Serapis

3F · World Art · Central Asia

This ceramic figure of the Egyptian god Serapis, excavated in Khotan, is thought to date to around the 2nd-3rd century. Serapis was a deity of the underworld combining the Egyptian Osiris and the sacred bull Apis with the character of the Greek god Zeus; he was created as a state god during the Ptolemaic dynasty—founded in Egypt after Alexander the Great—to unite the beliefs of Greeks and Egyptians. The figure was made by pressing the front and back in separate molds and joining them, leaving the interior hollow, and is rendered with Greek-style features. Its spread along the Silk Road as far as the southern oasis route offers a glimpse of how Hellenistic culture reached the Western Regions.

See it in person at the National Museum of Korea — 3F · World Art · Central Asia

Source: based on official e-museum records (National Museum of Korea).