Abstract
During the 1st Millennium BC,3 the traditional Egyptian state and society underwent numerous transformations due to the clear political dominance of foreigners: Libyans (c. 943- 664), Nubians (c. 722-656), Assyrians (671-664), Persians (c. 526-404, 343-332) and Macedonians/Greeks (332-30). Most significantly, all foreign rulers, with the notable exception of the Assyrians, were incorporated into the ideology of Egyptian kingship, one of the fundamental tenets of the ancient Egyptian state, therefore assuming the role of Pharaoh as an intermediary between humanity and the gods and the only protector of cosmic, political and natural order.
Overall, the city of Memphis retained the political and religious centrality in this period as the main administrative capital and occasional royal residence. Therefore, the worship of the Apis sacred bull, a herald of the creator-king-god Ptah, the most important local divinity, transformed into the underworld-king-god Osiris after natural death, emerged into one of the most important religious institutions at Memphis.
The main cultic episodes - birth, installation, death and burial - were suitable enough for the demonstration of an individual political legitimisation and the implementation of active control over the Memphite ruling elites. It is clear that the Persians, coming from the northeast of Egypt, employed the same political devices as their Libyan, Nubian and Saite predecessors respectively.
Still, according to the Graeco-Roman literary tradition, the Persian kings had become well-known as notorious murderers of the Apis bulls, even though their activities at Memphis speak against such accusations: burials were indeed organised in year 6 (524) of Cambyses II and years 4 (518), 31 (491) and 34 (489) of Darius I. This paper aims to investigate the main characteristics of the Persian patronage of the Apis divine bulls in context of the transformation of political reality in Egypt.