in existence the maintenance and insurance of the divine line of descent
would naturally enforce the intermarriage of its members and the
sequestration and guarded seclusion of the royal women and the virgin
priestesses from whose ranks the destined mothers of the divine children
were selected.

A more ancient form of symbolizing the union of heaven and earth seems to
have been the cult of Apis, which, according to Maspero, preceded the
building of the pyramids and could scarcely have arisen before the
adoption of the cow or bull, ua, as the rebus of Polaris, the One=ua. A
survival of Apis cult seems to be the allegorical sacred title "bull"
(Osiris-Apis) bestowed upon the king, of "cow" upon the queen and "calf"
upon their offspring, the young Horus. In later times the king was
entitled "the ram" and wore his fleece and horns on visiting the queen. As
a natural sequence, the fruit of their union was spoken of as "the lamb."
According to Herodotus (II, pp. 27-29, Cary's translation), "the sacred
Apis, or Epaphus is the calf of a cow incapable of conceiving another
offspring; and the Egyptians say that lightning descends upon the cow from
heaven and that from thence it brings forth Apis." "The Egyptian
magistrates said ... the god [in the form of Apis] manifested himself at
distant intervals ... and when this manifestation took place the Egyptians
immediately put on their richest apparel and kept festive holiday."

As stated by Mr. Wallis Budge, Apis worship was established at Memphis by
Ka-kau, the second king of the second dynasty B.C. 4100. The veneration
accorded to the bull, cow and calf, as embodiments of the dual principles
of nature, in separate and in single form, seems to have been accorded in
other localities to different animal forms and to have been replaced, in
later times, by triads, composed of a god, goddess and their offspring,
each great centre ultimately possessing their particular triad, the living
images of which were the high-priest, high-priestess and their "divine"
offspring. It should be noted that a group consisting of 8+1=nine gods,
high priests or prophets, accompanied the triad, the result being twelve
"deities" in all, of which one=the child, was an embodiment of two
principles and was the ka=the divine twain.

The transition of Apis worship from the animal to the human form was
accomplished during the reign of the Ptolemies (B.C. 305-42) when Serapis
or Osiris-Apis was introduced into Eg