Apis (Bull to which divine honors)
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Apis (Bull to which divine honors). All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a bull to which divine honors were paid by the ancient Egyptians, who regarded him as a symbol of Osiris. At Memphis he had a splendid residence, containing extensive walks and courts for his entertainment, and he was waited upon by a large train of priests, who looked upon his every movement as oracular. He was not suffered to live beyond 25 years, being secretly killed by the priests and thrown into a sacred well. Another bull, characterized by certain marks, as a black color, a triangle of white on the forehead, a white cresent-shaped spot on the right side, etc., was selected in his place. His bi birthday was annually celebrated, and his death was a season of public mourning. Belzoni found a colossal sarcophagus of alabaster, which is now in the British Museum, and in the same apartment the body of a bull, embalmed in asphaltum.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a'pis, the Bull of Memphis, worshiped with great reverence by the ancient Egyptians. The name signifies "the hidden one," and the Sacred Bull was supposed to be the incarnation of Osiris, the god of the under world. The individual animal held to be an Apis was recognized by certain signs. It must be black, have a white triangle on the forehead, a half moon on the breast, and a small hump under the tongue in the shape of a scarabaeus or beetle. This beetle was an emblem of immortality. If such a bull was found, it was brought with great rejoicing to Memphis, tended with care, and, at its death, buried with elaborate ceremonies and at great cost.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A god of the Egyptians, worshipped under the form of an ox. Some say that Isis and Osiris are the deities worshipped under this name, because they taught the Egyptians agriculture.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's told readers in 1921 that the bull was "not suffered to live beyond 25 years, being secretly killed by the priests" — a story from Greek writers that the Egyptian evidence has not borne out; the burial stelae from the Serapeum record bulls of widely varying ages, most apparently dying naturally, some well past twenty-five. Egyptologists now place Apis in life as the living herald of Ptah, the god of Memphis, and only in death as Osiris-Apis, the fused form from which the Ptolemaic god Serapis took his name, so Aiton's flat "incarnation of Osiris" is only half the picture. Aiton's gloss that the name "signifies 'the hidden one'" belongs to Amun, not Apis, whose Egyptian name was Hep or Hapi. The underground galleries at Saqqara that Auguste Mariette opened in 1851 remain the great physical proof of the cult, and Saqqara has kept yielding animal burials and sealed tombs in excavation seasons through the 2020s.
Written for this edition, 2026.