Ancient Egyptian amulet of Serapis

The god Sarapis emerged in Egypt at the beginning of the Hellenistic era, when the country was occupied by Alexander the Great (332 BC) and a dynasty of Macedonian kings, the Ptolemies, ruled Egypt. It was Ptolemy I (305/304-282 BC) who gave the order to develop a new religious cult for his dynasty and the Egyptian state, and he dedicated the first temple to Sarapis at Alexandria for this purpose. For the Greeks, the creation of a new god was something extraordinary, but for the Egyptians the modification of religious concepts to fit new needs was a long-standing tradition. The priests chose the Egyptian god Osiris-Apis (named later also Osorapis), who was a protective deity, a god of oracles, and lord of time and eternity. They modified his name to Sarapis, and gave his visual representation a Hellenistic form, appropriating the shoulder-length hair and full beard of the Greek supreme deity Zeus; the "kalathos"--a woven grain basket--with which Sarapis is often crowned, symbolizes fertility.