ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the way in which the Greeks conceived of the full or partial zoomorphism of Egyptian deities. To this end, it considers three case studies — one from the transition of the archaic to the classical period (Herodotus) and two from Roman Greece (Plutarch and Philostratus). The first two are considered regularly in scholarship on Greek perceptions of Egyptian religion, whereas Philostratus features rarely, if ever, in such considerations. These considerations are taken to be instances of a larger Greek (and Roman) conversation about the modes of divine representation to have emerged from the comparative perspective on Egyptian religion. The chapter shows that in Greek thought and literature, the encounter with Egyptian zoomorphism even led to critical reflection on the principles and practices of anthropomorphism as the preferred form of divine representation in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds.
