Icon of Serapis (Oedipus Aegyptiacus)

The woodcut shows a front-facing bust of a figure identified as Serapis. The figure possesses an animal-like head with two long, curved horns rising from its forehead. It is cloaked in a garment with thick, diagonal folds that obscure the shoulders and chest. The image is contained within a rectangular border, and the Greek name for the deity is inscribed in capital letters directly below the bust.

This illustration originates from Athanasius Kircher’s 'Oedipus Aegyptiacus' (1652), a massive encyclopedic work that attempted to interpret Egyptian hieroglyphics and mythology through the lens of Renaissance Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, and comparative theology.