Apis

Apis is the sacred bull of Memphis, the living image of the creator god Ptah on earth. A single bull bore the honor, recognized by special markings: a black hide with a white triangle on the brow, a crescent on its flank. Priests kept him in luxury beside Ptah's temple, where his movements were read as oracles and his breath was thought to confer blessings. When the Apis bull died he was mummified with great ceremony and entombed in the vast granite sarcophagi of the Serapeum at Saqqara, and the search began for his successor. In death he merged with Osiris to become Osiris-Apis.