Abstrakt
The Apis bull of Memphis became famous across the Graeco-Roman world because of his oracular powers: Greek and Roman authors making references to the living Apis bulls during the Imperial period strongly emphasize their acclaimed ability to announce the god's message in various ways. Strangely, there is no surviving evidence for any kind of oracle questions addressed to the living Apis bull from any period of the ancient Egyptian history.
A general lack of evidence is usually attributed to the circumstantial state of preservation. However, it seems that the confusion among the Classical writers has been related to the mistaken identity of the god associated with the living Apis bull: this divinity is thought to be Osiris, whose cult retained strong oracular function into the fourth century CE.
In fact, the oracular powers of the living Apis bulls are lacking from surviving literary accounts before the Flavian Dynasty (69-96 CE). This paper aims to investigate if restricted indigenous veneration of Apis bull truly transformed into acclaimed oracle via close ties with the cult of Sarapis or something else was happening.