most of the nations among the Greeks, returned to Egypt and brought with him skilled craftsmen. He ordered them to fashion his forefather Osiris lavishly; and the craftsman Bryaxis made it, not the Athenian, but another of the same name as that Bryaxis. He used for the work a mixed and varied material: he had filings of gold and silver, of bronze and iron and lead, and of tin as well; not one of the Egyptian stones was lacking: fragments of sapphire and hematite, of emerald, and of topaz too. He ground them all fine, mixed them, and colored them with dark blue, which is why the color of the statue is rather dark; and kneading it all with the drug left over from the funeral of Osiris and Apis, he molded Sarapis. His name too hints at the shared funeral and at his fashioning from the burial, being compounded from Osiris and Apis: Osirapis.
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Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 4.48 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/4/48/).
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Clement of Alexandria, Protr. 4.48 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-protrepticus/4/48/).
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