Lysander, Serapis and the School of Theophrastus

The aim of this article is to draw attention to two stories found in the works of Plutarch. These are Lysander’s last efforts to obtain oracles and overthrow the Spartan Constitution and the Sinopic tradition about the aetiological myth of the introduction of Sarapis’ cult in Alexandria. There are several common points between the two: Plutarch, kingship, the young boy and his divine paternity, the Black Sea area, the travel by sea, Delphi, Apollo and oracles. After analyzing and comparing these common points, we argue for a shared cultural background in the early Hellenistic period. This background consists of the work of a historian and a philosopher of this period, Theophrastus, the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic School. Plutarch mentions that the story he narrated in Lysander’s Life about the admiral’s last effort to obtain oracles from Delphi and to make a change in the Spartan constitution by introducing the election of the king from thearistoi goes back to a philosopher and historian. We know that he considered Theophrastus to be both a philosopher and a historian. The most famous pupil of Theophrastus, Demetrius of Phaleron, moved to Alexandria after 307 BC, became a worshipper of Serapis and wrote books about Serapis. Other students of Theophrastus were also great worshippers of this newly created god. This combined evidence permits us to advance the hypothesis that the story of Lysander served as a model for the construction of the Sinopic tradition about the introduction of Serapis’ cult in early Ptolemaic Egypt.