Ἐπάφου: i. e. Apis (cf. c. 153), the holy calf of Memphis, by which the god, Ptah-Socharis-Osiris, was represented on earth. H. gives in iii. 28. 2, 3 (cf. ἄλλῳ λόγῳ, § 2) an account of his origin and marks. It was from the time of the twenty-sixth dynasty that the Apis-cult became especially important; under the Ptolemies, as Serapis, he was the chief god in Egypt. The Greeks identified him with Epaphus, son of Zeus and Io (cf. Aesch. P. V. 850-1); but, apart from Aelian's contradiction (Hist. An. xi. 10), this is obviously mistaken. An account of the Apis is given in Maspero, pp. 37-9. They were buried in the Serapeum at Memphis, rediscovered by Mariette in 1851-2.
Any beast that bore the same marks, e.g. the ‘black hair’ (Plut. I. et O. 31; Mor. p. 363, says ‘white or black’), was holy and could not be sacrificed. So red cattle were properly used as offerings (cf. Numb. xix. 2, the ‘red heifer’); but great freedom was allowed, as the monuments show. H.'s account is confused; he seems to mean that no beast could be sacrificed that had black hairs or that had the marks of an Apis; if it had neither of these sacred features it was marked as θύσιμον.
καθαρόν here = ‘fit to be sacrificed’, but below (§ 3) ‘without the marks of an Apis’.
τεταγμένος. The title of these priests was ‘web’ (i.e. pure). The σφραγιστής was appointed for the work of inspecting beasts.
The tongue of Apis was marked beneath with a ‘beetle’ (scarabaeus).
κατὰ φύσιν: i.e. not ‘double’, as in an Apis.
The ‘seal’ used to mark the beast was a kneeling man with hands bound and a knife at his throat. (Plut. u. s. p. 363.)
σημαντρίδα: cf. Cic. Verr. Act. ii. 4. 26, 58 for ‘cretula’ used for seals.
ἀσήμαντον: because the ‘unmarked’ beast might have been sacred, death was the penalty for killing it.
