Limestone relief with Serapis-Dionysos and Isis as agathoi daimones

Systems of belief were complex. As a family unit, Serapis, Isis and Harpokrates developed from the ancient Egyptian divine triad of Osiris, Isis and Horus. As father, mother and child, the Egyptian gods provided a mythological model for royal succession, ensuring the country’s peace and stability when a king died.

Isis was the mother of the living king Horus. Horus-the-Child (Harpokrates) was often shown with a sidelock of hair and his finger to his mouth. Under the Ptolemies, the combination god Osiris-Apis was given the features of a Greek deity and became Serapis. The cults of Serapis, Isis and Harpokrates, individually and collectively, were exported to the furthest reaches of the Roman empire and beyond.