The Serapeum of Alexandria and the Egyptian Mysteries

The Serapeum of Alexandria and the Egyptian Mysteries

Alexandria was the greatest cultural center of western antiquity mainly due to its famous Library, as well as the Serapeum connected to it, which was a temple dedicated to the cult of Serapis, a Greco-Egyptian deity that merged aspects of the god Osiris and the god Apis. According to some authors, such as A. M. Carlo and F. Báez, for example, both institutions had the same Director and constituted a unit; although the Library represented the origin of Western science, as Carl Sagan maintains, the Serapeum represented its mystical aspect. During the presentation, we will also briefly discuss the life of Hypatia (c. 355–415) in relation to the Mystery Schools of Egypt, their philosophy and structures (perpetual secrecy, the hierarchy of initiations, posthumous life and reincarnation, internal or hidden mysteries and ecstasy as a means of knowledge), which, in the Hellenistic period, were linked to the cult of Serapis.