Apis Bull
Description
Object Label: The Apis bull was the most prominent of the sacred animals. He was a living incarnation of the god Ptah. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus records how priests discovered each new Apis, recognizing it by its hide, which was “black with a white diamond on the forehead, a likeness of vulture wings on his back, double hairs on its tail, and a scarab-shaped mark under its tongue.” The forehead diamond and vulture wings are clear in this statuette. The Apis bull then lived as a god in a temple. After its death, the Apis was mummified, mourned, and buried with elaborate ceremony. Caption: Apis Bull, 664–30 B.C.E.. Bronze, 3 3/8 x 1 1/8 x 4 7/16 in. (8.6 x 2.9 x 11.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 05.397. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum (Gavin Ashworth, photographer))
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
Bronze statuette of a bull with a stylized body and patterned markings on the torso, shown standing on a rectangular base.
The image depicts a green patinated bronze figure of a bull in profile facing right. The bull has a rounded head, prominent muzzle, and small ears; the neck and torso are solidly modeled. The body includes incised or raised surface patterning on the torso (including a grid-like or netted pattern on the front body panel) while the hindquarters and legs are more simply rendered. The bull stands on a rectangular plinth/bass base with a shallow recessed channel at the front edge. No clear hieroglyphs, cartouches, or other inscriptions are visible on the bull or base in this view. No human figures, sacred symbols, or explicit deity iconography beyond the bull form are discernible. No Greek/Coptic/Arabic text is visible.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 05.397 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3225 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.