Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

360 The Ram and the Sun in Egypt
True, we have already seen the snakes of Esmun, the Punic
Asklepios 1
, brought into connexion with the horned Ba'al-hamman- ;
we cannot, therefore, exclude the possibility that the snake of Zeus
Amnion owed something to the Semites.
But snakes undoubtedly played a large part in Egyptian
the viperA cerastes, which has been found at Thebes
religion 3 . Of
in mummified form 4
1
,
Herodotos writes :
In the neighbourhood of Thebes there are sacred snakes, which do no harm
to man. They are small of size and have two horns springing from the top of
the head. When they die, they are buried in the sanctuary of Zeus ; for they
are deemed sacred to this god 6 .'
It is very possible, then, that the snake of Amen, the Theban
Zeus, was transferred to Zeus Ammou 8 .
Again, Isis and Sarapis were often represented as a pair of
human-headed uraeits-snakes or asps 7 . Sarapis alone appears in
the same shape on imperial coins of Alexandreia 8 . A
handsome
bronze formerly in the Demetriou collection and now at Athens
(fig. 275) 9 shows a Sarapis of this sort equipped with the horns of
Ammon 10 . The god raises himself from an oblong base perhaps
meant for his kiste or sacred 'chest 11 .' On his head are traces of
the usual kdlatlws or moduls. Over his shoulders is a cape incised
with a net-work pattern, probably a form of agrendn. Round his
neck hangs an amulet shaped like a small shrine. The arms are
missing. The body is that of a scaly asp, adorned in front with
1 At Kyrene {supra p. 351 f.) and at Gythion {supra p. 351) Amnion was linked with
Asklepios: see Gruppe Gr. Myth. Rel. p. 1558 n. 5. Cp. the pantheistic type figured
infra p. 361.
- Supra p. 354.
3 E. A. Wallis Budge The Gods of the Egyptians London 1904 ii. 376 f.
4 H. Brugsch cited by H. Stein on Hdt. 2. 74.
5 Hdt. 2. 74.
6 Ptolemaios ap. Arrian. 3. 3. 5 states that two snakes guided the army of Alexander
the Great across the desert towards the Ammdneion.
fig. 10.
7 W. Drexler in Roscher Lex. Myth. ii. 536 ff.
fig., H. P. Weitz id. iv. 378
8 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Alexandria p. 88 no. 745
Hadrian pi. 14, p. 130 nos. 1103 ^ Antoninus Pius, cp.
no. 1 105 pi. 14, Hunter Cat. Coins iii. 472 no. 489 An-
toninus Pius pi. 88, 13.
9 P. Kabbadias in the 'E. 'A/>X- 1893 p. 187 ff. pi. 12,
Reinach Re'p. Stat. ii. 21 no. 1.
10 P. Kabbadias and. S. Reinach locc. citt. prefer to
describe him as Zeus Amnion.
n Cp. fig. i"i6—Brit. Afus. Cat. Coins Alexandria p. 81
no. 677 Hadrian pi. 1 (bust of Zeus Ammon with a solar
disk on his head, the whole set on an oblong base or
Fig. 276. box dotted to indicate an inscription).