What do you do when you have conquered a country whose religion is different from yours? If the conquering country is from a monotheistic tradition, such as the Christianity of the United States and Europe, the solution is simple: impose your religion on the conquered people, outlaw other religions, and destroy all traces of the religion(s) of the conquered. In doing this, some aspects of the conquered religion may be incorporated into the religion of the conquerors: the Irish goddess Bridgett thus became St. Bridgett in the Catholic pantheon and a Christian story about here was invented.
Polytheists, however, are more tolerant than monotheists and usually respect other religions and their gods. There remains, however, the problem of how do you integrate the conquerors and the conquered? Again, there is a simple solution: invent a new god that incorporates the gods of both groups. If this sounds a bit farfetched, this is what happed when the Greeks founded the city of Alexandria in Egypt
In late 332 BCE, the Greek conqueror Alexander sailed up the Nile River to the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis. Rather than imposing Greek gods upon the Egyptians, Alexander made sacrifices to the Egyptian gods, particularly Apis. He was then crowned Pharaoh, which meant that he was now the divine son of Ra (the sun god), and the beloved son of Amun (the creator of the universe). He then marked out the walls for a new city, Alexandria, by sprinkling grain taken from the rucksacks of his soldiers. The new city was to have a market square and temples to both Greek gods and Egyptian gods.
On April 7, 331, Alexander dedicated his new city, which was laid out in the form of a chlamys (a riding cape) to symbolize that this was a Greek city. The broad avenues and boulevards of the new city were laid out in the gridiron plan of Hippodamus of Miletus. The actual design of the city was done by the architect Dinocrates of Rhodes. Following Alexander’s death, the city continued to expand under Ptolomy I Soter and Ptolomy II Philadelphus.
Eventually, Alexandria would grow to a population of about 300,000. The city was a Greek colonial city in Egypt, housing the Greek rulers and ruling classes. The Greeks brought with them their own political system, language, culture, and architecture. The Greek planners, in an effort to maintain the peace, divided the city by ethnic group: there was an area for the Greeks, for the native Egyptians, and for non-Greeks, such as the Jews.
The Greeks occupied the area at the front of the great harbor. Known as Bruchium, this was the cultural, economic, and administrative heart of the city. Rhakotis was the native Egyptian quarter of the city. The Jewish quarter, which was almost as large as the Greek quarter, was a walled city governed by a Jewish council and Jewish law.
There are a number of problems with governing a multi-ethnic city and maintaining peace among the various groups. The Ptolomies, who ruled Egypt following the death of Alexander, hit upon the idea of creating a new religious cult that would unite the Greeks and the Egyptians. Ptolomy I ordered the creation of Serapis, a god which would be both Greek and Egyptian. Since the Greeks personified their gods—that is, they were anthropomorphic in that they were portrayed in human form—Serapis was depicted as Greek in appearance, but incorporated Egyptian iconography. Lorna Oakes and Lucia Gahlin, in their book Ancient Egypt, write:
“He was give the form of a Greek god but embodied both Greek and Egyptian deities: he was not only Osiris-Apis, but also Zeus, Dionysus, Hades, and Asklepios.”
The Serapis cult was spread by the Ptolemaic kings.
Serapis was thus a syncretistic deity bringing together characteristics of both the Egyptian gods and the Greek gods. Alexandria’s major export was grain and so it is not surprising that Serapis was a god of fertility and abundance and the patron god of the grain harvest. Alexandria was also a seaport, and Serapis was the protector of sailors. To worship the new god, the Ptolomies had an enormous temple, the Serapeum, constructed in the Egyptian quarter of the city. The Serapeum was the focus of religious attention in the city.
Serapis proved to be a popular god and the cult spread throughout the Mediterranean region. In 123 CE, for example, a sanctuary to Serapis was constructed in Ostia, Rome’s port city.